All Forum Posts by: Joe Liu

Hopefully I didn't confuse you guys. If the listing is expired, the realtor is not technically given a commission unless you ask the seller for it. If the seller says no, then you can try and get your realtor the listing by asking the person you wholesale it to if they have a realtor already (and if they are going to rehab and flip it). This will not always net your realtor a commission but all they are doing is sending you a list and running a few comps. As long as you get them some sort of commission or referral here and there, they will be happy.

On the flip side, you can leverage a realtor to be almost like your bird dog. Realtors acutally work expired listings for themselves to get the seller to relist the house back on the MLS, as well as the "for sale by owner" market. If for some reason, the seller doesn't want to relist because they need to sell it today and seem motivated, then that realtor could work out something out with the seller as far as getting a commission and providing them with a possible cash buyer who will close quick, which would in turn, get you a possible lead. If you find ways to make your realtor money, they will work hard for you!

Joe

If you can see pictures of the house, you can usually tell from that, but realtors can pull up history mls posts of that house and we can see the old listings (with pictures usually) and then the new listing, so its a nice before and after. You do have access to the tax assessors site, so you should be able to see what that investor bought the house for and then what they sold it for.

Either way, I would find a realtor for your team. If your doing wholesaling, don't you want a realtor to pull expired listings or bank owned properties for you? They get there commission off of that.

Joe

Hi Junior, besides the sold price, do you have a system for seeing what each of those houses had as far as upgrades, lot sizes, etc? You maybe able to see some of that on Zillow/Redfin. If you are going to take a house that might be out dated and fix it up with some granite, etc, then I would look for upgraded comparable houses that sold. The other big thing is, how long did it take to sell? If it sold in a few days vs months, then you will want to see why. Was the house that took a few months to sell start off being listed way to high and when the price was reduced, it sold quickly, or did it just sit there forever until someone finally bought it. With flips, I want to sell my house asap, so i look for comps that sold quick, what exactly they did to the house as far as upgrades and how much they got it for, as this will give you a really good idea of an ARV. If all your going to do is plop on a map 10 houses in a circle around the house your going to buy and average it out, then your using a similar formula to Zillows estimate which can be very off. I'd just get a realtor since technically we work on commission and there wouldn't really be any cost to you.

Lastly, are you wholesaling or rehab/flipping or buying and holding?

Joe

Junior Salters I did some more digging - I compared the sales price to those houses in my neighborhood on Zillow and the sales price were correct, however, there is a lot of incorrect sq ft, bath rooms etc. Its got my own personal house 600 sq ft smaller. Its got my neighbors house with an extra bed room, but we have the same cookie cutter house. I've even tried to update it in the past and it doesn't take, so that in itself is annoying. I don't personally use Zillow for any of that as I have my own realtor tools, so I can see your frustration with this. I don't know what your system is, but a lot of REI investors get there real estate license just to run there own comps and to get a realtor key to get into properties without having to call a realtor and waiting for them to meet up. Might be a good long term solution. Sort term, id find a realtor for the best accuracy. Look for one that is investment friendly.

http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/21/topics/88653-how-to-work-with-re-agents-for-leads

Joe

Hi Junior Salters, for comps, don't trust a Zillow estimate's. They are based on some fancy math calculation that apparently applies to the nation.

If you don't want to use a realtor, I would pop the addy into Zillow, click on the house so it brings it up and on the bottom right side (scroll down a good ways), there is a "Nearby Similar Sales". Click on that and then try and find similar spec'd houses. This is probably going to be your best tool without using a realtor. I just re-read your post and you may already be doing this. There are advantages to having a realtor since they watch the market a lot more, can send you the comps in a nice list with pictures and all of that. Your going to want to look at sold houses from the last 3 months. You can also use Redfin to see whats pending. You might be able to do this in Zillow to, but I find the Redfin mapping tool easier to use. Also, I don't know if Redfin is in your area yet, so if not, you'll just have to figure it out in Zillow. I wouldn't use pending as real comps, but just a way to see if things are selling in the area. I know Redfin shows you how many days on the market as well, so that is helpful for a comparable, but a pending sale doesn't tell you exactly what the house is selling for, but if it went into 'pending sale' in a few days, its probably going to be around the list price.

Realtors have better tools with more filters, but this is pretty nice if all you want is just a quick comp. Also, most realtors won't respond back fast enough when you send them 10 properties to comp out when all you want is a quick analysis.

If you are providing a realtor with some sort of way to make commission, then there is no reason why you shouldn't use a realtor, especially if they can send you leads that they come across (bank owned, stuff on the mls). If you are providing a realtor with nothing, meaning your going to get the comp and then wholesale it off and be done with it, then you will find that they will slowly never respond back to you.

Hope that helps!

Joe

Hey Tom Walther - Sent you a message! Would love to meet up!

Hey Gerald David , feel free to email me anytime! Also, if you know anyone looking for a bar out in a town called Riddle, Oregon (its near Roseburg), please let me know! It's my dads and he's trying to sell it (fully equipped)!

Joe

It's dried up a lot out here, especially with preforeclosure properties. The lenders are moving to judicial foreclosures now in Oregon mostly due to regulations, but with that, it gives the home owner a 180 day right of redemption, so after the entire process, they get 180 days to buy it back. From what I hear, it never happens, but if I got a hobo shack and tossed 40k at it and made it into something worth a whole lot more, last thing I want to have happen is the prior home owner to redeem his right. There could probably be a whole article on this but I just know a few things about it and I might actually dig around BP to see if someone else here knows more about it since the redemption right is basically an option that you can sell to someone else and that opens up all kinds of doors and grey areas.

Some local newspaper reading if you want to dig more into it, and if you click on the writers name, hes got a bunch of other local real estate articles that come in handy if you curious about the Portland market -

http://www.oregonlive.com/front-porch/index.ssf/2013/01/judicial_foreclosures_jump_in.html

Thanks everyone!

Brandon - Good talking to you earlier and my alerts are setup!

Does anyone have a website to a service that will write the yellow letters for you with a real person writing it? I've seen the ones that use the 'handwritting' font, but I find it more effective when you literally write it out vs having a pretty good font.

I used Proschools in Oregon. Some of the questions on the practice tests were also on the state exam, so that was nice.

http://www.proschools.com/Real-Estate.aspx