All Forum Posts by: Maria McCreless

@Noah Wood

I think it depends. If you're doing one or two deals a year and do not plan to use your license for representing other sellers or buyers than you would spend more to get your license than you would make on your deals.  So you have to determine, how much money spent is worth not having an agent represent you and having the ability to look at homes on your own. Of course, it is nice to look at properties on your own.  If you're only doing a few deals, having an experienced agent will be helpful to you. Also, if you list your own property for sale, then you would still have to pay your broker his portion and the buyers agent commission.

If you're doing several deals, then yes you would make your money back and would not have to work around an agents schedule but that's taking away from what you're really making money on. 

Being an investor and having a real estate license makes life easier, but in my opinion it really becomes worth it when you use it to sell or buy for others.  

@Niko Crowley

Yes, use the referral he gave you but screen the tenant and make sure that they meet your standards.  You can raise the rent to the market value and I would approach this with the current tenant as well.  Many times people raise rents slow and steady, but I find the problem with this approach is that tenants feel that you are constantly raising their rent and they will push back hard.

I would suggest raising rent to just a little under market. If your property is below market value, this will keep your property rented. The current renter would have to pay higher rent somewhere else and pay movers if they chose to move out.  Most long term tenants know that moving isn't cheap and in general is just a pain.  In addition, when I raise rent I explain to current tenants that this is a one time rent increase for say 3 years.  

@J Valansi, HOA fee?

@Jun Zao, if your lease is up at the end of February, you should speak to lenders and get prequalified now. Not everyone is going to do FHA and I would suggest looking for a mortgage broker. They will work with several banks to find you the best loan.

@Ruth Lyons

I would suggest taking all of the inspections and have a contractor look at the major issue to confirm whether or not there an issue.  If it is you can decide how you want to proceed.  Then disclose all of the inspections and the finding from the contractors.  If there are several inspections most buyers will go off the inspections already performed. If you decide to fix items then have another one done afterwards showing everything is done.  Saves the buyers money because they would not have to pay for an inspection and reduces surprises.  

Did you guys have an agreement before they showed the property or did you have the ad posted that you would pay a certain percent to a buyers agent. I normally discuss with the seller prior to showing a Fsbo. If he is the buyers agent he would only be entitled to half of the commission anyway. You should push back. I would guess that the buyer probably doesn't know anything about the commission rate. I would never discuss this with a client, unless the fsbo was not willing to pay commission.

Originally posted by @Account Closed:

Originally posted by @Thomas S.:

I have read through all the posts in this thread and have come to the conclusion that most have given advice on the path you need to take to turn your life around and in most cases you have given reasons and excuses as to why you do not want to change. The path you prefer is not open to you and will not be open to you until you change your life first. Real estate may be at the end of that road but definatly is not in any way a option at this point in your life.

Change jobs to increase your income, take on a second or third job if necessary, fix your credit, live conservatively, stop putting your efforts into helping strays (people) and accept the reality that your present life situation is completely self imposed.

Harsh maybe but the reality is you want to change your life but deep down you lack the true motivation to do what is necessary. You have freely chosen to be where you are. 

Living pay check to pay check without savings is self imposed and by your own choice as indicated by your reluctance to do all that is necessary to improve your life aside from reading about a pipe dream of investing in real estate.

Fix what is broken in your life, adjust your attitude and maybe some day you will have the luxury of being able to invest.

Maria McCreless Real Estate Agent from Tallahassee, Florida

replied 1 day ago    needs to apologize to JENKINS.........................................lol.

My take would be Maria just wanted to brag about her man(possibly bf) going from nothing to multi billionaire.   Id say this is woman on woman crime,  this lady doesnt need to hear about a multi billionaire unless she has designs on marrying him

Julius, it was never my intent to brag.  It was intent to make a point that anyone regardless of where they are and at what age can make it in real estate if you give it your all.  For me knowing that others are able to do it, encourages me that I too if I work hard enough and commitment myself may one day be where he is.  My point was that his story is a great example of why we come to bp.  To hear the success stories and to learn how to get there.

