All Forum Posts by: Joseph R.

 The biggest issue with holding costs outside of paying interest/taxes/etc is the opportunity cost - being able to take this money into a new project is huge and we're trying to move this and move on to the next one....I think we're right on the money currently with price - we've gone over the comps many times and feel we're slightly below the market offering a ton of value.....Do you think staging is effective on a new higher end homes? We haven't done it yet and it seems other builders are 50/50 in terms of staging vs not staging.....maybe its an option we need to explore more.

This is sort of a weird question but bear with me......I work for a builder and am also an investor on one of our projects - we do new construction spec builds in higher end areas usually between 1M-2M......we've been sitting with our house a little longer then we expected at this point - we dropped the price 70,000 from the initial listing price and am contemplating our next move if we don't get bites in the next couple weeks....my question is how much of a drop is worthwhile? For example say a house is 1.1M - if you drop the house to 1,090,000 (10k drop) do you think this accomplishes anything? I don't think this brings in a new set of buyers but does show realtors that we are willing to work with a lower priced offer.....on the flip side lowering if in 50k increments brings in new buyers but also costs us 40k over the 10k drop......I'm not sure if there's a right answer here but would love to get some feedback.

Not sure why you wouldn't put them on the MLS - if people come in with low ball offers you just turn them down and move on.

I'd only buy the properties contingent upon getting a building permit for what you're trying to do - if by chance you're unable to get your permits your project could be a real disaster.

in regards to the punch list what does your realtor want you to do? Type up a piece of paper that says punch list on it and hand it to prospective buyers? The buyer will create their own punch list pre closing that you can look over and make decisions on - I'm not sure what your realtor is looking for.

500 calls, more likely 2-300 people she actually talked to......I had her targeting condo complexes with direct mailings along with follow up calls....it was definitely soul sucking for her and I sort of forced her into it thinking this is what she needed to do to get going.....I think I'm going to have her focus more on relationship building then annoying people over the phone :)

 Hey Brett - can you elaborate regarding your Facebook strategy? She keeps an updated Facebook realtor page - wondering if you do something more specific.

Hey guys - how useful is cold calling as a strategy to get new clients? My wife is trying to become a realtor - I drilled it into her head that cold calling is the key to success but after making about 500 calls shes had little to show for it....She's employing other marketing strategies but I'm wondering if I should tell her to give up cold calling for now or just blame the lack of activity on bad luck and carry on. What do you guys think?

No one can know if those allowances are correct - costs differ throughout the country and no one knows what kind of finishes you're going for.....best bet is to call up your local lumber yard and get an idea of what things are going for.

Maybe in other parts of the country 1-3% works but if you start customizing a spec for a buyer with say 2% down you can get yourself in big trouble if they walk......we try to get 10% down on our specs