All Forum Posts by: Ben Howard

@Elvin William 

I think you will find that very little will change and the Seller will still pay the commission for both agents in the vast majority of transactions. Listing Agents will just not be allowed to advertise the co-broke that they are offering in the MLS, but they will still offer it most of the time, it just won't be advertised in the MLS. However, when they don't offer it or they offer something that is less than the Buyer's agent charges then the Buyer can just write in the offer that the Seller is to pay "x commission" to the buyer's agent. I have already seen the new forms/addendums that will be used here in Arizona, the common one for this will be the Seller Compensation Addendum.

The one thing that might happen in your discount buyer agent scenario is you might get a buyers agent who agrees to a lower commission and then the listing agent is offering a co-broke that is higher than he agreed to, well now that buyers agent will only be able to get paid the lower amount he agreed to and the listing agent will keep the remainder, so listing agents could end up getting paid more.

As far as your question on what to pay an agent, I view it similarly to hiring an attorney, there are discount attorney's and they might be okay for some people in some circumstances, or if you know the proper procedures and deadlines then maybe you do it on your own without an attorney. Or just hire the best and have the other side pay their fees for you.

Hello, 

we decided to sell our short term rental property in Sacramento area. 

what will be pros and cons of selling without a realtor? 

we had that property under 2 years and we pay a lot of mortgage. 

If we hire a realtor, we will be paying more than we get from selling it. 

House already has smart lock, clean... Will it be too hard to sell without realtor? Too much work? 

Any opinions? 

Hi Folks - I am looking to invest in multi-family in Sacramento, CA. Which areas should I be targeting?

Mainly looking for appreciation rather than cash-flow.

Hi everyone! I'm from the Bay Area and, armed with some great insights from Bigger Pockets, I'm excited to secure my first rental property. I'm on the lookout for a property in Sacramento County and would love any recommendations for a reliable real estate agent. If you have any tips or can connect me with someone knowledgeable, that would be amazing. Thanks a ton in advance for your help!

Ryan I would recommend house hacking or buying within a 2 hour drive of where you live. There's more risk with buying out of state since you can't check on the property and you have to find a trusted team.

I invest in the Bay Area (pre-2013) and did a renovation, was on site at least once a week. Everything went well and it's rented out. I do have to consider the pro-tenant laws here so I'm pretty cautious (renting to family members right now). 

I also invest in the Indianapolis metro area.  Indy house #1 (Class A) is in great suburb, good schools, low crime and appreciating home values, owned almost 11 years. I closed on 2 Class C homes in 2023  that were supposed to be move in ready and full inspections were done.  With C#1 I'm -$300 to -$700 a month from repairs. I've received 2 full months of rent (minus property management fee.) I thought it was starting to stabilize after a year but another repair call. Still problem solving C#2. I don't know about Ohio but my property tax rates are 2.77%. My property taxes all went up 17% with 2024. 

If you decide on the Midwest, I recommend not buying Class C 100 year old homes (what I did)  - there are issues with things breaking down, crime (stolen AC unit). I think Class C is better for local investors who can keep an eye on the property. I don't know what your budget is or risk tolerance but you'll have less headaches hopefully with buying Class A or B

I'm going to be the dissenter here but I'm looking to exit the Midwest in the future and come back to CA (Sacramento), Nevada or Arizona. Few people post about this but NV and AZ have some of the lowest property taxes and western states appreciate well. It's still OOS but a short plane ride away. I'm also considering doing mid-term rental (travel nurses/business people) in combination with long-term rental to improve cash flow. I'm not a fan of putting more than 20 to 25% down because you're typing up a lot of money. Good luck!

Thanks Ben! Median price is high while median rent is so low in these markets, zip code 95757 is even worse in term of high home price but low rent. I was lucky to break even with 25% down for $590K.