All Forum Posts by: Ariel Smith

@Eddie L. Definitely drive this area to see if you are comfortable with it. Seminary and Webster are notoriously high crime neighborhoods, so you will attract a certain type of tenant in these properties and at these price points. 

@Christina M Viola Welcome to California! I absolutely love it here and would probably never leave permanently! I'd say it really depends on your budget moving here as well as your timeline. All of the coastal areas require a lot of initial working capital to get any deals. There are lower cost markets in the inland and valley areas, but those don't sound like where you want to be based on your other descriptions. The worst thing would be for you to move here and feel overwhelmed financially off the bat, so I think it's important to understand the true cost of living and investing here. It is difficult, but in my opinion you get what you pay for! Best of luck!

@Chris Jensen As an agent I'd say that Zillow definitely tries. Clients love the ease of use, but the data is off which makes it hard to use it for much more. As others have mentioned, it shows properties that are no longer available and here in my area in particular, any time a home goes straight from Active to Pending it just removes it from Zillow completely and does not show a pending sale. 

Also, each brokerage and MLS chooses whether or not to syndicate to Zillow and I know many that have removed their feeds following Zillow's "instant offers" decision. This means that lots of listings that are sold comps are not appearing on Zillow.

@Ryan V. they are required to provide those disclosures for any sale. The HOA documents will include meeting minutes, the financials, and CC&Rs, etc. You want to look at the overall health of the reserves and the budget most closely. An agent will be able to give you an idea of a healthy or unhealthy HOA. I specialize in condominiums in my area and at this point I've looked over so many disclosures and financials, I can tell pretty quickly based on the number of units and cost of cap expenditures about how likely they are to have an assessment in the near future and for what (roof, elevators, etc.) even if it's not on the agenda.

@Account Closed you don't need to involve a lawyer or a realtor most likely. The title company can help with giving you a contract template and you can write it up and have both parties sign. I'm not sure about your specific state as to whether you need an attorney involved, but for most you do not. 

Complete! Interested to see what comes of this

@Muinda Gueston I agree that the photos are really really bad. It's hard to get an idea of the property at all because they are so dark. Have professional photos taken. It's worth every penny. As @Andrew Kerr mentioned, you should declutter and de-personalize the space. You want to have buyers envision themselves living there, not feel like they are walking into someone else's home. 

@Jack Bailin Ask your realtor to provide you with your state association's standard lease agreement. This will help you with a template for each of your leases and you can customize as you see fit. Best of luck!

@Ram Kumar yes that is true that you typically won't be able to change it to a different agent. Builders are very strict about their policies regarding agents because most of the time they try to get buyers who are not working with an agent. If you were to have visited that site alone and later wanted to bring in your agent on the deal, the builder would not pay your agent a commission since your first visit to the property was without agent representation. My best advice would be to call the builder and ask what your options are since you no longer want to work with that agent. 

@Tom Majewski that's a really cool idea!