All Forum Posts by: Joe Facenda

I too would be interested in speaking with a investor oriented Realtor in San Antonio.  If anyone is sending a PM to Jordan and it is a referral of someone licensed at least 3 years and someone who personally invests, please include me.

Thanks

To me, ask questions that get at their experience both as a Realtor AND an investor.   You need an agent who understands both.  

On the Realtor side, I would say a minimum of 3 years as a Realtor.  Lots of investors get their license and that is fine.  If they were an investor, they may have great intel on the market and the cost of repairs and a list of great contractors, etc.  But you want more than that from your Realtor.  You need someone who knows how to get a deal under contract and from contract to settlement.  Learning how work with different types of agents on the other side and being able to spot turbulence before it crashes the plane only comes from experience.

On the investor side, you must only work with Realtors who have personally invested.  It doesn't matter if you are a flipper and they are buy and hold or vice versa.  If they are in the game, they are probably students of all aspects of investing.  Get them to talk about their experiences as an investor and see if their philosophy works with yours. 

For instance, I am an experienced Realtor and investor and when I speak with potential rehab investor clients, I let them know upfront that current market conditions are such that if you want to write 5 to 10 low ball offers a month, you are wasting your time and I am not the Realtor for you.  If you want to use a rifle approach instead of a shotgun approach, I am the right Realtor for you.  Maybe in your market things are different but know what you want to do and make sure they don't object to that strategy.

Last, I would ask them to tell you about some of the deals they put together for other investor clients.  You want to know that as a Realtor, they have worked with investors in the past. 

If you feel good after the phone call (and please do this by phone - not email or text) start to work with them but resist signing any long term buyer agency until you see them in action on the street and feel it is a partnership worth finalizing. 

I am a Realtor in Northern Virginia.  Our market is a sellers market at the present time.  So many properties get multiple offers.  In that situation, the choice of a lender can be the difference between winning and losing the home or at least an opportunity to be seriously considered.  All things being equal between offers, I like a local lender who underwrites in house.  They have more control over the loan and any little problems that pop up can be resolved quicker than if the underwriter is out of the area or it is a broker going through channels.   But that is me.  Other Realtors may not care. 

So, if the market you select is a seller's market, it may be best to get qualified by a local direct lender that the Realtor has a relationship with.  This does not obligate you to use that person but your pre-approval letter will be generated by a respected loan officer.  You can always shop for rates after you ratify the contract but give that loan officer a chance to match.  

If the market is a buyer's market, your choice of lender may not matter as much. 

3 years is a dangerously short time to own a home.  Warren Buffet says something like he has complete confidence that the market will be higher in future but don't ask about tomorrow.  

You have to be 100% sure you will be renting it when you leave.  If the possibility exists that you will need to sell or that numbers based on today's rents don't make sense, do no buy.

Two other thoughts

1. I don't know what market you are in and all real estate is local but in my market, even in the downturn, when prices went down, rents stayed stable and even increased a bit as more families were looking to rent instead of buy.  So if it cash flows with today's numbers, it has good odds of cash flowing down the road.

2. When someone uses a VA loan, that typically means 2 things a) a low down payment scenario and b) a property in decent condition. Look at the numbers carefully. I am a pretty good student of various markets around the country. It is hard to see how a no money down loan on a turn key property will generate positive cash flow based on today's rents

Hope that helps. 

What a chain you created @Lakeisha Baker! Way to go.  

Lots of input from Realtors (like me) and investors.  Realtors for the most part say sign something.  Many investors like @Andreas Blomst say never.  Now he has successfully bought 4 properties through Realtors and each was with a different agent. There may be many reasons that there were 4 different agents and one never knows the results of the path no taken but perhaps if there was a relationship with one of those agents there would have been more than 4 agent driven deals in his portfolio.  I am guessing agent 1 never got too excited about bringing him the best deals when he saw there were agents 2, 3 and 4 in the mix.

