All Forum Posts by: Kevin Boylan

Sorry, I am a little dense right now, I must be getting sleepy. I am not sure I understand what you are saying here about the second mortgage for the owner.

The more I watch those shows like the Real Deal the more I hate them. They are like 5% about rehabbing houses and 95% manufactured drama and personalities. They zip through anything about rehab stuff and dwell on things like whether theres a ghost in the basement, or how they are going to get by without the boss while he goes off for the week with his kids. Then they tell you what the profit is going to be, based on the list price and you never know what it actually sold for. If they would have a rehab show that was done more like This Old House, it might actually be worth watching.

The only way to make sure your repair estimate is accurate is to go and inspect the house inside and out yourself. If you do not know how to figure repair costs take someone with you that does, or at least come back with someone that does later if it appears that it might be a good deal.

Some of the ways to determine your ARV correctly is to

1. If you have access to the MLS, look at houses that have sold within the last 6 months within a half mile or so, with similar square footage, number of beds/baths, style, etc. Also, look for similar houses for sale and check their listing price. This will be higher than the ARV, but you will know what your competition is... you could even find a better deal that way! :-)

2. If you don't have access to the MLS but the house is for sale through a realtor, get a realtor to show you the house and do the above for you.

3. Look in the public records and find do the same as #1. This is much more difficult.

4. Find the house in www.zillow.com and look at the comparables that they show. Don't believe their estimate for the worth of the house, but this is a quick way to get comparable recently sold's and the prices they sold for. Just keep in mind that these houses were likely in all different conditions so you will want to throw out some low and some high if there are a lot of them.

I found this to be very informative about cash flow and how to figure it, and it also verifies MikeOH's 45%-50% operating expenses rule.

http://www.johntreed.com/positive.html

If I have investor clients sign a buyer agent contract I do not hold them to using me as their only agent as I know that investors do not want to be totally tied down to one agent. I have them sign it mainly to ensure they agree to pay the commission on houses that I find for them that are not on the MLS. If you sign another, you might talk to the agent about using it in the same way.

In my opinion, you are better off using your own realtor to see properties than using the listing realtor. If you use the listing realtor he/she will be in a dual agent role, and cannot fully represent you to the extent that your buyer agent can.

I know rehab loans don't show up on your credit report, but I do think they will check your credit score in determining whether to give you the loan or not.

The broker would be due the commission.

Yes, it's not really up to the agent, it is the broker's listing. But he can take his house off the market anytime he wants too. He just can't go use another agent during the listing period, and if he sells it during this period he owes a commission, but I would not think a commission would be owed on something like that either.

1st, its more expensive for an agent to list a house. There's the sign, lock boxes, adds, etc.

2nd, it all evens out. Statistically your listing agent does not find your buyer, but it evens out as he/she is not sitting on their butt, they are also out working with buyers that will buy your house or someone else's house. The buyers agent that finds a buyer for your house also likely has some listings of their own. That agent may have gotten your buyer because he called him through a sign at one of his listings.

3rd, the listing realtor will represent you when dealing with offers from buyers. You may not need this, but many do. Also, a lot of buyers do not feel comfortable dealing directly with a seller, so you might lose some potential buyers just for that reason.

4th, good listing realtors can head off a lot of problems, keep you out of legal trouble, deal with appraisers, be there for inspections when you can't, keep they buyers loan apps moving, etc, etc, etc.