All Forum Posts by: William Morgan

1) The ability to bookmark articles, pod-casts or threads that I find useful.

I read that you had this feature before but it was not utilized that much. I vote to bring it back and make it as simple as "liking". There's lot's of great how-to info on the site. But right now it's in a big pile that has to be searched/sifted every time.

Excellent advice Tom.

Rising interest rates do affect housing negatively. For every 1% rise in interest rates there is a ~10% drop in affordability. So the cost of a house (i.e a mortgage) rose ~10% in the past few weeks.

While this could have a short term affect of getting any "fence sitters" to act sooner than they normally would, this would merely have a temporary affect of pulling activity forward, leaving an offsetting lull in the future. More likely IMO you will affordability slip, prices plateau or shrink and inventory rise depending on how fast and high rates go. I welcome a cooler housing market then we've had.

Keep an eye on inventory and Days on Market for you area.

Ooops wrong thread

For me the jury is still out as to whether a live person (other than me) fielding and vetting calls is better than answering calls myself when available or letting them roll to a message/VM when I'm not.

My experience so far is that having someone attempt to vet leads doesn't always produce the results i want. When people are trying to ascertain who wrote them, what I do, am I legitimate, can I perform, etc an answering service or personal assistant hasn't always produced the results I desired. I have since gone to answering the phone when available, letting it roll to a brief scripted VM when not. Sure it could just be the person(s) I've used but I sense it is something else.

I return any VM's and missed calls in a timely manner. I seem to get less "not interested" from people when I handle leads myself and have developed a number of "warm leads" that I can follow up with in future marketing campaigns. Once they've determined they are not interested though it's hard to convert them back.

I'll second the choice for Google voice.

Another benefit - if you get creative you can have TWO GV numbers ring a single phone. You can assign a name for each caller ID of these numbers in your contacts. You can then see by the caller ID the "Name" of the GV number that's calling you.

So you could have one GV number for marketing to Buyers & one for Sellers or one for Probates & one for Absentee equity, etc.

This way you will have a idea of who's calling and what needs they may have before you even answer the phone.

Smart one, that David Jackson.

To add, if you hold you'll have deductions for depreciation.

If you hold longer than 1 year then you'll be eligible for long term capital gains rates upon resale.

Your equity can serve as a saving account to be used for future acquisitions.

Google "Credit Boards". The forums give you step by step information on how to challenge, fix and repair your credit with the reporting agencies.

Great insight guys.

RE Memo: Aah, but alas this is California. To my knowledge a Memorandum can't be filed without the Sellers signature.

Bill, let me first clarify, there was both a Pest inspection and a home inspection. The Home inspection being paid for by the Buyer as per their purchase agreement. The Pest inspection noted minor issues requiring action which the (now emboldened) Seller appears to be discarding, while hinting at discarding the agreement altogether.

I initially thought that there was no benefit to the Seller (and that may still be the case). However, in Kaliforinstan the Seller is required to disclose considerable information about the condition of the house and potential hazards to the property. The Home Inspection aids the Seller to this end and will henceforth be part of any recent transaction of the property. ( I believe but am not certain that a home inspection, if conducted, becomes part of the required disclosures thereafter). Therefore my thought is that this Home Inspection could be the "benefit" to the Seller that qualifies as consideration. This inspection likely costs $300-400 and will be required in future disclosure of the property.

I honestly don't think a legal battle would come from this transaction. However, from a "Bargaining in the Shadow of the Law" standpoint if the Seller realizes that the contract is arguably valid and still enforceable She will likely be less emboldened and probably hold up to her end.

Two coworkers I know have agreed to the sale of a house - the one is retiring and selling it to the other. They are not using an agent. The Seller appears to be friends with a person at the title company who is facilitating the transaction.

They signed a purchase agreement . Oddly, NO DEPOSIT was stipulated or requested by the seller or demanded in the purchase agreement. However the purchase agreement states the buyer will pay for a home inspection. A home inspection was performed and paid for by the BUYER.

The Seller has since received other offers and seems to be contemplating those. Additionally she is refusing to pay for pest repairs stemming from a pest report even though the agreement states she shall. All in all the Seller is emboldened by the other offers and increasingly uncooperative. She further mentioned that the Buyer "has no earnest money deposit" so if she (the Buyer) wants to back out i can always go with another offer. The Buyer is concerned the Seller may sidestep their agreement altogether, going with another offer because the Seller believes the lack of deposit relieves her of any obligation to the agreement.

Initially I thought that with no deposit there is no "consideration" thereby making the contract unenforceable. However after doing some research I am wondering if the Buyer paying for a home inspection per the agreement (which provides benefits to both parties) MAY QUALIFY as consideration since there is a (non monetary) value exchange to the Seller by way of providing a third party inspection to be used in the disclosure and sale of the property.

I'm curious if anyone has encountered this type of issue before?

See also:
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/consideration-every-contract-needs-33361.html