All Forum Posts by: Kris L.

Quote from @Josh Green:

Quote from @Kris L.:

So I have a house I am going to be selling in a couple weeks in the Clearwater Florida area, but I’m confused about what the agents are saying. I have it narrowed down to two agents, one has more general experience in the area and are part of a large organization. The other is a smaller operation which does a lot of business in the specific neighborhood the house is in. The first agent is absolutely certain the house will sell in the high 400’s. The other is equally certain it will sell around 550. This is a pretty critical difference. The one with the higher number has 1 active and 3 pending listings pretty similar to my property. These range low 500s to the mid 600s. there just aren’t many sold properties in the neighborhood in the last 3 months and even out to 6 months is limited. of course the sale of hurricane damaged houses also confuses the issue (my house had no such damage but is only about 4 blocks from houses that did).

Is the higher price agent inflating to get the listing or is the lower price agent just not keyed in well enough in the specific neighborhood?

 Hey saw your other post on this earlier and wanted to repeat for others to see as well:

It's great you are recognizing this. I would really take a close look at their CMAs. What are the comps they're showing you? Should be within the last 6 months sold ideally within 1 mile. SOLD comps vs ACTIVE is very important. I see a ton of sellers and listing agents overpricing homes and end up with big "price drops" back to reality. Only wasted time and many prospective buyers in the mean time. I am selling a house right now that all the comps ACTIVE were showing much higher than the sold. We listed strategically and were under contract in 2 weeks in the slowest part of the year (December) whereas all the other similar homes in the neighborhood have been sitting for months and still sitting on the market. Part of this is due to marketing and pre-marketing of the home - an agent is your marketer. A good sign of an agent is how much business they are doing on the purchase and sale side. If they can't even market themselves to be a top agent, then they don't know how to market your home either. A good example of this is when an agent is selling you on their brokerage brand and saying things like:

1) Our brokerage has "X" agents and "X" employees all working for you! (HA!)

2) Our brand is recognized by "X" agency for your type of home! (LOL, likely a paid co-branding snippet and doesn't do anything for you)

3) We run "X" in ads to attract buyers! (you need to differentiate when a Mark Spain type company is running radio ads to attract business for themselves from it actually helping you out)

4) Our TEAM or BROKERAGE has sold "X" homes! (You're hiring the agent; why are they sharing stats that aren't theirs?)

Feel free to dm me if you want a 3rd opinion on your home. I've sold over 80 homes personally in the last 30 months and I'm usually within $5k of the appraisal report when I run my CMA for clients. I'd say nearly 95% of the time I'm within that margin.

 Yes after I posted the first one, I realized my questions were actually more general than specific to the St Pete market.  Thanks for the advice.

Quote from @Caleb Brown:

I would go with the one that is the specialist in the area. They seem to know what they are doing for that pocket and has the track record to prove it. Can either agent provide comps? That would show you exactly what they are each looking at to compare your property

They did both provide comps.  Looking more closely the higher price agent seemed to provide overall better comps though one or two that I would have considered comps at a somewhat lower price didn’t make it.

the Lower price agent had a very unimpressive CMA which included a hurricane damage property sold for land value and another that was an auction, so in retrospect, I’m not too convinced that the lower price agent really knows what they are doing.

So I have a house I am going to be selling in a couple weeks in the Clearwater Florida area, but I’m confused about what the agents are saying. I have it narrowed down to two agents, one has more general experience in the area and are part of a large organization. The other is a smaller operation which does a lot of business in the specific neighborhood the house is in. The first agent is absolutely certain the house will sell in the high 400’s. The other is equally certain it will sell around 550. This is a pretty critical difference. The one with the higher number has 1 active and 3 pending listings pretty similar to my property. These range low 500s to the mid 600s. there just aren’t many sold properties in the neighborhood in the last 3 months and even out to 6 months is limited. of course the sale of hurricane damaged houses also confuses the issue (my house had no such damage but is only about 4 blocks from houses that did).

Is the higher price agent inflating to get the listing or is the lower price agent just not keyed in well enough in the specific neighborhood?

So I have a house I am going to be selling in a couple weeks, but I’m confused about what the agents are saying.  I have it narrowed down to two agents, one has more general experience in the area and are part of a large organization.  The other is a smaller operation which does a lot of business in the specific neighborhood the house is in.  The first agent is absolutely certain the house will sell in the high 400’s.  The other is equally certain it will sell around 550.  This is a pretty critical difference.  The one with the higher number has 1 active and 3 pending listings pretty similar to my property.  These range low 500s to the mid 600s.  there just aren’t many sold properties in the neighborhood in the last 3 months and even out to 6 months is limited.  of course the sale of hurricane damaged houses also confuses the issue (my house had no such damage but is only about 4 blocks from houses that did). 

Is the higher price agent inflating to get the listing or is the lower price agent just not keyed in well enough in the specific neighborhood?

I can’t say I agree here.  Most title companies are focused on retail real estate, and they have more limited experience with what investors are looking for.  Nothing wrong with that, but it does seem like taking your Jeep to be serviced at the BMW shop.

Hi,

I am currently looking for a title company in San Antonio and was wondering if anyone here has used Priority Settlement Group of Texas?  If so, what kind of experience did you have with them?

I have done a few BRRRRs but with the rise in interest rates, most of my capital is now stuck in properties.  How would you recommend I shift gears into wholesaling to rebuild my available capital?

Does anyone have a good recommendation for a plumber in San Antonio to repair a sewer line in the north side of town?  This would involve some tumbling under the slab to get to the problem area.

Quote from @Russell Brazil:

Quote from @Kris L.:

Quote from @Russell Brazil:

I looked it up. Right off the bat, the marketing of the property sucks. Photos suck. No floor plan. No 3d tour. A hand drawn purple arrow instead of something professionally done.

and if it sucks on the MLS, Im sure the rest of the markrting is non existent, such as email and social media marketing campaigns.

Thanks for the feedback Russell.  A agree now that you point out the arrow.  There is a 3D tour when I check it on my Zillow app.  Which tool did you look at it with do I can make sure it gets added there?

I will put together a floor plan as well to include.  Was there anything in particular about the photos that you could elaborate on beside those I mentioned already?

I do appreciate the input.

So you're doing the marketing yourself and not your agent? Why? You should hire a top notch agent that knows what they are doing. You're going to end up costing yourself $30-50k in the end.

 No, I have an agent running this, but based on the comments from you and others, they have some things they need to fix with the listing.

Quote from @Allen L.:

@Kris L. do these lenders typically charge origination or any closing costs?

 Mine did not, though mine was through my local credit union.