Posts Tagged ‘Realtor’
Monday, December 21st, 2009

Escapeso Austin Real Estate asked:
First off, watch some late night infomercials on TV. And possibly order some real estate tapes from Carlton Sheets. This will provide you with a positive upbeat attitude and a sense of false confidence that is essential in order to go bankrupt. Believe that after listening to some tapes, you can compete with people that have done this 7 days a week for years.
Second. For your first investment, buy in a city you know little to nothing about and avoid using a buyers agent who does know the city. Go directly to the sellers agent. The best way to make a truly horrible decision is to avoid any outside advice. The best part of this is that avoiding a buyers agent usually doesn’t save you any money since the selling agent simply makes more when you deal with them directly.
Look for a discount or a distressed property over a good long term investment. Late night infomercials and Carlton Sheets talk a lot about this. Getting equity at the point of sale. One thing about distressed properties with desperate sellers is that they frequently are in crappy areas with low appreciation rates. Buying a property at under market rate in an area with low appreciation potential versus a property in a good area is the kind of short sighted thinking that will really help you reach the goal of bankruptcy and foreclosure.
When you talk to people including your realtor, try to spend time talking about all the crap you learned from your book or light night infomercial. The more you listen to other people, the more you might get different perspectives and the higher chance you might learn new things. This could really hurt your chances of going bankrupt so avoid listening to anyone. Remember you know everything even if you only got interested in real estate last week.
Be positive to the point of stupidity. Alot of investors I know always think about how their situation would be affected by a 10 or 20 percent drop in the market before making a purchase. You should avoid this kind of thinking. You need to be blinded by greed. You should only fantasize about how you are going to double your money.
When calculating your monthly cashflow, assume that you will have 100% occupancy all the time and no maintenance cost. While you are at assume that its going to rain money tomorrow.
Also, be stubborn when renting your properties. Decide upon a number say $900 a month and refuse to budge. Come up with some bizarre logic about how the property deserves $900 a month. Lose months of rent having the property sit vacant instead of going down $50 on the rent. Instead of responding to the market make statements like “Well the markets wrong then”.
As you move closer to foreclosure, don’t alter your spending habits. Don’t move into a smaller house or cut spending. Act like nothing is wrong.
Overextend, overextend, overextend. Are you approved to buy one house. Why not buy 5, heck why not 20. Instead of building up a portfolio of properties over time, gaining experience along the way, just buy alot of properties next Tuesday.
Alot of people are getting into the foreclosure game. Their is no reason you should be left behind. Throwing caution to the wind and filling your eyes with greed and you should find yourself walking down the golden path to foreclosure.
This is not a definitive guide to foreclosure. Alot of people end up in foreclosure due to many things unforeseen events like unpreventable family illness, divorce or job loss. This is simply a guide to what I call elective foreclosure.
Tags: Alot, Appreciation Rates, Buyers Agent, Buying A Property, Carlton Sheets, Desperate Sellers, Different Perspectives, Distressed Properties, Distressed Property, False Confidence, Foreclosure, Late Night, Long Term Investment, Night Infomercials, Point Of Sale, Positive Attitude, Realtor, Sellers Agent, Stupidity, Upbeat Attitude
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Thursday, June 4th, 2009

Joe Cline – Austin Real Estate Broker asked:
Which Builder Is The Best?
When clients come to their agent for advice it’s not uncommon for the client to ask the agent which builder is best or which builder builds the best homes and the like. Any agent who gives the name of a builder as the answer to this question is taking the easy way out to answering a difficult question. As for qualifying a builder to enter the running there are a number of items to address.
Is the builder financially stable? How would you like to end up with a half finished house and a bankrupt builder?
Does the builder have reference clients? Ask for references from several subdivisions and ages of homes. You don’t want to have a zillion problems 2 years after you move into the home.
What does the builder do in-house versus subcontracting? Who manages the home construction? Who does the actual work. You’ll want to know who the subcontractors are because they will be the ones building the house for the most part.
How does the builder ensure quality construction? The answers to this vary widely and anything that sounds made up or contrived should set off every alarm in the prospective buyer.
Take copious notes on the answers. Any misleading or untruthful statements here may be important to your cause later and could even trigger Texas’ Deceptive Trade Practices statues should you need to play hardball later. So long as you get satisfactory answers to the questions above you can begin to focus on ensuring the builder you selected is building a safe and quality home for you and your family.
You Are The Quality Control
As you may have already figured out there is no best builder. The process of taking a parcel of raw land and creating a family’s home is long and can be complicated. As with all projects communication is key. As new build clients you should feel comfortable contacting your on site sales representative and Realtor as often as you like. The on-site agent and your agent are there to help and make sure your purchase is smooth. Don’t be afraid to engage them.
Set a time for a weekly update call with the builder and your agent. Even if your call is 2 minutes on Monday morning and consists of a “Nothing has changed. We’re still waiting on the permits from the city.”, you’ll know the latest and greatest.
Get the building schedule and hold the builder to the schedule if time is important to you. You may give here to get other places if timing is not critical in your situation.
Visit the site often and take photos. If you see anything that looks odd or is not what you expected tkae a photo, document the question in email, and contact the builder and your agent IMMEDIATELY. Waiting to see why the builder is clearing a section of the lot that you thought was going to be your treed hideaway may turn out poorly.
Hire an independent inspector to conduct phase inspections. The builder should be notified before your inspector arrives. Ideally, the builder will notify the inspector a few days before each phase is ready to be reviewed. The inspector typically will come after the slab is poured, after framing is complete, after plumbing and electrical is installed, and after the home is completed.
Be detailed, but not unreasonable. If you notice something that is just plain sloppy or that will cause you issues later, bring it up with the builder. A lot of times the agent or superintendent may not have noticed what the subcontractor is doing or maybe a change order was missed and you are the first to find out. You are buying a new home, NOT a perfect home. No home is perfect, but a new home should be of high quality and to your specifications.
Be Dilligent
As you’ve discovered, your involvement in the building process can make all the difference. Stay on top of the ball and 9 out of 10 builders will meet your needs and build you a quality home. Sometimes you’ll even run across a builder that will build you a great home, nearly perfectly without your involvement, but why take the chance?
Happy building!
Tags: Answers To The Questions, Copious Notes, Deceptive Trade Practices, Hardball, Highest Quality, Home Construction, Prospective Buyer, Quality Construction, Quality Control, Raw Land, Real Estate, Realtor, Reference, Sales Representative, Satisfactory Answers, Statues, Subcontracting, Subcontractors, Texas Deceptive Trade Practices, Zillion
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Monday, June 1st, 2009

