All Forum Posts by: Cheryl P.

I am looking for an investor friendly real estate attorney in the Northern Virginia area.  Need an attorney to review contracts, purchase agreements, independent contractor agreements, on-line auction documents, etc.

Any recommendations would be appreciated.

@Alain Perez-Majul can you share your recommendations with me also. Thanks

Welcome to BP

@Kyandrea Fowlkes, deciding which niche to start with in real estate is a difficult question for anyone to answer for someone else because that decision is so specific and unique to the individual investor based on your interests and available resources.  Ultimately, you'll need to have a basic understanding of multiple niche's so you can have more than one exit strategy for each opportunity. 

The best advise I can give is to start by reading the BP Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Investing that has a great overview of the various niche's, determine what resources you have now (i.e., available funds, time etc.) because no matter what is said you need a minimum level of funds to start in real estate.  

Not sure where you are in VA but I recommend you start attending some local REIA, I have attended a few in Northern VA, I really like the CAZA in Falls Church and have attended Traction, while with Traction you gotta ignore all the up selling and just take the opportunity to meet other local investors (special note: leave your wallet at home to not be tempted by the bright shiny lights of riches in days, if you still want it after a couple days of thinking about it go for...this is a serious tip. As any information they are selling is usually free here on BP).

If these REIA are not near you, you can go to www.meetup.com and search for meetings in your local area.

Keep reading BP articles/recommended books, listening to podcasts, watching webinars and you will learn which niche feels right for you.  My favorite quote is "Real Estate is a get rich slow process" do your due diligence.

Good luck

@Brie Schmidt I know this is an old post, but I like http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/ it does have great information to help narrow down a market.  I actually found your post because I wanted to see if anyone had a subscription to the site and get their feedback.

Cheryl 

@Russell Brazil The below NAR quote does not prohibit realtors from discussing quality of schools, it prohibits them from assuming and asserting that quality of schools equates to a form of identifying a racial composition or using code words for racial profiling an area.

Simply advising that an area has low school scores a fact that is a known and legal measure of school systems does not equal a realtor being guilty of below:

"To quote from NAR "Discussions about schools can raise questions about steering if there is a correlation between the quality of the schools and neighborhood racial composition--or if characterizations such as “a school with low test scores” or “a community with declining schools” become code words for racial or other differences in the community."

There is a major difference between realtor saying one of the two statements below:

1.  The State rates schools on a scale of 1 - 10 with 10 being best.  This home is located in a school district with a 4 rating. (Legal published fact)

2. The State rates schools on a scale of 1 -10 with 10 being best.  This area is predominately XYZ with really poor performing schools with a low rating of 4. (Racial correlation)

I really don't know how a conversation about signing an exclusive agreement jumped the shark so badly that we so far off point.  So I'll end where I started, I still contend that a realtor can be a trusted advisor and provide legal demographic facts about an area to serve as a true advocate/consultant for their clients.

"Also here is a great little article from the NAR. If asked about crime, direct your client to the police department. If asked about schools direct them to the school board."

Why do I need a realtor if I am doing my own market research?  People come to realtors with the assumption they advisors with specific market knowledge and my personal experience has show that level of service is far and few.  

I'm an HR manager and none of our employees get paid until they perform and all employment agreements are "at will".  

I have the same expectation of my realtor. 

@Russell Brazil there is so much that you just wrote that I disagree with, that we'll have to just agree to disagree because as a customer I am looking to a realtor for their best judgement based on their experience to assist me with the best possible purchase taking in all the relevant considerations tied to the ever popular location, location, location mantra and financial criteria important to the client.  In essence you are saying they are trained "not" to give me accurate advise that would aid in my purchasing decision, which explains why I had such a hard time finding a realtor of any value.

I do not think you are appropriately applying how the fair housing law applies as it relates to a realtors role with their clients.  I am not asking the realtor to steel me one way or the other, but I do expect full disclosure about an area.  It is not discriminatory to disclose that an area is high crime or has low rated schools regardless of the racial make up of the community, that is just measurable fact about the area.

And sorry, knowing whether an area is depressed or not is not a judgement call it should be  and is easily identifiable by area statistics.  

Luckily I believe I have found two realtors who understand my needs, have identified areas were they operate in/focus, have given me valid evaluations on properties that I have asked them to review and have identified several properties for me to review that are within the criteria we have discussed.  So I know there are quality realtors who use their experience and expertise in a certain market to serve as true professional consultants for their clients in the real estate evaluation process who are not breaking the law to do so. 

