All Forum Posts by: Ronald Allen Barney

A lady I was prospecting was complaining that she was being evicted at the end of her month to month lease in spite of the fact she had been paying rent--the landlord has dollar signs in his eyes and wants to sell high.  I said well it's dumb on his part but at lease end he's allowed to do the unwise thing.

Projections that I have seen are for a slight drop off in price over the next year, not as much due to foreclosures as the new building space finally catching up to demand among owner-occupier buyers. What I've seen in my local market is that if you can take on distressed SFH there's inventory galore for you and some are actually promising pretty good cash flow when they get to their ARV state and renting. The big if there is, if you can get a slice of contractor time or ship a rehab team to the city. But in the bright shiny objects space of the market that flavor of inventory is tight and projected to be gradually less tight.

Mortgage lenders have become pretty sophisticated to prevent sweeping foreclosure apocalypses like what has happened in the past, particularly in how careful they have been in lending practices and how they offer alternative solutions to foreclosure for those facing "temporary" inabilities to pay.  Part of me kind of wishes there would be a foreclosure tidal wave to make it easier for me to find sellers to list, but for the sake of those residents I'm glad they have those other options now.

Advantages:  it costs you nothing money-wise as the seller pays both sides of commission.  If you self-represent the listing agent just doesn't have to split his cut with a buyer's agent, so if anything a listing agent will nudge in the direction of self-representing.  The purchase process will be easier and smoother, with a good agent, and usually faster in spite of non-agent tools available these days like Zillow et al.  A buyer agent will be a good screen against pitfalls you might not be aware of in the process so some mistakes can be avoided that way.

Disadvantages: Deals found will mostly be on-market unless the agent has made a concerted effort over time, to prospect for off-market deals. I currently have nothing off-market in spite of time-boxing portions of my day to look for them. Wholesalers will bear more fruit in that space. FSBO will be avoided because of the awkwardness of who pays or doesn't pay the buyer agent.

NAR = National Association of Realtors

Some agents aren't in NAR as well so if they're not they can help lead the charge in litigation.

I am totally jelly hehe.

Estate sales usually come at the tail end of Probate, and in that process they identify a listing agent to manage the sale process.  At the point you as a potential buyer see the listing it begins to operate pretty much like a regular on-market deal with the exception that the Trustee acts as a proxy seller represented by the agent.  The behavior will tend to be less emotional and more formal is the main difference.

The contingency gives you a very good case for getting the deposit back, barring other circumstances that might lean in favor of the seller (which don't seem likely here). If they don't respond to binder refund requests for over 30 days I'm sure the lawyer will be on board for a complaint to the NAR's complaints board, which will probably send the case to arbitration. NAR's membership bylaws require member agents to agree not to file lawsuits over any cases like that which can be handled in NAR arbitration, but since lawyers aren't signatory to NAR bylaws they can litigate it all they want (the process just won't be driven by the realtors).

I'd do one deal at a time.  First deal would be fairly aggressive as the cash ammo is plentiful.  I wouldn't wait around forever to find the perfect off market multi-fam that some bird dog or wholesaler happened onto while door-knocking, I'd go on-market for speed and ease of finding the deal.  I'd vet the numbers, vet the condition of the property (inspector and contractor walk-thru being even more important than my own walk-thru); vet the title; vet the financing picture, and if it all looks good JUMP, offer slightly low with contingencies with maybe one counter-counter in mind before moving on.  Repeat until that first deal is done, put it to bed with a PM, and then look at the new cash picture for the next deal, repeat.  Each new deal in the series I would get more conservative and more careful, and apply more of what was learned along the way.

The lease wording answers the question.  If they signed an agreement they would forfeit some or all of the security deposit, that's what they forfeit.  If you're making up a forfeiture as you go along, that's a recipe for small claims court.

If your offer had a contingency you have an out for the failed inspection.

If your offer had no contingencies you have now learned the power of contingencies.

So long as your binder payment was less than the septic repair cost, let that be the cost of learning about contingencies.  If you had a buyer agent that let you do this, fire him.