All Forum Posts by: Kristian Peter

Really looking for feedback and comments, how do you submit offers? Probably email, right?  Do you hit 'send' and pray, or then text and call to find out if the offer was received and if you have a chance or getting a response? Does the property that you're interested in sometime go pending or sell without you ever receiving a response?

Real estate offer platforms are nothing new, and several institutions, like Fannie Mae's Homepath, have required buyers to submit their offers online so that the seller and agent are aware of the offer and can respond appropriately. Homepath only works for Fannie's REO properties, but there should be a platform that allows anyone, anywhere to submit an offer on any property and know that it was received, and it can responded to with the touch of a button.

Contracts can be drafted and signed after the offer is presented, negotiated, and agreed upon (like in almost all other types or sale), and many hours or days can be saved during the process. All parties to the offer can communicate, documents can be exchanged, and once everyone is in agreement, the closing terms can be communicated to escrow or a closing attorney, along with the contact information of the parties involved.

Is this something you would use, and if so, how can it provide everything to make the real estate transaction faster and easier?

Thanks for your comments and suggestions! #OfferBot

Great info - I'll attempt using it this weekend.  Thank you @Mark Pedroza!

@Katie L. - thanks for your insight! I will try looking up the upcoming cases online - the court websites are so quirky that it makes looking things up incredibly difficult.  I believe that there must be some service providers that provide the cases and data in a much more user friendly format, but I wasn't sure if other BP members had suggestions (or secrets)?  I appreciate your help, and look forward to other's suggestions.

I'm thinking about using Successors Data (successorsdata.com) to get Probate leads in San Diego, and I wanted to know if anyone had experience with them, or any other death/probate service that is available?  Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated!

In California, almost all building materials are produced in China, and the prices are significantly less if you purchase from a specialty store as opposed to HD or Lowes. The cabinets we purchase are higher quality, all-wood, slow close hinges, and 30% the cost of larger stores - our cabinet store also provides pre-fabricated granite counters that are a few grades below the custom granite, but they look nice and are 60% less than granite stores.  The wood floors can be purchased at Costco for around $1.50 per sqft and installed for another $2 per sqft for labor.

The best advice is to source your materials locally, and then get a high quality contractor to do the labor, it's faster and less expensive than hiring cheap labor.

This a great thread, and our experience is that Google Adwords Ads are much more expensive per lead, approximately $200 - $300 in our market (San Diego, CA).  Facebook Leads are much less expensive $30 - $50 per lead.  Our definition of a lead is someone who has expressed an interest to sell their house for cash.  In order to get a conversion, Google has a much higher conversion rate.  A conversion is defined as someone who will sit down with you and entertain an offer.

Google is approximately $1,200 to $1,500 per conversion.

Facebook is approximately $600 to $1,000 per conversion.

In order to get a property under contract, it's about the same between FB and G - approximately $3,000 in ad spend to get a contract accepted on a property, and about 70% of those contracts close.  There are a lot of factors involved that can only be converted with in-person sales skills, but that dollar amount should be about the same per conversion.

If anyone knows of a company or person converting at a very high level, I would love to mastermind, and am happy to share our current strategy.  The minimum ad spend would be approximately $5k - $10k for both FB and G.  If you're doing anything at that level or above, let's chat!

@Michael Halow we have a 3-plex that can easily be hacked to create a house to live in and 2 rental units.  It's in Imperial Beach, 7 blocks to the ocean.  Short-term (Airbnb) rental income is huge, or monthly rents from just 2 of the units would be $3600+. Let me know if you're interested, or if you are only looking for 4-plexes?

The adage, "Trust but Verify" comes to mind. Based on the appraiser's measurement, you have the right to renegotiate or cancel the contract. I'm not familiar with the laws in Texas, but if an agent is aware that there is a discrepancy in the size of the home (total interior sqft), then it's always best to error on the side of caution, and market the home at the smaller size. In CA there were a lot of lawsuits in the late 1990's when agents listed homes based on the tax records, and after the home was purchased, it was found that the home was actually smaller - the brokerage was held liable for the price per sqft difference, and often had to pay thousands of $ in order to avoid lawsuits. The MLS latter changed the wording on all reports to "Information Deemed Reliable But Not Guaranteed", which helps a little, but people still get sued often for incorrect values in the MLS.

The bottom line is that you lost $1,000, which definitely stings, but at least you walked away, and will probably find a better deal (with more margin) on your next purchase.

Hi @Joey H. - Definitely convert the extra living area to bedroom 3, and if you can add bathroom 2 for a reasonable cost, then that will add the most potential value in terms of rental value and re-sale value. After investing and running a real estate brokerage for 20 years, you always want to have at least a 3bd/2ba combination - it appeals to the most renters and buyers.  If you're planning to rent for at least 3+ years, then do the minimum, just carpet / paint.  If you're going to sell within 3 years, then make the kitchen and baths as nice as possible. There is not a magic number for rehabs, but kitchens are always the one place that you'll see the highest return from both rentals and resales (everyone wants granite counters and stainless steel appliances).

@Tyson Hosey most real estate inspectors have a standard form that they submit along with their findings (similar to the legalese in an insurance policy) - all of that "fine print" insulates the inspection company from any liability.  If you feel that something was done fraudulently, then you can retain an attorney to draft a demand and potential file a lawsuit that will pay for any of the problems that the inspector and agent failed to disclose (the seller is also liable if they purposely omitted information from their disclosures).

Overall, I believe that it would be a huge cost and a lot of time committed to recover anything, but you may be able to find an attorney that will take the case on contingency, but attempting to recover damages from an inspector is going to be an uphill battle.