I always appreciate a good debate and differing opinions, so thank you for the exchange. I am at beginning stages of studying for my VA license and will pay close attention to the fair housing section of the course.

Have a goodnight.

@Russell Brazil I am not looking for investment advise from realtor, I am looking for  information on the property, the market that they should be familiar with, i.e., comps, DOM, trends for the area, etc.  Knowing what markets are selling/trending, which are not and advising your client of such does not violate fair housing laws.  Market analysis happens all the time by both government and commercial agencies.   

Isn't it just as irresponsible and violate their fiduciary responsibility to knowingly advise your client to purchase in a depressed area without disclosing that?

I will determine if the price, rehab costs, etc. meet my MAO criteria. But if the realtor does not understand that I am an investor and that I must purchase below market value and cannot feed me properties within my criteria, they are not the realtor for me.

@Carson Sweezy I agree with this approach, I will not sign an open ended or time based exclusive agreement, it must be property by property.  I am getting my RE license so I can have unrestricted access to properties and not have to use a realtor to show me properties.

If a realtor feeds me a property that I end up buying I have no problem signing a property specific agreement that is required for inclusion in the offer they submit on my behalf.

In my short time trying to enter the RE business I have met several realtors who what you to commit to them and then just want to feed you automated listings without ever providing any property/area analysis, comps or anything else.

They want me to screen the automated emails for them and they just submit the offer....that is not what I need a realtor for, if a realtor has no time or willingness to earn my business by actually demonstrating what value they can bring to the table by screening properties with actual details/analysis & numbers and forwarding those to me so I can determine if they really do understand my needs or if they just want to be an administrative paper processor submitting the offer and contract paperwork after I do all the research...not interested.  My role is to do the due diligence on the deals they bring me.

I am kind of hardcore with realtors, I have no issues paying for services rendered but they are not getting 3, 5 or 6% from me without screening a single deal but just waiting on me to do all the research and tell them which property I want.  

I actually had one tell me that she "couldn't tell me which market was better than another, if the numbers work the numbers work"  excuse me but don't we go to realtors for their expertise and knowledge of a certain market.  

Sorry for my long answer to a short question....I'll sign exclusive for the deal realtor brings me only, if we build a relationship of trust I might consider time based, but will never sign one that restricts me from deals from other sources and/or requires me to compensation someone for a deal they had absolutely nothing to do with.

@Everett Jones and @Scott Nolan Welcome to you both, I just recently attended the CAZA Falls Church meet-up and thought it was good, did not have a lot of up sale. Of course there folks from various RE segments (realtors, investors, HML, property managers, etc.).

But it was smaller group with good subject matter. I also attended Traction REIA, it is good for networking but expect a lot of up selling. Honestly, this site and the podcasts are excellent ways to get a variety of opinions on a given topic to help you narrow your focus and start designing your business model.

I am still on the hunt for my first flip <fingers crossed I am looking at a property tomorrow> but NOVA is challenge as I learned our foreclosure rates are really low.  https://www.richmondfed.org/~/media/richmondfedorg...

Honestly, Everett the little cash is hard especially in this area, I have available funds and finding an affordable deal has been difficult.  I am no expert by a long shot but I would recommend you seek out opportunities to get involved in other RE areas (realtor license, wholesale, apprentice, etc.) this will give you a chance to learn and earn at the same time to build some reserves.  You have to have some reserves no matter what people say, this will also help you meet local RE professionals.

I am working <slowly> on getting my RE license so I can have unrestricted access to properties more than any other reason.  I just started working with some realtors that I hope to partner with, they are finding properties, assisting with rehab estimates and contractor support, they are local investors so they seem to understand exactly what I am looking for (not all realtors do).  I'll fund and manage the project with their mentoring support thought out project life cycle. 

I hope to have a successful before/after story in the coming months.

Good luck to you both and hope to see you at a local REIA meeting soon.

@Scott Nolan I have no clue about this subject area but I wanted to welcome you to BP.  

As a side note, I did have a similar experience in trying to get a code violation list from Fairfax County.  After a few days of them researching how and if they could provide the list, they required I put in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.  They were not able to provide me the list in electronic form only a paper copy (a few hundred pages) and it cost me $150 (you can look up the owners on county website).   It was helpful in identifying some off-market vacant (blighted) properties. 

Good luck in your investing.