All Forum Posts by: Kevin Goodwin

The PMI is permanent, but if you plan to resell in 8 years there is a big benefit of fha that nobody talks about.... it's assumable (subect to new borrower meeting underwriting guidelines)....... this will be huge when rates climb up and you go to sell.

my states legal hotline is only available to Principles. Either way, from a legal standpoint my broker said I'm fine, he just politely asked for a disclosure because they are opening a new office in the location I am targeting and don't want any bad publicity in that area especially. I knew I was fine from a legal standpoint well before I even sent them out because I had a very lengthy discussion about it at my last continuing education class that was taught by a broker who is also an investor. My interpretation of the realtor code of ethics is that as long as I am not creating an agency relationship I am fine. as for state law in Massachusetts, it is vague and open to interpretation, this is what we talked about for a while in the continuing education class and the general consensus is that when there is a written offer or purchase agreement it needs to be disclosed on that, but it could be done anytime up until the point the interest in the specific property is actually transferred, this is the opinion of my attorney as well. I guess I should add in the disclaimer that I am not giving any legal advice, one should always seek legal advice from a competent attorney.

A broker or salesperson shall not buy, sell, rent, mortgage, or acquire any interest in, or represent a client in the buying, selling, renting or exchange of real property in which the broker or salesperson or his/her kin has a personal financial interest unless the broker or salesperson shall fully disclose in writing to all parties to the transaction the nature of his/her interest and unless the parties shall provide the broker or salesperson with written acknowledgment of such disclosure.

Adam Valentino, very very good question, I have the same. I posted the disclaimer I plan to use (even though I am not required to !) in my first post but if anyone has a better suggestion I'm all ears. over the next few days I will probably rewrite some different variations of the letters based on everyone's input and see what you guys think before I send them out.

oh I've got better than that, I was thinking about dressing up like Superman... cape and all, with a big R on the front, and getting a billboard that says "your cape realtor".....

all joking aside, I have a closing today but later tonight I will respond to everyone, thanks for all the responses and tips. I just want to mention that not everybody is ticked off, I have received almost as many hand written thank you letters and calls as I have complaints.

I sent out 500 letters in my town, and another 100 elsewhere on the island I live on, it's Cape Cod, a very popular vacation area. We have a lot of snobby old people, and lot's of property stays within the family. A small portion of the letters were to distressed owners, but the overwhelming majority were targeted for attributes specific to the property that I won't get into.

My letters contain my google voice number, my name, and my real address, it reads like this:

Dear <FirstName>,

I am writing to you because I am interested in moving out of the house that I rent here on the Cape and purchasing a home. I believe your house at <Address:> <Address2> <Address3> <Address4> is very close to what I am looking for in the area.

Would you be interested in selling to me? I have the funds in place to buy the house without a bank loan and because I am very handy I would make any needed repairs to the house myself after I bought it from you.

Please call me at 508-xxx-xxxx. Thank you.

Yours Sincerely,

They look pretty legit, hard to tell not handwritten, but not impossible:

Here's the hot seat part:

My police department claims to have received 6 phone calls, but they can s my d... but... My broker/office (several towns over) has received 3 calls & FOUR CRAZY WALK INS! Some of the calls to my office are brokers/agents who claim I need to have a disclaimer regarding my realtor status (they're wrong) but the rest I suspect are wives or children who are mad I might be tugging at their silver spoon. 

So all these people are googling my name, seeing my keller williams profile, and jumping the gun on conclusions that I'm shady? Everything in the letter is 100% honest right down to my return address, I moved out here a few months ago & I am renting a home & would like to purchase.

I've gotten responses that run that run the gamut. Some people write back, some call to thank me but tell me not interested, etc. I occasionally get asked if I'm a Realtor/Agent & I'm always open about it, so these people that complain to my broker without calling me first irk me, especially when it's another agent/broker. 

It's not required that I add a disclaimer, but to keep the peace I am adding one in even though I think it will turn off the REALLY motivated sellers, and actually more likely for people to think I want a listing-

In full disclosure I want to tell you that I have my real estate license, however I have no intention of listing your house, nor will I send you anything in the future to solicit that, I am genuinely interested in purchasing it for myself without the need to pay any broker fee's.

Any other agent investors dealt with this? 

I think I'll have to go the Elance route, I was hoping there was somewhere like listsource that could do it, ie I upload a csv and whoila! Some of these lists actually are from tax records, but on the search results page, not individual field cards. It's easy for me to search an entire street and generate a list of property address' w/owner names, but to go into each field card isn't going to happen. Oh well, at least some of my lists are from agentpro247 which gives me both address'. Thanks to all!

Is there a way to convert property address to mailing address.....

I figure this is a longshot, but I'm stuck in a dilemma and feel I will be wasting lots of marketing dollars if I can't figure this out. 

My market place is primarily 2nd/vacation homes, I'd like to send some letters out to not only my farm, but some expireds as well. I can export the property address & owner names from my mls, but I have no way to convert; in bulk; these lists to the mailing address' on the field cards, which is different on at least 50% of them. 

Any options out there?

*It might not be dupont, it might be 3M

The magik kits at home depot are JUNK, intentional as 'depot wants to sell you the new surround. The dupont 2-part kit that you can order on e-bay works AWESOME for the price ($70 for two kits covered my tub & surround), allthough it has a steep learning curve. There is good info online about how to use it, do NOT ignore the part about adequate ventilation 

"A certified bank check that my bank would cash" unless drawn from the same institution, doesn't exist these days.....

Renovation looks great! On the exterior, I think if you stained the square beds and put some small evergreens in there it would really make all of the other renovations pop. I like the idea of staging one unit and if you do don't forget about the outside! A doormat, something on the door, and maybe a window box with some flowers as well. GL