All Forum Posts by: Charlie MacPherson

You need legal advice on this.  Contract law can have real teeth and being sued for specific performance could be compounded if the seller has other actual damages.

A law professor once told me "We can't make you buy the house, but we can make you wish you had."

Get thee to a real estate attorney ASAP.

RED FLAG.

You say that he takes payments by cash only?  

When buying a business, either the income is on the books and the tax returns or it doesn't exist.  And you want to see a transcript from the IRS, not a photocopy of a document that he could have created in Word.

For all you know, half of those units could be filled with his own junk and the other half his his relative's junk.

Trust, but verify.

I have a mentorship contract with my RE broker.  The value I bring is in doing deals together, where he makes a percentage in addition to the mentoring fee I pay him.

You might try to offer something similar.

 Just a comment as a Realtor.  It is against my client's interest to overprice a property - and yes, I've had clients do so against my advice and to their detriment.

The result is that the property just sits on the market, until after a series of downward price adjustments, it finally hits a price that the market is willing to pay.

Properties that have had multiple price decreases over a long period get stigmatized. 

 When they first hit the market, local agents know that they're over priced and don't waste time showing them. 

It's kind of a vicious cycle. I can't put my finger on the source, but I remember that NAR did a study that said something like this; A home that is initially priced correctly will sell at a higher price that an overpriced home that is eventually sold at a reduced price.

Of course, it will sell more quickly, and if you're flipping with hard money, that becomes even more important.

Also be aware that mobile homes are normally considered personal property, not real property - i.e., not "real estate".  

That means that most home lenders won't finance them. You'll need a specialty lender who will finance it with something resembling a car loan.  Talk with a mobile home dealer to see if they can recommend one.

I know yours is on owned land, but for the benefit of others, mobile homes are often placed on leased land.

www.pipl.com might help.

In addition to local / regional banks, be sure to talk with local credit unions too.

First, thank you for your service.  You really do have a grateful nation behind you!

Second, don't ignore USDA Rural Development loans if you're going to owner occupy for any time at all.  These are available in less densely populated areas of the country.  There's an online map here: http://eligibility.sc.egov.usda.gov/eligibility/we... You'll be surprised at how loosely they interpret "rural".

You might want to save your VA benefit for your own home. Or not. Either way, check out USDA. I'm using that to move renters into homes they never thought they could afford because of the down payment.

Other than that, keep your overhead down.  No unnecessary debt.  I wish I had learned that at your age!

- Charlie

Right.  I routinely execute a buyer's broker agreement with clients and charge them nothing.  Our fees are always paid by the sellers.

Everything is explained in excruciatingly thorough detail and clients receive copies of every document.

I suppose it happens in every profession.  I just saw a news story about a dirtbag physician who gave patients unnecessary chemo.  But Realtors in particular don't need the bad press.

I heard of a local real estate agent that was charging a buyer's broker RETAINER of $15,000.

Legal? I suppose so.  The parties signed the contract.

Ethical? Hardly.  This jerk was targeting recent Haitian immigrants who probably had no idea that this was virtually never done.

It really irks me that I spend 7 days a week working as an agent, and jerks like this are out there giving agents a bad name.

The bus can not hit him hard enough.