One question I have not seen posed here.  If the state law says agency relationships need to be in writing (as does the law in Virginia, your state) and the agent says forget it, we don't need an agreement, do you want to work with that agent?   I know I would not want to work with anyone trying to get around the law.  Most of the time, this little faux pas will not hurt anyone but if a problem develops, it will be a bigger mess than it needs to be.  And as the buyer I would be wondering if the agent's personal ethics allow him to ignore this law, what else is he doing that may hurt me down the road.

Again, it does not need to be an exclusive agreement. It can be for 1 day or for 1 property but it must be in writing in VA.

I am a Realtor in VA. My colleague @Russell Brazil is correct.  In VA an agent does need to document who they are representing in a transaction and do so in writing. I also agree with my friend @Jeff Copeland that if you want a great agent, you will need to sign an agreement. But there are ways around this.

Know there are many real estate brokerage models out there.  Some companies send out an agent who is available to show you the home.  Today it is Jim and tomorrow it is Sally.  That works for some.  But most investors want someone they can cansult with on an ongoing basis. They want someone they can trust and someone to develop a relationship with.  If that is you let me explain how I handle it and give you some ideas on how to proceed.

First if you are a wholesaler, I will pass.  I have yet to find how a wholesaler and an experienced agent can work together in a mutually beneficial way.

If you are a buy and hold investor, I will pretty much insist you sign an exclusive buyer agency agreement. It is likely your deal will come off the MLS and we all have the same info, I don't want to find you went off and worked exclusively with the listing agent or some other agent showed you the home and wrote the contract. However, I have no problem limiting our agreement to MLS properties so if someone presents you with an off market deal, you can decide how to proceed.

If you are a flipper, I will encourage you to not sign an all encompassing buyer agency. In our market, most likely your deal will not be a MLS deal but off market. I will have you sign something that states if I show you the home you work with me. I expect and understand that you will be searching far and wide for a great deal. No one agent can know all off market deals.

In fact sometimes with off market deals, I tell the investor to contact the seller directly without me with the understanding that if they  get it, they will list it with me on the back end.  If you violate that hanshake agreement, goodbye.  I have yet to have someone go behind my back on that.  Sure you may find an off market buyer in the end but you had better remember me or that is our last conversation.

Bottom line, requirements for agency agreements are dictated by state law but there is no requirement in any state I am aware of that the agreement be exclusive in all situations. Exclusive to a home shown yes but every investor must be free to work any and all options in an optimal way

Hope that helps.  

I'm interested as well.  @Richard V. if you get a responses via PM, please let me know.

I agree with @Tony Suniga, get an appraisal done.  As a Realtor, I will tell you I have never had a pre-listing appraisal done on a property but in your case it could be a good idea.  

It sounds like your condition is great but price is an issue.  If you got a good appraisal and were to leave the appraisal with your marketing materials, that should help.

Now, know that the appraisal you pay for will never be used by the buyer's lender.  The lender will order their own.

And know that 2 appraisers using the same comps will come up with a different bottom line.  I have been in flip situations where two appraisals were required.  The two appraisers used the same comps and one had $300,000 and the other had $330,000.  Of course, the bank insisted upon the $300,000.

Nonetheless, if the appraisal you get is way off from your asking price, you will have no choice but to lower.  If it is close (within a percent or two of your price) you should feel confident and hopeful that another appraisal would be close.

And here is the link to the "white house" at 1111 Towlston Rd McLean VA that is on the market for $2,689,890 but offers encouraged:

https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/1111-Towlsto...

This is in my neck of the woods so if you need a Realtor....

You actually can!!!  

Well not the real one but a 14,000 square foot replica just outside DC in McLean VA. Look up 1111 Towlston Rd McLean VA. on Zillow or any of the sites.

It looks just like the white house and when you read the comments you will see it is a motivated seller. I've been in it and many of the details are to scale but it does need lots of work.