All Forum Posts by: Cal R.

It's because the commission is very rarely "well deserved". The vast majority of realtors are just not very good and with the internet don't really bring any value to a deal other than convenience.

If a realtor was paid per hour, what would be an appropriate amount? On my last purchase the realtor did no more than 20 hours of work (even 10 is being generous). The realtor made $375 per hour for what? Nothing that I can't do myself. I could have hired a lawyer for a third of the cost.

What is a "well deserved" amount per hour? 

$50 an hour? 300 hours spent selling a $500,000 house? 

$100 an hour? 150 hours spent selling a $500,000 house?

You can get licensed in Texas in 6 weeks, comparing that to repairing an engine (1 year minimum for certification) or performing medical procedures (years and years of education and training) is really odd.

You need to give your friend the name of a good realtor and wish them the best.

1. I wouldn't think twice about making money off a friend while they are getting divorced. Divorces are expensive and they will spend the rest of their life trying to make up that financial ground.

2. How is a lease option a fast sale?

@Jeffrey Hotz The owner of webuyuglyhouses.com and the applicant for the trademark "we buy houses" is the same person. If you can private message (does BP even have private messages???) me I will provide you with more information.

Do a search and look at how many other people are interested in DFW. Do you want to buy a house for $240,000 that rents for $1800? Not many people are going to rent a 1600 square foot house (that would be a small DFW house) for even $2,000 when they can buy a brand new 3,000 square foot house in a nicer area for the same cost per month (I have 3700 sq ft in a great neighborhood and my mortgage is only $1400). Don't forget we also have an unlimited amount of space where new homes are being built as fast as they can put them up.

Don't get me wrong, my friends and I have made a lot of money off of out of state (and foreign) investors blindly throwing cash our way because they read that DFW is a great place to invest, but Texas isn't California and the sky is not the limit here for housing prices or rents.

You are more than welcome to send your money this way (we will also tax you to pay for our schools and $50,000,000 high school football stadiums) but if you are going to invest out of state there has to be better markets than DFW.

I hope someone chimes in that completely disagrees with me. I just see these posts over and over, and I am not sure what price/rent/salary numbers people are using to determine that this is a great out of state place to invest.

@Jessica Zolotorofe which ethical rule do you think was violated? 

Can some of you provide any legal authority for the "contract is cancelled if repairs/addendums are requested"? I'm assuming that there is no earnest money in those states because it would be completely pointless. Can you unwind the deal up until the papers are signed, or can you unwind the deal even after the deal closes simply by proposing an amendment? Seems like really strange way to do business, I look forward to learning more about it.

Have you looked at the crime stats for the area? If this is the property that I think it is, it may have been burglarized about a month ago.

That makes a lot more sense, and It sounds like you have some great resources here. Good luck with your deal, I hope it works out for you!

Why Texas and why BCS? To me, there are 2 big issues that I would be worried about as an out of state investor, investing in any college town, but particularly College Station.

1. Aggies love College Station, and there are many Aggies that are familiar with BCS and invest in the area. If something is still on the market (listed or unlisted), there is probably a reason.

2. Aggies love College Station so much that they are willing to pay a premium (i.e. take a hit to ROI) to have property in the promised land. If you don't have the emotional connection to the area, I am not convinced the ROI is worth it.

I imagine places like Columbus, Ohio and other cities with schools with very loyal fan bases probably have similar issues. It also seems from reading Bigger Pockets that there are a lot of places around the country with much better ROI than Texas for buy and hold investors. Does the 2% rule even exist in this state? I think my area is struggling to satisfy a .5% rule.

That being said, good luck! I am interested to hear where the property is located. I'll 3rd/4th what others have said, I'm not even sure that Blinn students want to live in Bryan.

It looks like you are still in college, I would suggest that you look for a summer internship in DFW. That will give you an opportunity to get to know the area (DFW is roughly 9,000 square miles) and experience some of our "nice" year round weather. I've been here for almost 30 years and this is the first time I've ever heard Texas weather described as nice, I think someone was messing with you.