All Forum Posts by: John Harris

If he is your friend, talk to him about payment before you bring him the deal. Once that is agreed upon you should tell him everything you know. If you get screwed, then you know that he was never really your friend in the first place.

Great analogy Marvin. The difference between real world business and poker is that poker is a zero sum game. By that I mean that to make money at poker you have to take it from someone else.

In the real world of business you win most often by helping people. In real estate you can make money for the person you buy a property from, then you can provide a nice home to the person who you rent the property to, and finally sell it to a happy buyer. Everyone wins.

There are many many times when your poker skills will help in REI, especially reading people. Because there are folks out there who make their money at other's expense.

Typically, if it isn't a good deal for everyone involved, it isn't a good deal.

DISCLAIMER: If some idiot wants to buy my property at 4 times the market value and pay cash for it. I will refrain from telling him that he is getting a bad deal. Perhaps he knows of buried treasure on the property. :wink:

On a $100,000 loan for example, what is typical. Including origination, broker fees, and yield spread? I know every loan is different but what is the average or usual?

Well said. If you pay a Realtor full price and treat them like they deserve it, they will bring you deals first, which means more for the investor.

I think the argument is primarily about semantics. I've done well in RE but I certainly haven't done so without making mistakes. I've lost money on deals but I expect a small percentage of deals to have problems. I think I make mistakes every day.

In my first development on my own and from scratch I had created a complicated spreadsheet to estimate construction costs. Every development (or deal) has it's own unique problems and my fancy spreadsheet underestimated costs by almost 1 million dollars. I ended up finding a way around the problem and made good money on the deal eventually but mistakes happen.

I think that one of the biggest differences between successful people and others is that successful people don't blame anyone else for their problems. If I get screwed by someone in a business deal, I don't start crying about what was done to me. I call that my mistake and make sure that no one has that opportunity again.

Sorry for the rambling post. I need sleep.

Good night and good luck.

Hmmm, I'm still filling these out by hand when I use TREC contracts. Good advice guys.

I am of the opinion that most Realtors screw up more deals than they make. I just recently let my RE license go since I only sell my own property these days. I could probably tell 100 stories but I'll start with the most recent.

A friend who we built a house for called two days ago to ask me a question. He had listed his home in Houston with a Realtor and placed a contract on a home in Lufkin (maybe two hours away). The contract on the Lufkin home was contingent on the sale of his Houston home. Then, an opportunity to came up for him to stay in Houston and make more money than the move offered so he changed his mind.

He called me to ask how to save his earnest money on the Lufkin deal. He had already called the Realtor (Lufkin) and told her his situation. She had faxed him an earnest money release to sign to release his $1000 to the Seller in Lufkin to get out of his contract. WTF!

Since he hadn't violated the contract he didn't' have to lose his money. I told him to fax me the contract on the Lufkin home and the listing agreement on the Houston home and I'd give him some free advice. I wondered when I never heard from him but I was too busy to call and bug him so I could give free advice.

This morning I was meeting with my brother/partner and asked him about our friend.

He laughed and said, "Oh yeah man that is a great story. He called and told me what was going on so I just told him to call the Realtor and tell her that he talked to an attorney and that the attorney said that it sounded like the Realtor had abused her relationship and that she could be liable for telling him that he owed money for a contract that he hadn't violated. Then I told him to tell her that he would have to communicate with her in writing in the future because his atty asked him to keep a record of every correspondence."

The Realtor hung up and faxed an EM release for him to sign canceling the contract and sending him the money back. I'd have been able to get it done for him but the ******** methods of my redneck bro seem to have gotten a quicker response.

I think it would be good to talk to him about it and tell him what you are thinking of. Mention that you may be interested in the property and see where he thinks the value is. You may find that you are wasting your time and you may find that you can get it much cheaper than you'd planned. Either way you save yourself a lot of work researching values.

I do.

As an owner in a residential construction company, I can tell you that the price range is somewhere between $45 and $1Bazillion per sf depending on the million variables.