All Forum Posts by: Kelli Thomas

Thank you all for the information!! I just got off the phone with the county and they say it is approved for 4 bedrooms. I requested the documentation for that. The system I accessed was for the initial build so I'm glad I called to talk to someone. 

Hi everyone! I'm a new real estate agent and encountered a tricky septic situation. I have a listing coming up on a 5 bedroom house. However, the Snohomish Co Assessor lists it as 4 bedrooms. I was also told I can only list the home for the amount of bedrooms the septic is approved for. I went out to the county, did some digging and found the initial application of the home only lists 3 bedrooms. 

I talked to the seller and they were told it would cost $20K to have the septic updated from 3 bedrooms to 4 bedrooms. We are hoping to list the home as a 4 bedroom + office. 

Another piece to add to the complication, is the septic was moved to the other side of the driveway by the previous owner. However I did not find any documentation for that. Is it possible the home is actually approved for 4 bedrooms? I'm not sure how to find out. 

Have any of you encountered issues like this? What did you do to resolve them? I'm feeling a bit stuck with this. 3 bedrooms versus 4 or 5 in this market makes a big difference. Especially when there are actually 5 bedrooms in the home (closets and windows in all). 

Hello! I have a possible lead in the Bothell area. I received a phone call the other day in response to one of my real estate letters, but they are looking for a developer (which I'm not) to purchase their home/land. They own about 1 acre of land. 

Please contact me if this is something you might be interested in and I can send you over the address. 

Hello! We have a unique situation I am hoping you can help us get creative on! 

We purchased a home last summer, seller financed for 20 years. We have 100-150K in equity in this home. We filed bankruptcy a few years back and can't get an FHA loan until June 2018. Conventional is even further out in 2020.

I quit my full time job a few weeks ago to dive in to real estate but haven't established any leads yet, my husband has a full time job. 

Our goal: get the equity out of our current home, pay off debt, purchase and move into a multi-family for a small house payment and rent out our current residence. 

We really don't want to wait until next summer to make some things happen, and we really don't want to refinance our current home into an FHA to get the equity out. We do have some cash in the bank right now but unless we make some creative moves, we need that to live off of.

The only thing I can think of is if we found a multi-family that someone would be willing to seller finance for us with a low down payment; however, it's been our experience that seller financed deals are hard to come by. 

Do any of you have creative ideas for us, things that have worked for you in similar situations? Any ideas you have are appreciated!

Thank you!

Hi everyone! I am a fairly new real estate agent trying to generate some leads. I have been sending out direct mail marketing letters (handwritten by me) over the last few weeks. My letters are going out to my hometown and targeting people who have lived in their home for 5+ years, hopefully getting them to want to sell and use my services. 

My letters are pretty short right now stating I can help them get their home sold, that I grew up in this area and love it and to contact me to talk about their home. 

How much time do you typically wait before sending a follow up letter? Do you change the verbiage on your follow up letters?

Thank you!!

Hello! I just passed my RE exam and am ready to go! Except I have no idea where to hang my license. I met with KW a while back and am interested in going there but not sure whether that is the best fit. 

I currently work full time and will continue to do so until I can fully replace my income. I also have two small children (ages 1 & 2) and a husband I don't want to neglect. Therefore, I need an agency that can work with my schedule and not suck up 100% of my time. I also want to be able to shadow someone in the field while I get going and I want to learn as much as possible. 

I hear that a lot of places suck up your time when you just get started and also take a lot of the money you generate; neither of which I want.

I plan to send out emails and meet with agencies to find the best fit, but based on what I've said can you recommend any? 

Thank you!

Hello! I just finished school and am getting ready to take the WA RE Exam. I took a practice test on AMP and scored 73%. Is it worth taking another practice test or just going straight to the exam? I have a list of all the questions I missed and the correct answers so I am definitely going to study those. 

Can I bring anything with me to take the test? I think all I really need is some scratch paper and a calculator, unless you recommend something else as well? I haven't taken a test outside of school, except for my driving test which was almost 16 years ago haha. Any tips is appreciated! Thank you!

Delila,

You sound a lot like me and what I want to do! I would love to chat more!

Hello! I am working to obtain my real estate license and am hoping you can assist with some of my questions. I currently have a full time job so the real estate agent would be secondary while I get started. My plan is to help others buy and sell houses initially but I also want to invest as well. 

I'm not sure where I would hang my real estate license. Since I would start with it being secondary to my initial job, would there be a need for a desk within a RE office? I'm leaning towards a large RE company to hang my license since I believe they would have more to offer someone just get started. 

Any thoughts/input is greatly appreciated since I'm new to real estate. 

Thanks!