Escapeso Austin Real Estate asked:
Some people choose to use a real estate agent and some people choose to go it alone. One thing I have noticed over the years is that a number of seasoned investors looking in a new city will seek out a good agent while novice investors will frequently go it alone. I have even had a number of successful real estate agents seek out my help when they are moving to our city. Why do some of these seasoned investors choose to work with an agent? Below is a list of 7 benefits of using an agent.
1. Understand potential restrictions of the property. I recently heard a story from a friend at the city development office in Austin Texas. A couple had saved up for their retirement. They wanted to retire and live out in the hill country. They went to the foreclosure auctions. At the auction they purchased a lot for 500,000. It had great views and they were going to build their dream house on it. They had researched the lot before the auction and found it was zoned SFR which means a single family residence can be built on it. After purchasing the lot they started plans to build their retirement house. At this time they discovered the lot was in the 25 year floodplain. My friend at the city development office explained that the lot could not be built on and was basically worthless.
2. Know about new developments that might affect a properties value. A good realtor will know of proposed new developments that might affect different properties in which a buyer is interested. Whether these developments are positive or negative can be valuable information when weighing different housing options.
3. Find potential problems with a property. It is always a good idea to have a home inspector look at a potential house. However, a Realtor is a good first line of defense to see if a house has inherent problems. A Realtor that can know about common problems, such as foundation or electrical, that affect a particular neighborhood.
4. Understand contracts specifics. Whenever you buy or sell a house you are entering into a large personal transaction. It helps to have someone on your side that deals with these types of transactions on a daily basis. A Realtor can help you understand contracts and can explain what is typical for your area. The most common pitfall into which I see unrepresented buyers fall is to become involved in an atypical contract that is not to their benefit. For instance a seller will sign an offer that has an option period that is 4 times longer than what is typical. A buyer might put in offers on multiple properties with long option periods. The buyer will wait and see if the market appreciates. If the market has appreciated the buyer buys the house at now and undervalued price. If the market has gone down the buyer walks away.
5. Misperception of a benefit of going it alone. Buyers frequently think that by not using a buyers agent they will get a better deal from the seller. In most situation the listing agent asks for 6 percent from the seller. If a buyer comes with an agent the listing agent splits the 6 percent with the buyers agent. If an unrepresented buyer comes the listing agent keeps the whole 6 percent. On the selling side, For Sale By Owners (FSBO) often think they are saving alot of money by avoiding a listing agent. Nationally, FSBO homes sell for 14 percent less than agent listed homes in the same neighborhoods. In addition alot of FSBO’s still end up having a buyers agents involved. There is also money spent on advertising. Since an agent has experience marketing homes the agent often can spend money more effectively on advertising. Agents often know which advertising sources produce the most potential buyers.
6. Save time when looking for listings. Looking for listings without an agent can take up large chunks of time. When looking with an agent you can see several homes in a few hours. When going it alone you have to call the listing agent for each house and wait at the house for the agent to arrive and open up the house. In addition agents often know houses which are not listed or may have already identified potential problems with a particular house of interest.
7. Insure Security. When a home is listed with a broker, agents coming to the house have to usually log in. This allows the listing agent to keep a record of every party coming into the house. Since their business is on the line, agents are more likely to protect the house from damage or theft. For a variety of reasons, it is generally not a good idea to have random people you do not know come into your house. Often sellers simply have a phone number, but that phone could be their house, a friend’s house, a pay phone, or even a stolen phone.
Searching for a home can be stressful and difficult but it can also be fun. Whether you choose to look for a home on your own or with a Realtor its a good idea to be a extremely careful when you seek out your dream home.
Tags: Auction, Austin Texas, Contracts, Foreclosure Auctions, Home Inspector, Lot, Moving, Neighborhood, New Developments, Novice Investors, Real Estate Agent, Real Estate Agents, Real People, Realtor, Retirement, Sfr, Single Family Residence, Specifics, Successful Real Estate
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