All Forum Posts by: Marshall Hoopingarner

I'm working on an offer right now that is contingent upon the redistricting of senate boundaries. The property is on the boarder of the current district. It got me thinking, what are some of the strangest contingencies you've seen/written? 

I’d personally go unfurnished. As someone who has moved apartments a few times I look for places where I can add my own touch opposed to living with someone else’s style. Like Anna covered, if you are going to have to purchase furniture make sure that renting the room furnished will offset the investment to furnish that room. If you don’t know your future roommates level of care for furniture, don’t buy anything you won’t want getting a mug stain, dent, scratch, or stain on. If they move out how will the way they treated the furniture impact the marketability of that room in the future?  

This has aged pretty well (not sarcasm). I think a lot of people could stand to make some money moving into the downtown area of Portland now while the people that are scared of the situation are fleeing. 

I was sitting on an open today in a condo and one of the neighbors came in flabbergasted that the sellers were asking so low given the building, condition, size, etc. People are moving out and there seem to be deals to be found if you look hard enough in the right places in Portland. 

I worked with a title company for my direct mail campaign. We decided on 8 per year with the first four going out once a month and then less frequently after that. I figured the first three wouldn't get much attention, and fourth on would show I'm serious about the area I'm mailing to. Not sure how things work up north, title companies around here do a lot of that kind of marketing for agents as they have easier access to the data of who I want to send to rather than throwing a dart at the map and sending to an entire mail route without knowing how long someone has lived there, if they are renting, etc. 

As someone who is also new to real estate, I got into it because I didn't ever enjoy many of the aspects of other jobs that I have had, other than working with people. I got into real estate to spend time with others and learn something new while building my people skills. I love that I get to choose my own schedule and work with the people that I already know, building my business with friends and acquaintances seems very rewarding. My "why" is that I want to retire young so that I can spend the rest of my life doing things that I love that are rewarding in ways that work is not: spending time with family and friends, traveling, learning new skills and information, and fitness.  

As an agent I haven't asked a client to sign one of these. While it may signal to a buyer that I'm willing to put in the work to make a deal happen, I would rather just make the deal happen. If they decide I'm not their style or they want to work with someone else I rather them just tell me. I've been screwed by not having a client sign one and them use another agent, but it was probably justified, I learned my lesson, and it won't happen to me again. 

If they're working hard for you, you like them, they've shown you property, and you'll use them eventually, I see no problem with signing one. But if you haven't seen them put anything on show yet, I'd hold off.