No what I saw was her saying was hey guys I am committed to trying to learn and that turned into a lot of great advice from the BP community to her saying in not so many words "please help me" and I tried that but it didn't work, so what now.  To I am thinking about selling my home. Should I invest in a house hack? I am struggling but I am trying to help someone else who is also down on his luck, which selling my house would effect him. I like my job but I work 12 hours a day am still not making enough.  This could just be my heart strings, but I got the impression that she is lost and doesn't know how to bail herself out or what to do.  I think most of us have faced this kind of adversity before maybe not to the same degree but been at a place in live where you just felt totally overwhelmed and looked for answers. 

I agree completely that not everyone is going to be the next re mogul, but I think that everyone has the potential to be. Its just up to the individual to take the necessary steps to do so and I believe its up to the BP community to support them in a positive way.  

@Account Closed,

I do not mean to be rude here nor confrontational, but I am sorry what does her age have to do with anything?  I think her point is that she wants to make a change in her life, interested in real estate and hey people out there that know way more than I do, please help me.  

My mentor bought his first property at 66 in 1986 and before that he was a teacher, a coach and ran a newspaper. He in his words was "scraping by."  He had no knowledge of real estate but he meet a group of people that were younger than him and "were making a nice living" (in his words) and he thought why haven't I done that.  BP is that group of people for countless people.  Its the light at the end of the tunnel. 

My mentor is now 91, has a huge portfolio (multi-billionaire), and we just closed on his latest commercial property a few days ago.  He now drives and looks at property at least three times a week because he loves it not because he needs to pay his bills. He calls me at all hours to ask me how we can add value to a particularly property and encourages me to think so far out of the box that sometimes I cant believe I come up with things.  

My point is that if that group of people would have told him he was too old or don't try it you wouldn't make it, then maybe he would have given up and he wouldn't be where he is today, nor would I have the wonderful mentor I do.  You can make a change in your life anytime you chose to. No its not easy and its not overnight and you don't get rich overnight, but once you start down a path its a lot easier to keep going especially when people guide you down the right one. 

In many post where newbies ask for help or guidance, you seem to be quite negative and I am sure that is not your intent, but I ask that you please think of my mentor and realize that people who are in the dumps usually have a hard time handling more negativity.

Again truly not trying to be rude here, just hoping that maybe you could see a different prospective. 

Hi Cody.

While I have worked in real estate for about a decade now, I am new agent who became licensed in April 2017.  I am a part-time agent who works full-time as a Property Manager, so I do have lots of flexibility to do what I need to do during business hours. 

Here is what I have done that has worked for me. Like others have said, I focused on my sphere of influence.  I did market analysis for friends/family who had mentioned selling in the past or just seemed like their house didn't work for them.  That helped me get my first few listings. My family and friends tag me in social media post quite frequently when they noticed people ask for realtors and I always reach out.  Same with me when I see someone on social media discussing selling.  I also found a mortgage broker that is AWESOME!  At the time, she didn't have a lot of agents who brought her most of their deals, so I meet with her learned about loan programs and sent everyone her way - because again she's a broker, she has tons of loan programs that work for everyone and she is great with her clients. Overtime, she began to know and trust me and when she has people that doesn't have a realtor, she sends them my way.  This doesn't happen a lot but it does sometimes.  So she should work to find partners in all aspects - lenders, inspectors, surveyors, etc. 

In July of 2017, I started using realtor.com for leads.  I chose them at first because they were a lot less than zillow and I liked the fact that if it was a shared lead that both agents got the same email and you both had the opp to reach out and connect.  Like others have mentioned zillow isn't like that.  I also chose zip codes that I was really knowledgeable about but also weren't areas that have top selling homes - those are higher demand and more costly.    I also took zip codes that were close to me that were cheap and learned those areas.  Be prepared that you will get lots of leads but they don't always pan out and I chose the ones I want to target. I found another agent in my office who wasn't paying for leads so I toss them the ones I don't want and they pay me a referral fee.  This works well for me.  

I know that there are tons of agents who don't follow up with leads or have price points they just don't go under.  So network with the agents in her office and see if they have any leads they are willing to send her way. 

Now that I have closing and ratings under my belt, I started advertising today with Zillow. Day one I have three leads and meeting a cash buyer in the morning to "write up a contract" of course that doesn't mean it's going to happen but hopefully it well.   In realty, I only purchased the leads because Realtor.com didnt have any additional ones they could offer and I am paying the same price for two zip codes as I do for 6 with realtor.com.  I am hopefully it will pay off. 

Wish you and your wife all the best.  She is going to kill it!