All Forum Posts by: Jeff Kushner

@Ryan Tyler  Greetings from a fellow South Floridian!  Welcome to BP, it is an amazing resource.  I would set up 'keyword' alerts to be notified of any posts related to your areas of interest.  I'd recommend "West Palm Beach," "Florida," and "Real Estate Law" to start and modify as necessary.  My inbox fills up with notifications of related posts...

Also, be sure to download and read the free "Ultimate Beginners Guide to Real Estate Investing" by Josh and Brandon. It is an awesome primer to all things REI. As a matter of fact, search the site for all "Ultimate Guide" to see a number of great blog posts detailing the ins and outs of specific REI related topics.

I look forward to crossing paths here on the site and also maybe meeting up somewhere in South Florida to chat real estate.  Best of luck,

Jeff

@Dan DeMott 

Welcome to BP!  There is a wealth of information on this site and a lot of great people participating in the forums.  If you haven't already, be sure to set up some keywords so that you are notified of any forum posts related to your area of expertise.  I'd recommend 'Florida,' 'West Palm Beach,' and 'property management' to start... your email 'Inbox' will be full of email notifications of relevant forum posts in no time!  Also, if you haven't listened to the podcasts, they are full of information and quite entertaining as well.

I look forward to taking you up on the offer for a beer and talking all things Palm Beach real estate!

-Jeff

@Joy Schimborski 

Thanks for the advice.  I'm looking at a vacant lot purchase in the less than $50k range, so the agent is not looking at a sizable commission.  I figure I'll pay the fee on her 'behalf' even though I feel it should have been addressed prior to and let her work to find me a deal to make up the 'loss' in the future, to continue to earn my business or else I'll go elsewhere!

@Sita B. Thanks Sita!  Seems it is an industry standard, so I don't feel like I'm getting taken (at least any more than the next guy…)

@Wayne Brooks 

Nothing worse than typing a nice detailed time consuming response and then somehow it just disappears!  I actually highlight all and copy whenever I notice my post getting long (all of them…)

@Josh Autery @Mark Ferguson 

Thanks for additional feedback.  Since I'm working my agent pretty hard and this is a minimal commission I'll go ahead and pay the fee without significant whining, but it probably should have been brought up prior to the actual contract being drawn up, so live and learn!

QUESTION: Is a $295 commission or fee to my realtor's brokerage, in addition to the 3% sales commission common?

SITUATION:  I recently asked my agent to draw me up a purchase contract for a vacant lot sale in Palm Beach County, Florida.  Added in to the contract was the below statement:

1. "A commission of $295 will be charged to the buyer by Keller Williams Realty for processing and storage of documents."

In a previous thread, I was given the impression that the buyer's agent commission was paid by the seller.  The $295 was never brought up to me by my agent until I read it on the prepared sales contract offer…

Below is an excerpt from her email response to my asking about said fee:

1. "As for the 295 transaction fee all the broker offices expect it on both side of the transaction in fact it used to be calla transaction fee and the respa rules changed it to a commission owed to the broker house for filing and storing closing papers for 5 years in case you need the file later on. I hate it and I try to pay it as a gift to my clients as I find it hard to pass on a
   
2. Bogus fee in my opinion to my clients. As far as you and I discussing the this, I was hoping we would have discussed every page in detail on the offer and this would have been discussed but when we got to doing the offer it all went fast and we never discussed it or other items at all or at length.
   
3. I did ask my broker as mentioned if I could pay on your behalf and she said I couldn’t let me ask her another way if I don’t put on contract paperwork and then pay them directly it wont seem like I am paying it at the closing table.
   
4. Its like when the bank charges you to hold your money with a monthly fee
   
5. And I give them 26 % of the commission, so something to think about in the future with me and ***** doing our own thing versus having a big time real estate name behind us and big time fee’s to pay them

Does her response match with standard industry practice or should I push back on what in her own words is a 'bogus fee?'

Thanks,

Jeff

@Wayne Brooks 

QUESTION: Has anyone ever heard of a "Letter stating Vested Concurrency" as it relates to a county Planning, Zoning, & Building Department?

SITUATION: I am in negotiation with the seller of a vacant lot of land. The lot was subdivided at some point from an adjacent piece of property. The lot I am interested in is "landlocked" and has no proper 'frontage' to a county maintained road/ingress/egress.

