All Forum Posts by: Dustin Allen

@Edward Kozak

I’m going to make zero comments on what percent I think you should be charging as that’s always negotiable between agents and their clients.

Do your family the biggest favor that you can and get that property listed on the MLS. You won't get them any extra exposure by keeping it off market. More eyes will see it on the MLS and flip properties sell just fine on the MLS too. Everything else is normal realtor business. Negotiate compensation and get marketing the property.

@Yogesh M sayanakar

The builders have huge incentive to get their purchase price even if they give away way too many credits/incentives. The purchase price is what will guide future purchases and they want to protect that at all costs.

From your perspective, lower rates and concessions are good and might be the best in the end. Just remember, you can refinance the rate later on if rates go down in the future. You never get another chance to lower the purchase price once you’ve bought the property.

Sounds like you might have found a happy medium and that’s what negotiation is all about. If the numbers work out for you in the end, then go for it.

@Lin Ding

If you’ve already gotten past your inspection contingency, you are probably done negotiating.  Unless there is something that the seller needs, you don’t really have the leverage to negotiate further.

The best you can probably do at this point is to check your financing contingency if that is still in play. If you specified a specific interest rate that you were willing to accept and that rate has gone higher now due to a longer than expected escrow, you may have one last opportunity to try and negotiate. Likely, they would only help you buy down the rate at that point. If that’s already gone, then you are likely stuck with your current price and concessions. If you did your evaluation on rents previously, you should still be in a good position. Rents don’t just dramatically drop because rates go higher.

@Kenny N.

Every offer that you write should be based on a solid evaluation of what would make it a good deal for you. If paying 20% of asking is what makes a good deal for you, you’re probably wasting your agents time writing the offer. If you are just lowballing everything by a certain factor hoping someone will take a ridiculously low offer, you are wasting your agents time.

When you figure out what you can pay for a property, you owe it to yourself and your agent to make an honest assessment of how the seller is likely to respond. Try to write offers that have at least a moderate probability of getting accepted. Sometimes the numbers are just too far apart and it’s not worth even putting it on paper.

@Gurjot Grewal

You can absolutely ask for the walkthrough video ahead of making an offer. If it’s vacant, that should be easy to have done.  Even if you get the video after the contract is signed, reviewing the video is considered part of your inspection into the property. If it’s obviously that bad, save your money on an inspector next time. Just make sure you’re being realistic. A good realtor should make video walkthroughs for you before you write an offer and they should point out every reason that you shouldn’t buy the property. 

@Kyle S.

Look into the Home Depot credit card. Some people get the 24 month zero interest deal and just put everything on that card.  Obviously, be aware of the future interest rates and what could happen if you don’t pay it off by the time the promotional period ends.

@Reginald R Cloutier Jr

Principal

Interest

Taxes

Insurance

PITI

@Peter Lin

Any commission would need to be paid to a licensed real estate Broker. You may be able to write your offer with a seller credit and make the argument that you are representing yourself.

The hard part is that the listing agent already has an agreement with the seller and doesn’t have to give up what was already agreed to to make a deal. They might do it though.

You might also look at hanging your license with someone to earn the commission, if it’s enough. You’d have to see if the fees involved and the split made sense to go do all of that.

@Orion Izzard

We are taking a break from these events for the time being. Attendance has dropped off over the summer. We may start doing them again more occasionally in the future instead of every month. Would love to connect anyways.

@Tim Kaminski

@Charlie MacPherson nailed it. Estoppel Certificates spell out the rent and deposits paid by each tenant and they are signed by both the Seller and the Tenant. These are much more reliable than a lease that may have turned into a month to month agreement and might have been signed years ago.