All Forum Posts by: Jean Bolger

Do not, I repeat, do not, have the first interior picture your buyers see be a toilet. 
They are going to assume the house contains a toilet.

They don't need to see a closeup of the second toilet either. The listing makes clear there are 2.5 baths. 

also, I'd remove the wiring lying on the floors (or at least photoshop it out).
And don't forget to remove the unexploded ordnance from the backyard

I'm just poking fun now, but I agree, those are terrible photos. I get professional photos shot by Virtuance, they will do 10 fantastic photos and make them available in formats for web and print marketing for $99. They may not be in your area, but there will be some equivalent service. BTW the cost of that, and usually the cost of staging too, if we're using it, comes out of my commission. 

It's not the commission that's making this not sell, and your agent is kind of nuts to suggest that.

BTW when Zillow's CEO sold his house it went for 60% of the Zestimate...

If you have a buyer come along who has signed an agency agreement they probably expect you to pay the buyer side of the commission, so it's not likely you'll pay 0% commission anyway.

From what Nick said, my guess is that's you'd be far better off just using a traditional MLS sale through an agent. I'm not in California so I don't know your process, but it can get complicated anywhere. Plus, you'll get far more exposure by being on the MLS than you will from that FSBO sign in the yard and Craigslist ad.

Gabriel Martinez (720) 434-477

The BP community is really as much use as a "mentor" in a lot of ways. You've got access to all kinds of info, past experiences (good and bad) and opinions just by reading and listening. Don't be shy about posting specific questions to the forums. If you include Denver as a keyword you'll get plenty of local advice.

Try to make it to the informal BP meetup once a month. There are several more organized investor groups as well. You may find one particular person that you connect with or you may find that you are developing a network of people you can get advice from. 

To expand on the catch-22: a LOT of people say they want to do more in real estate. I'm not questioning your drive or your sincerity; you're already doing it, which is more than 95% of the people who are "interested".  But look at it from the other guy's perspective. Most people like to give advice, and they like to help other people out. But nobody likes giving advice to people who don't do anything with it. The only way someone knows if you are a doer rather than a wanter is that you are actually doing.

My advice? come up with a specific plan, like "I'm going to start wholesaling by sending out X number of direct mail letters every month for 6 months, targeting X type of real estate issue". Post it here, and you'll get advice. Maybe someone will tell you that's way too few (or too many) maybe someone will tell you that target audience is a waste of time, try this one. But you'll be giving people a solid way to offer you help rather than an abstract.

And don't worry, it's harder to end up in jail than you may think! :)

Hi @Steve Haag
As @Kayla V. said, small multis are going at a premium these days. But there are some good ones that pop up on the MLS. You just need to be able to move fast when you see one that works for you. So make sure you've got your lender, etc lined up

Hi Dan. One of the hard truths of RE is that "motivated" is sometimes a synonym for desperate.  There are some investors who would simply see that interaction as a frustrating waste of their time, but I think that fact that you responded with such compassion speaks well of you.  You really can help people in this business, but you can't help everyone. What you can do is explain their options and offer your best advice, which is what you did.

Keep treating the people who call you with respect and offer them what you can. I hope that when you find some people you actually can help it will be at least as uplifting as this was disturbing.

This has pretty much all been said, but here's my 2 cents:

If the lease is signed, you are bound by that contract (even if you just told him that you'd be renewing for 9 months but haven't put pen to paper you are still bound, legally). Feel free to talk to him and see what's going on in his life- he may be in a position to do you a favor by undoing the lease, he may not.

Why not post the condo in the BP marketplace and see if anyone here wants to take it off your hands tenant in situ? You'd probably save in commissions compared to an MLS sale, so it might be worth selling at a lower price than you could get on the open market.

Or, 9 months goes buy pretty quickly. You'd be on time to sell during the spring buying frenzy in 2018.

Have there been other recent sales in the complex?

Welcome Jose
There's tons of great information available here and the BP people I have connected with have all been very helpful. As you can see from Matthew's post, you might find yourself picking up some electrical jobs as well as RE info!

Happy belated birthday Kyle, and nice post about the ups and downs. Good luck for your next year.
And hey, put me on your email list!