The Warranty Deed on file with the county does indicate an easement of 15' width to/from the county road, but the county requires a 20' width easement to be considered legal access, therefore the person I spoke with at the county zoning division/land development division believed that the lot was an 'illegal subdivision' and therefore was un-permittable for future build.

The owner, who is a zoning consultant by profession, seemed surprised that I was told this by the county zoning person and mentioned via the listing agent that he had a letter stating "Vested Concurrency" such that the property is permitable/build-able, but the the only copy of this letter is on file with the listing agent at his office and the listing agent is conveniently out of town until Thursday...

There is more back story, but the above is most relevant. I am not yet in contract on this property and no money has been exchanged, but I am seeing serious red flags…I am considering adding a contract contingency of results of County Review for Buildable Lot to ensure I can build on the land if do go to contract.  I've just never heard of "Vested Concurrency" and the google results to the County Ordinances pages is like reading a foreign language...

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to chime in… 

@Wayne Brooks

@Claire Etienne

@Joe Fairless 

@Jeff Carlson 

Welcome to BP! This community is great resource for learning and networking. I'm in a similar situation to you (age, cash, no debt, interest in REI, minus the wife and two kids…) and am also in South Florida.

Keep us all posted on where/how you decide to invest and the process as you go through it!  @Wayne Brooks and @Michael Lemieux are both members here in South Florida as well and have been very informative and supportive, so be sure to reach out to them...

Best of luck,

Jeff

@Johnathan Butler  Great post!  Looks like you did what I did, literally took each category detailed in the "The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Investing, Chapter 4: Creating Your Real Estate Investing Business Plan" blueprint and expanded as necessary.  I refused to turn the page until I put my thoughts down on paper when reading that chapter.

It is amazing how many posts I have read on the forums that would be answered simply by reading this AMAZING & FREE!!! resource. Thank you @Joshua Dorkin and @Brandon Turner!

@Brittany DeWitt My understanding is that a 10% VA disability rating is sufficient to waive the funding fee. I always like to go straight to the source to verify information as I understand it. In the event that a lender seems to be un-informed or incorrect as related to VA lending guidelines, one might be able to reference said handbook or maybe even email a copy/link straight to the loan officer to clarify… since they are more familiar with the specifics of the lending industry verbiage.

• Veterans receiving VA compensation for service-connected disabilities.
• Veterans who would be entitled to receive compensation for service-
• Veterans who are rated by VA as eligible to receive compensation as a
• Veterans entitled to receive compensation, but who are not presently in receipt because they are on active duty.
• Surviving spouses of veterans who died in service or from service- connected disabilities (whether or not such surviving spouses are veterans with their own entitlement and whether or not they are using their own entitlement on the loan).

source: VA Pamphlet 26-7 (Lenders Handbook)

http://www.benefits.va.gov/WARMS/docs/admin26/handbook/ChapterLendersHanbookChapter8.pdf

www.VALoans.com is also a pretty good source of information regarding VA loans. Relatively well organized and easily digestible information (I am not affiliated with the site in any way, just came across it via Google search).

Keep us informed as to your progress and best of luck!

-Jeff

@Account Closed regarding selling. If you do determine that the rental market supports it and decide to keep the house and rent it out, have you considered ways to access the equity you have instead of selling? Once you crunch the numbers on market rents, instead of cash flowing a couple hundred a month could you possibly re-fi or find a HELOC to put 20-30% down on another property that you could also fix/rent or flip if the market supports it?

If you could cash flow your current house ~$100-200/month after accessing equity (accounting for higher mortgage/loan payment), someone else would pay down your mortgage while you speculate that the DC/NoVA sprawl ends up creeping all the way to Front Royal in the next 30 years (it is definitely possible...) and drives the price up.  If you secured another cash flowing property with the equity from the first, you'd be doubling down on that bet while hedging at the same time (cash flow).

Either way you win, unless you can find a better return on your investment by selling and re-investing your tax free capital gains elsewhere, OR... the US economy could collapse due to the financial ineptitude/corruption taking place w/in the beltway and it could be an all out Zombie Apocalypse headed your way!

It all comes down to doing the math, market analysis for rents and sales prices, financing or ability to access existing equity, jobs now and future job growth for renters within easy commute distance, increasing infrastructure between Front Royal and NoVA/DC for speculative significant appreciation, your investment philosophy (buy/hold vs fix/flip, desired return on investment, etc).

Best of luck and keep us here at BP informed of your decision and the results!

-Jeff