All Forum Posts by: Jose L Torres

@Alan Mills Hi Alan,  as a buyer you should always work with an agent. It adds a lot of protection and representation and it does not cost you anything. 

When it comes to real estate contracts, if it is not on the contract it does not exists.  In FL for example if you want the washer and dryer to remain in the house you have to specifically itemized in the contract. 

Even if those items were in the listing and the pictures, if they are not included in the contract they could be removed from the property.

When it comes to things that have no specific dollar value, I would have included them on the contract as they do not impact the transaction.  Another option would have been to do a separate contract where you include those types of service items or any personal property that will be provided with the home. 

Real estate contracts are very complex and specific.  You should always review them and ensure that everything you expect is covered  under the contract.

At this time, I am sorry to say, I do not believe you have any recourse. 

Best of luck in the future.

@Tom Phelan Hi Tom!  That is always a possibility but I feel we were already there.  For the past 5 years we have seen 24 year olds living with Mom and Dad already so not sure this will have a bigger impact. I think that is already baked into our society and the market. Millennials are waiting 5 - 7 years to buy their first home.

I do think that everybody is looking for ways to live with less. We live in a consumer driven society with people accumulating “things” instead of assets. 

In my market we are still short on inventory and high on demand.  I think there will be rewards for investors who are patient and wait for when the economy reopens and homeowners start selling heavily again, but as I mentioned before I think that is going to be short lived so you need to be ready to move. 

Best of luck!

If you are waiting for prices to go down you are going to be waiting for a very long time.  Pandemic is a temporary occurence.  It is actually going to trigger a relocation of people across states.  We are still in a sellers market in a lot of areas in the country.  Once the states open again, you will an influx of folks listing homes, but you will have an increase in demand from people moving from high density states/cities to states with less density.  So the increase in inventory is going to be consumed very quickly by this demand. 

In our Market in West Florida (Sarasota, Manatee, Hillsborough, Pinellas Counties) we started May with a Bang!  We are still seeing low inventories, high demand, and prices are starting to move up again.  

All that said, these are realities in my market, you need to evaluate the specifics of the areas where you have your investments. 

Best of luck!

@Joseph Parker Hi Joseph,  I applied for the PPP and Emergency Assistance program as well.  I am waiting to hear back on both.  I have other colleagues that have applied as well.  It depends on the bank you are using, but my accountant recommended that you use the bank you already have a relationship with. 

With BOA I heard that they have their portal setup.  Wells Fargo basically ask you to enter your basic contact information and they will get back with you.

For the Emergency Assistance Program, you go straight to the SBA Website and apply.

Best of luck!

Jose

@Frederick McCree From an interest rate perspective you should consider it.  That said, your business base to maintain this property as a good investment should hold true through the re-fi.

The goal would be to save money on interest that either go to your cashflow or to increase your equity. 

If you are looking at this as a way to get cash out to fund another deal, you should consider how much you can take out while maintaining your business case to own this property in the first place. Otherwise, your are turning a good investment into a bad one.

Best of luck!

Interested in hearing from others what is happening in your state with rentals. See below what is going on in Florida.

Florida Governor Suspends New Vacation Rentals

In an effort to discourage visitors to the state who may be carrying the coronavirus, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Friday a two-week suspension of new vacation rentals (30 days or 1 calendar month, whichever is less). The order does not apply to current occupants of vacation rentals.

You can find the order here:

https://www.floridarealtors.org/sites/default/files/2020-03/VacaExecOrder.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0ptN-DIFP3TlUjI2CgwWRTamc5GZKXALie4E6vofCRE32-YTiHOJboPZQ

@Alex Ramirez Hi Alex!  This is interesting. I would start by finding out if the father had been declared 100% disable because of the Alzheimer’s and if the son has Power of attorney to make all decisions.  If this has not happened, this is probably the place to start. Also, are there other siblings involved? Is everybody onboard with selling this property?

On the property side, how long has the father lived In the property? If this was willed to him, is there a record of his father/mother/relative who owned it before then?

It is up to the seller to provide clear title for the property. Before you go incurring expenses on attorney fees, let the seller sort it out. 

Best of luck!

@Juan Jackson Hi Juan,  I am happy to do referral work with you. I am a Realtor with Keller Williams On The Water on the west coast of Florida.

@Stephanie Simmons Hi Stephanie.  What I am understanding is that you have an Addendum on your contract that states that your buyer has 7 days to get a Purchase Agreement on his home or your contract with him is "Null and Void".  If the time has expired and he has not produced a Purchase Agreement on his property or he has not agreed to remove the contingency; you do not have a contract.

If you are using the Florida As-Is contract, you are not obligated to make any concessions. "As-Is" means that your buyers only options are to either take it or leave it. If you wanted to allow for contingencies you should have used a different contract.

If you are an active agent in Florida, then you should be working under a Broker.  You can bring this to your Broker's attention and have him/her help you with this.

Best of luck!

@David Telp Hi David, You can bring these things together, but be open and flexible.  “Great is the enemy of good” in this situation. Get your website going. It does not have to be perfect. You can change it as you go.  Folks following you would like to see how you progress and evolve. It is part of the human story.

Your broker will probably help you get your Realtor website going. In KW theY provided me with a sub domain to get the ball rolling and content to do social media and marketing.

The way I’ve been bringing things together is through the use of FB, Twitter and LinkedIn. Where I post information I have on my work and personal sites. Right now, I am the glue between the two. As I continue to evolve things will continue to change.  More than likely I will bring my Realtor site as a section in my personal site. So that will become the hub for everything.

All the above said, this is just what I am doing. I would recommend experimenting. You really can’t go wrong no matter what you do.

Best of luck!