All Forum Posts by: Paul Munly

@Scott Wolf Thank you for your reply! $1400 per year is more within my current budget (and may be more worthwhile for a 'part-timer'), and I'll do a bit more digging locally to see who would potentially allow me to 'work from home'. If you can recommend anyone, please feel free to send me a private message. I'll take a look at First Tuesday as well!

@Account Closed Thank you for the clarification! An agreement similar to what you describe would probably be ideal for me once I'm licensed. I guess the trick will be finding one! :)

Thanks!!

@Kiersten Vance Thank you for explaining the license/broker relationship -- I thought I'd only need to hang my license if I wanted to actively buy/sell real estate for a third party. To answer your question, I had thought that getting my license would allow me access to homes which are active on the market, mostly to help me gauge how my properties compare for rentability and/or sale. I was also hoping that by getting a license, I'd be able to represent myself when I buy or sell a property and save myself some money in the process.

@Paris Beitel Ouch -- I'm not sure I could justify paying $250k for a condo (at least for myself). I've seen condos in the Chico area sell for between $60,000-$100,000, though I doubt you'd want to move to Chico just because it's a bit less expensive. :) I'm interested in learning mostly so I don't shoot myself in the foot, and this conversation is definitely helping me open my eyes a bit. Whether I get my license or not, I'll definitely take the Legal Aspects of Real Estate course. Thank you for your help!

Thanks @Paris Beitel! That helps me quite a bit -- I'm not necessarily looking for either access to the MLS or to work as an agent. I'll admit that access to the MLS would be a nice benefit, but I have no intention of working as a real estate agent at this time. I'm more concerned with learning the legal aspects of real estate in California, primarily as it relates to the landlord-tenant relationship and purchase & sale contracts, and figured taking the licensing training (and getting licensed) would be a relatively inexpensive way to do so. All that said, I don't think paying $3500/year just for access to the MLS is worth the expense, for me.

As a follow-up question -- Say I go through the required pre-license training and decide to get my license. If I have no intention of using the MLS or getting paid from a third party as a result of buying and selling real estate, would I still be required to "work" under a broker?

I'm planning to enroll in an online real estate licensing course to obtain my real estate license in California and am trying to decide upon two things -- first, the course provider. Do you have any recommendations? 

Second, I'm debating which course to take as my 'elective' course. I'm leaning toward a 'Legal Aspects of California Real Estate' course, but want to know if there are any topics I should consider instead. 

I'm planning to obtain my license primarily to assist with finding and buying off-market properties, which is why I'm leaning toward the 'Legal Aspects' elective. If you have experience with finding, buying, and selling off-market properties, what other courses should I consider? 

I'm on a Portland, OR real estate broker's email list (I was thinking about buying in Portland a few months ago) and received what appears to be a pretty alarming change the city council is trying to pass this Thursday (February 2, 2017). I've pasted some of the email below and am curious how you would deal with a change of this sort, if it's passed.

Copied/Pasted email below:

@Jonathan Gobbo, @Russell Brazil Thanks! I suspected as much, and this at least gives me hope that the buyer isn't actively trying to force us to lower our asking price. As for our neighbors, I'm beginning to wish they told me about the potential issue before I bought the house. We'll see what happens I guess. Live and learn!

I'm in the process of selling my home, roughly 2 weeks from closing on the sale, and the buyer's agent received an "anonymous tip" about an issue my realtor was supposed to have disclosed to the buyer (I assume they did). Long story short, the buyer's agent contacted the county first, and now I have to deal with the county before proceeding with the sale. That however, is not my question. 

My question: is it possible for someone (e.g. another realtor) outside the transacting parties (ie buyer, seller & their representatives) to look up the buyer and/or the buyer's agent? If so, how, and what type of database/system (MLS or otherwise) does this person need access to?

@Levi T. Exactly -- it could be the unit hosting the 'Okinawa' for example.  From what I can tell about the particular property I mentioned, I don't believe the owner is the business operator -- it explains the current lease, when it ends, etc.  I haven't done any of the necessary math, let alone due diligence, at this point to determine whether it would be a worthwhile investment, but if this type of situation isn't too uncommon, I'll do some digging and post some details if you're interested.

Hi everyone!  I'm new to real estate investing and have been searching through LoopNet and other sites to see what sorts of things are out there, and stumbled across a commercial property for sale for $30k.  The property is a single unit in a strip mall.  I'm not interested in this property at this point -- I'm trying to wrap my head around why someone would sell a single strip mall unit rather than the strip mall as a whole. My instincts tell me to stay away from anything like this, despite what appears to be a low price point.  How common is the sale of a single unit in a multi-unit strip mall?  Am I correct to be wary of something like this?  What experiences do you have with a property like this?

Thanks!

@Trevor Kolb, @Jason Bott, thank you for your answers!  While perhaps slightly disappointing (though expected) that the $350k isn't a valuation, it's good to know that I was comparing apples to oranges and that my insurance company isn't artificially increasing my rates.  I appreciate your explanations!