All Forum Posts by: Robert Campbell

Thank you!  

I'm in the middle of a lease.  Tenant has been in place for over two years.  I have a new rep inside of my property management company.   A couple months into the new rep, he gave the tenant, and I, the landlord each other's contact info when the tenant had a couple of issues.  So now she just contacts me directly, but they're still taking 11% out of the rent.  

I'm thinking I'm going to check with the tenant first, and tell her that I'm going to dissolve the current contract, and continue with her under an identical contract.  So what can I expect from my property manager when I start this process?

@Orion Hernandez At your age another option would be the long term benefits of putting even a little bit of money into and S&P ETF would kill it for you long term. Check out VOO, it’s Vanguard’s S&P ETF.

@Steve K. Great post, Steve. Maybe you’re the agent I need. If someone actually came to me and showed me something that cashflows or found something that was off market or came to me with a clever fix on a property, then by all means, I’m in! It just doesn’t seem to be the case. In my experience, I find the place on my own, then have to call an agent, and it just all seems ludicrous. Having said that, that seems to have dried up. In our market, it feels like every property is priced about 10% over what cashflows at zero. So it’s frustrating, and I watch do-nothing agents take the 5% that would actually make the deal work.

@James Wise I get it that you’re fighting for your life and you’re livelihood. I really do. And you’re right, I don’t understand the nuance of agency because it serves no purpose. The internet has an amazing way of rendering the unneeded truly unneeded. That’s where I see agency going. Millenials are going to see right through it, and I suspect we already are. Car Dealerships are no different, if there weren’t so many shady laws regarding how manufacturers can sell their cars, car dealerships wouldn’t exist.

As far as I’m concerned, as an actual investor and one who actively participates with real skin in the real estate game instead of only taking advantage of it, you might as well be selling Mary Kay.

@James Wise It feels like those 88% are playing the game so they don't get blackballed. So, an honest question, are you showing a FSBO if there's no commission in it for you because of your fiduciary duty to your client? Probably not. Why would you?

Real Estate agency is a broken system, and I'm sure that behind the scenes brokers are paying legislators to keep it broken. It's a simple monopoly on the marketplace. I don't blame them one bit. My hope is that the FSBO.com and Redfins and Zillow's of the world are able to break it down as people are seeing how dumb agency is. Peer pressuring your friends into letting you siphon money off of their biggest investment is not a profession.

@James Wise I suppose I’m saying that, at that time, my offer IS my highest and best offer. When these agents come back with, “no, we want you highest and best offer”, that reads to me that they’re just the typical thoughtless, know nothing agent making a hacky attempt at seeing how much more they can get out of you. Depending on the agent, it even seems rude. Maybe I’m paying cash, maybe I’ll close in 15 days, maybe I’m willing to let them stay for three months, one dude in my neighborhood promised pest control for the next x number of years at the people’s new house, etc. There’s a million things that can make a deal. Agents are an unnecessary barrier between actual players. It’s difficult to get to an actual deal that’s beneficial for both parties. They’re only interested in one number, and that’s the commission. If I were the agent, and I got an offer, say 10% off of the asking... “Thank you for the offer! We’re certainly interested in working with you. Obviously, we’re slightly off on our valuations. How did you come to yours?”

I find that most agents aren’t interested in doing even that little bit of work. My feeling is that this is the draw for most to get into being an agent. There are very few legal rackets in existence these days, but this particular racket lends itself to this type of person.

@James Wise Why do you get to know if the buyer’s current offer is their highest and best? That’s not how negotiation works.

@James Wise of that’s all there is to it, then what is the service of the agent? Can we all just admit that we don’t need real estate agents anymore? What do they do? Regurgitate the contract? That’s admin stuff. I would be more than happy to pay agents $12/hr to forward emails and fill out the contract.

@Mark Abbate It’s absolutely lazy negotiation. Typical agent stuff. They don’t want to spend time hearing anyone’s real motivation to bring together a deal that makes everyone happy. They just want to siphon their money off of the deal and get outta there...