All Forum Posts by: Nicholas Smith

In our experience, Deed of Trust has been the vehicle in which we have utilized Seller Financing. The advantages of a Land Sale Contract in California (accelerated foreclosure) has been considerably weakened through court cases and Civil Codes.

I would agree with @Eric Dowling, KW is pretty good up there for new and upcoming agents. Good atmosphere and training. A colleague of mine who had also just got her license in L.A. interview many brokers including Hilton &Highland, CB and Remax. Of those she chose to go with KW and loves it. Good Luck!

As stated by @Kevin Foxthere is no standard time frame for contingencies, If you use the VLPA, which I also suggest, the default is 17 day contingency for inspections and appraisals and 21 days for loan approval. BUT, this is all negotiable. Some of our clients opted in for a shorter Contingency Period due to the fact they are well versed with the neighborhood and already know their numbers. For them (the Specs whom work a specific area repeatedly) it's all about getting their money in and working for them as soon as possible. If you are not as familiar with the area, building codes and Buyer demand, I would opt for a slightly longer contingency period to make sure all your ducks are lined up. This would be a personal preference on your end. I believe that 30 days is more than sufficient to do your due diligence. If after a month you are still unsure on whether the project will work for you, it probably won't.

If everything works in your favor, than closing after the contingency period is a matter of personal preference to you. Since you will have all your questions answered during the contingency period (inspections), the only thing left to do is fund. If you are getting a loan to purchase the property, the time between contingency removal and close is up to the amount of time your lender will require to fund.

Hope this helps!

1) For your contingency period and close date there are a couple of factors to nail down before you write down a specific period for each.

a) Contingency Period (inspections): first, if you are applying a loan on the property, verify with your lender on the amount of time they need to perform their appraisals and underwriting. Write this into your "Loan Contingency" period part of the contracts. If no loan, great, forget about the above. For inspection periods, there is little to bee done on vacant land. Give yourself and the owners enough time to deliver you their required disclosures. On your part, you want time to verify that the land is zoned for the use you want. In building a spec home, give yourself enough time to coordinate with your architect to insure that your preliminary plans for a home will work for the lots. With a good architect who knows the area very well, this should take less then 14 days.

b) Closing: our clients primarily close within a few days of the release of contingencies for vacant land on an all cash purchase since there is nothing else to be done at that time (no one is moving out of the property, no one is moving in as it is vacant land). If there is going to be a loan applied to the Property for purchase, verify with your lender the time frame they need to fund once underwriting has approval.

2) There is no real purchase agreement in purchasing land with the intent to build. After you purchase the land it is up to you what you want to do with it. Once you go to sell the Property with a structure on it, there will be a New Construction Purchase Agreement used.

If you need some sample Purchase Agreements, shoot me a PM

Hey Toria:

I found the best one to be Kaplan https://www.kapre.com/real-estate-courses or the best study at home course. What is invaluable is their online practice quizzes that they provide you with. I used them a couple years ago to get my brokers license in CA. 

Additionally they provide some weekend crash courses to take before your test.

-Nick

Hey Josh:

First off, to choose a brokerage because they may have "high-end" listings on their site is not the right course. Those properties are not listed with Thrive, their website just pulls information through the IDX exchange with MLS.

Looking through their website, I find it very unlikely that they will provide you with what you need. As many people have said on this site, "you get what you pay for". What this means with the 100% commission brokerages is that they basically provide a space for you to hang your license. They don't provide any support or guidance.

As Eric said, take up the great opportunity you have with the mentorship over at KW. I have always been a big proponent of mentorships. It gives new agents the real world experience and tools that they need to succeed. No need to reinvent the wheel, learn how other successful agents succeed, and then duplicate it with your own little twist if need be. There is so much inherent knowledge and processes that go into making your career in real estate successful that the education that will will get with your mentor will be invaluable.

This comes with a caveat though, when signing up with a mentor, you want to have a clear road map of what involvement the mentor will have with you, and how you will be incorporated into their program. Unfortunately I have seen quite a few agents who thought that they would be great mentors, but never dedicated the time to their mentee, wasting both the mentor's and mentee's time.

More to the point, the invaluable access you have to brokerages that take a % like KW, is the access to their staff from the marketing to their Brokers and legal counsel that will help you navigate some of the more difficult and complicated deals that may arise. In the long run, it will pay off exponentially over taking up the 100% brokerages.

As David and Cody have said, you really just need to study (memorize). The test itself is not that difficult and you only need to pass with 70% to get your Sales License. Most of what you are required to know to pass your test you will never apply to your career.

What is really key to success is finding a brokerage that jives with your style. I also recommend that you interview with more experienced agents and try to get a mentorship program with them. This is were you will get invaluable information on how to really succeed as an agent.

If you don't feel like the mentorship route is for you, find a brokerage that offers extensive training. Some like Keller Williams, as they train you on absolutely everything.

Temecula is a great booming market to get in. A lot of new home develops going in and expansion. Plus a cool wine locale.