All Forum Posts by: Sharon Powell

Very normal for my market too.

Talk to Nina Alves with Copernicus Realty. Her company handles PM.

I did mine through Texas A&M Commerce and happily recommend it. I can’t vouch for Champions online, but took my exam prep course in their classroom and it was a huge help.

To me, this has nothing to do with what you’re wearing or driving. Many very successful people drive expensive cars and post pictures of their leisure time, yet their employees love them and wouldn’t leave for anything because they are humble, genuine, thankful people. As long as you are young and comfortable, people will make surface judgments about you being spoiled and arrogant. Just don’t prove them right. The respect you’re looking for can’t be demanded. It’s earned by taking care of your team- compensating them fairly, caring about them individually..do you ask about their family?, being humble- appreciating the value they add instead of thinking they’re lucky to have a job with you. Have you been building their loyalty, letting them know how much you appreciate their hard work, and being respectful when things need to be corrected? You’ll know you’re doing it right when your team happily works themselves to the bone for you to make deadlines, and you receive respect instead of resentment.

Christine Rodriguez at On Q Financial will get things done!

You said the price was a bit high and you’re waiting on your agent... I’m assuming you mean your own buyer’s agent and not the listing agent. Is he/she working on comps? Is she waiting for the other agent to respond? If you contact the owner, they’ll probably tell you to talk to their agent... that’s part of what agents are hired for: to field inquiries. I understand your excitement and impatience, but let your agent do the job you asked her to do. If you feel like it’s taking longer than it should, talk to her.. stay in front of her so she knows you’re serious. Or, if she’s totally slacking and you don’t trust that she’s working in your best interest, then find another one if you haven’t signed anything exclusive with her. If you have, then talk to her broker or supervisor. You and your agent should be a team, and you need an ally you can trust, especially being out of country.

Just curious- have you asked your agent if they have access to the MLS in that other part of the state? I have access to several more than just my local area, and they might too.

You might look up Cartus. They hire agents specifically as relocation experts.

It’s hard to answer your question about price without knowing anything about the house, but that number sounds pretty close to retail for much of that part of town. Several websites you can go to on your own to help you decide if this is the area/property for you: Zillow for broad-stroke comps and what the sale/rental market looks like (how many rentals there are like yours and what they’re renting for), www.city-data.com for demographic data (like number of occupied rentals), and www.harriscountyfemt.org for flood plain data. You can ask the seller for disclosures (they don’t always provide them up front) and they will tell you if that particular house flooded. I know a trustworthy HML in the area you could talk to- look up Red Door Funding in Stafford. They can let you know all the costs of the loan plus the up-front out of pocket expenses. They might even be willing to help with comps, but finding a realtor is best. Then you can use the rental calculator and crunch the numbers to see whether or not this is a good deal for you. I have to wonder how you’re planning to manage the property if you decide to move forward with it. It’s just my opinion, but I would encourage you to either start with something close enough to you so you can learn the process hands-on, or like the others said.. get boots on the ground that you trust, or go see Houston for yourself and learn the area you’re investing in. I’m pretty old-school and believe that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.. whenever possible. :)

Most definitely focus on just getting through your classes. Once you’re in the trenches, you can find all kinds of trainings to refresh you and teach you the things you’ll use the most. That was my broker’s advice when I took the classes, and it was great advice.