All Forum Posts by: Richard Smith

I'm interested in that area.

When selling, run, don't walk away from those who over promise. Learned this one the hard way

Great suggestion! Bookmarked that one

I'm in the middle of a similar situation.  I actually did end up changing agents.  First agent over-promised BIG TIME.  Sat on the market for 6 months.  Luckily I bought at the right time (2011) and I've got a lot of equity in the property.  Changed agents and lowered the price by almost 20%.  Have an offer on the table and hopefully will have a signed contract by early next week.  Even at the new price I'm coming out way ahead, so I can't complain too much, but I think if I'd gone with the better agent (who I met here on BiggerPockets) I may have gotten a better price somewhere between where I'm at now and the original ask which was just way too high for the market.  Lesson learned.  Look over the comps yourself very carefully, and don't go with the agent who's puffing up the value just to get your business.

@Allen Ellis

Lower the price, and get your contractor to put a fresh coat of paint everywhere and replace the 'musky' carpet.  Nothing freshens up a place cheaper than a fresh coat of paint on the walls, and IMO nothing turns off a potential buyer quicker than bad smells.

If you kept your current house and rented it out for a couple of years would cash flow or at least break even? If so how about pitching your wife on house hacking the duplex with the idea of returning to your current home in 2 to 3 years?

Going back to the question of NOD info in Texas, does anyone have any experience with realtystore.com or realtytrac.com pre-foreclosure search services? Are they accurate/reliable? Both are paid services, which I have no problem with if they are accurate, but don't want to pay for useless data. Thanks in advance.

Jon Klaus seems like a suckers play to even consider paying 20 million for dirt unless you already have those approvals in hand.

Ok I can sort of maybe see that. Still way over priced in my opinion but I missed the acreage altogether before

Ok to you Austin investors: http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/15696593/701-Tillery-St-Austin-TX/?intcpt=false&sourcecode=1lne0t006TT20150326LN&linkcode=&utm_source=loopnet&utm_medium=emailmarketing&utm_campaign=LoopNews $20 million for this? Seriously? What am I missing?