All Forum Posts by: Bobby Narinov

@Roy N., the agent that is bringing you deals before hitting the market is the sales agent. I have no problems with agents that bring deals before they hit the MLS. This is something that is highly valuable.

What I am having problems with are the agents that run a script (something you can do yourself) and send you an automatic e-mails and then demand their commission because they happen to send you an e-mail. I am receiving 5-10 automatic emails per day myself and I don't need an agent for that. I used to but my filtering criteria using sites like RedFin, Zilllow, Trulia, Zip Realty and Realtor.Com are way better than what you can do through the badly written MLS software the realtors in CA are forced to use. Their latest version is still at the level of WEB 0.5 circa 1997.

Realtors, especially the one that are representing the buyers should be able to add some value otherwise discount brokers like RedFin and others are going to eat their commision for breakfast.

 Karen, I live in OC (California) and I purchased a house 1 year ago. I went to the open house (driving my own car), negotiated the deal all by myself (FYI: i got the house $40k under the asking price, $90k under what they were asking 3 months earlier). I could not submit an offer myself so I found an agent that was willing to steal $7,600.00 less (1%) commission. 

So, Yes I do live on the same planet. 

And Yes - I can see what he filled in because it was with a different color(blue) on the standard California Form.

This is going to piss off a lot of agents.

I was reading here on BP about a buyers agent refusing to submit an offer unless it is at or above the asking price and I kind of got pissed off.

In today's markets the buyer usually researches the areas, the comparables and settles on a property. Then he waits for an open house to see the property or if there is no open house he/she gets a buyers agent to unlock the property (you even drive yourself there). Then the agent fills in five lines in a computer and if your offer is accepted he gets 3% of the sales price. Here in California this comes to an average $20,000.00.

So why would you tip a doorman $20,000.00?

I also have missed offers where the bank's agent accepted my offer and changed his mind one day later taking an offer that is $3,000.00 UNDER my already accepted offer. He claimed their offer was better than mine. Several months later RedFin posted the actual sales price and as it turned out the seller's agent was representing both the buyer and the seller so he got double the commission. Here is the listing on RedFin: https://www.redfin.com/CA/Laguna-Hills/25801-Via-Lomas-92653/unit-194/home/5693161

I have never placed a bid before the open house. There is no advantage in that.

As a seller I refuse to view any offers until 3 days after the open house. How would I know if what I think and what my agent thinks is a good price is actually correct? Only the market can tell, right? So why not let the market decide? My agent is also instructed not to take any offers before the day of the open house.

With that said, you can give him an offer but I am not going to look at any of them until the set date (3 days after the open house). Forcing me to rush is the best way to loose: "If you call now we are going to sell you this crap for half the price. But wait, that is not all we are even going to give you another crap that you dont need. This offer expires in 30 minutes. Operators are standing by."

If you place a bid before the open house and I get my asking price, I would think my initial price is too low. Even if I get $50k above the asking price I would still think this is unreal and I would wait for the bids after the open house. Maybe the buyer knows something I don't: e.g. dollar is going down to zero, a huge gas/gold reserve is discovered underneath my property, etc.

The property is build in mid 60's and is situated in a low crime area. The current owner is very old and was using it as a retirement piggy bank. Maintenance and repairs have been neglected for several years. The unoccupied units need major repairs (~5k per unit). 

I try to believe that there is no bad apartment complex - there is bad price (yes I know in some areas they have to pay me to own it) but this one is not a total waste. I am still hoping to find some way to do this deal.  

I am trying to get financing for a small apartment complex and the bank was on board for a while. I gave them the purchase price, the down-payment and my financial information.

They insisted on giving them the cash-flow and the address of the property. The moment I did that, my request was rejected. I have not received the official letter from the bank but unofficially the loan agent told me that "our biggest issue with this request is the subject property proposed as our collateral".

This is a small local bank that is probably a mile from that property. I am currently pursuing other local banks but what if they all refuse to provide financing.

I suspect I still have the following options:
- different banking institution
- hard money
- owner financing. I doubt the owner will be on board since he is too old and may not be alive for too long.
- negotiate lower purchasing price
- get private money(don't have friends with money) 
- get a partner(split the profit)
- give up. Maybe it is not that great deal after all. this is not my style. I'm used to winning where others fail. and this has a huge upside potential because it is 50% vacant.

Have any of you experienced anything like that and how did you solved the problem?

P.S. I have never seen the complex since it is out of state and I wanted to get a pre-qual/approval letter before making a bid (as the agent suggested).

I don't go to any seminars unless the "Guru" is still practicing what he is pitching.

Most of them are no longer in the business of real estate - they are in the "Guru's business". Unless I want to learn about the business of being a "Guru" I would not go there. 

 That was exactly my point about buying real estate with your tax-advantaged accounts: just don't do it. real estate has a lot of tax advantages by itself so buying it inside such accounts is not recommended. Using them as a hedge (i.e. investing in other types of investments) is probably OK. I am using it that way.

btw. as I was writing this I realized that there are certain types of RE investments that are probably OK to be done inside IRA: like buying a note and other real estate related activities.

I think you missed the whole point of tax-differed and tax-free-growth accounts. Most people are sold a "bill of goods" that tells them that if they put aside a portion of their money now they'll benefit because when they retire they will be in a lower tax bracket. i.e. they'll be poorer and this will be a great benefit. But if they succeed and have a bigger income at retirement than no - they will have to pay higher taxes. I don't know about you but I personally am shooting for success and in that case IRA is not smart thing to do.

In addition you loose access to YOUR money until age of 59.5!!! What if I want to retire at 30? 40? ok, I am older than that but even in my case I have to wait for over 15 years to get my money. Some people retire in 5 years with real estate. should they wait for 35 years to get to their own money. Wouldn't it be more beneficial to have their money NOW.
With tax differed accounts, you have tax free growth (as with 1031) and if you succeed, you pay higher taxes at the end. , if you fail you lost opportunities.

About the leverage - you need to read a bit more about it. Your profit from the leverage is subject to UBIT(Unrelated Business Income Tax) so where its the benefit from using IRA. Leverage is the main purpose people get into RE investing and loosing that is a huge NO NO in my book. Don't buy the crap that all those IRA self directed brokers are feeding you. You are way better off paying the penalty and buying real estate.

Have you tried:

• email (with pictures). If they can browse the WEB they should be able to do e-mail. 
• MMS - it is there on pretty much any phone plans

I am not an out of state landlord but I travel a lot so I have trained them to use the above tools.

In addition I do the following:

• have the renter pay for the first $100 of any repairs
• If the repair is under $100 - they should find a repairman and fix it themselves.
• If the repair is due to negligence (or not willing to repair the problem while it was small) they pay 100% of the cost.
• I do regular checks to make sure there is nothing broken(unfixed).
• I send them a letter every 3 months asking for things that are not working/operating properly.