All Forum Posts by: Kristin Kiddy

@Benjamin Moody your words have truly hit home to me.  I've been struggling with what it means to be a real estate agent since I started a few years ago.  I am not a sales person.  I am an educator at my core (previous career as a teacher) and a designer in my heart (lots of renovations).  I have always looked at my interactions with buyers and sellers as first educating them about the real estate world and then helping them navigate it to meet their personal goals.  I have an extensive background in renovations and building.  I've remodeled 7 homes and generaled the construction of an 8th one from the ground up.  I've dealt with building departments, surveyors, soil tests, excavators, all the trades, scheduling, ordering, and my favorite, design.  I've owned rental property since 2010, one was a short term vacation rental which my husband and I managed for 8 years (long distance).  I have spent 20 years studying and keeping up to date with tax law as it applies to corporations, LLCs, and real estate (although I let my CPA do the heavy lifting).  I have so much to offer a buyer or investor, but all they think of when they see me is "sales person" just trying to make the sale.  I am probably more apt to stop them from buying if I am being truly honest, because I know what that "new kitchen" or "opening up" is really going to entail and cost.  But as you can see, my "elevator pitch" is a little long and it is hard to communicate all this experience to most people.

I know of owners in my area who rent to families in the summer months.  They do beach vacations when schools are out of session for summer.  

@Jorge Rodriguez  It's frustrating, I agree.  Some buyers are willing to accept possible "un-permitted" problems because either 1. they don't intend to make any substantial changes to the property or 2. they plan to do all of their work un-permitted as well and kick the can down the road so to speak.  As with the market being as crazy as it is, buyers are definitely more willing to overlook red flags.

I feel for you, but it happens all the time here.  Then I see the property back on the market a few days later when the buyers decide they don't really want the property (They finally get in and tour it during their inspection period).  

It's good for you to be suspicious and do your due diligence to determine if there has been an un-permitted addition.  But sometimes it is just a clerical error that occurred years ago and the owners never corrected in order to save on taxes.  You can pretty much tell if the extra bed or bath is an addition when you tour the property.  But if you can't tell, talk with the agent.  You can also look up permit history on the city website (varies city to city and county to county).  

@Mark Rawls Thanks Mark!  

I live and invest in Ormond Beach (Daytona Beach, Port Orange). Vacancy is almost non-existent here and rents are very good. The biggest challenge is locating a property at a price that will make your numbers work. Multi family is few and far between and not available in most of the A neighborhoods (or B for that matter) and they are even more overpriced. I have had the best success with single family or single family attached (town homes), if you can get a reasonably priced HOA (a few areas have no HOA). Short term rental is extremely difficult to do here (legally).

I'm not sure how Open Door calculates value, but I would look at recent sales in your immediate area, similar sq ft, beds, baths, and amenities to get a more accurate idea of value.  You can do a cursory search on recently solds on realtor.com

@Jonathan Greene they definitely feel like a buyer's tour and he is doing it as part of his social media personality.  He is not trying to pass the property off as his listing and includes a link to the mls idx feed on youtube where you do see the listing agent information.  I get the feeling he has permission.  I would like to do some select videos myself as a broader series on some of the neighborhoods in my area and I wanted to know how to go about an approach another agent/broker.  Do you have any wording you use in your emails?

There is an agent in Orlando,FL who posts a ton of home tours on youtube and they are not his listings (I did some digging to confirm this).  I'm sure he's made arrangements with the listing agents to get permission.  And he doesn't give specific addresses on the properties, just areas/town.  

But I wonder what kind of written agreement would you need to use?  And what rules do you need to follow to keep it legal?  Technically, we are not allowed to market another agent's listings, without permission.  Has anyone done this and if so do you have a written agreement (wording?) that you use to CYA?