All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

@Jimmy Watson I think it's just the Dallas MLS. I have used the Austin MLS and it was much updated than ours here. I am looking forward to the upgrade. I hope it does work better on my Mac.

@Nicole A. and @Robert Musallam Thankfully, the current landlord has already given the proper notice that the lease will not be renewed. I spoke with Section 8 today and got most of my questions answered.

I appreciate all of the input.

@Colleen F. can you bill back the heat to the tenants? Maybe they would be more "aware" of their heating and cooling usage if they were paying it?

@Mark Hu I have seen loans fall through before all of the conditions were cleared.

@SunHee Chung foreclosure notifications are filed with the county clerk's office. Ours are in a file that can be searched online. This would be the way to find short-sale candidates, although you would need to work with the seller and the bank to see if the bank would approve a short sale and postpone the foreclosure. I do not have a lot of experience with short sales, but that's where I would start. Maybe someone else has a better idea....

You can also develop relationships with banks and asset managers to get listings of already foreclosed properties.

@SunHee Chung

Start with your "sphere of influence", those people you interact with on a regular basis, i.e. friends, family, social groups, clubs and organizations you belong to, playgroups, etc. These are people who already know you and trust you. Real estate is a relationship business. Most people will not hire a stranger as their agent. Let everyone you already have a relationship with know you are in business.. send them a letter, call them on the phone. Ask them to give your information to anyone they hear who is buying or selling. It's very difficult to get business from strangers, unless you are doing open houses or phone time in a large real estate office or spending lots of $ on regular mailers (and not just one time -- over and over again). Don't pay for leads on trulia or any other site. It's a waste of money. You want referrals from people you know... and once you are established, referrals from past clients are the best!

Good luck!

@Omar Gutierrez yes I've used fusion too.

@Gautam Venkatesan I take several things into consideration when I "push up" a listing price. First, the house has to be in great shape and updated. If it's a smaller house, I will push it a little higher $/sq ft than a larger house, simply because a larger home is probably already pushing the top end of the neighborhood. I usually don't go more than $5 - $7/sq ft over the average or over the highest $/sq ft for the immediate neighborhood, unless the house has enough updates or special features to warrant a higher $/sq. ft. But, regardless of what sellers think, most upgrades don't warrant the same value when they sell that they paid (a hard lesson learned for most). I also try to do my comps for the same size house, i.e. I don't compare a 2000 sq ft home 3 bedroom to a 3500 sq ft 4 bedroom home unless there just aren't any other comps to work with. But, if you push the price up too high, the appraiser will put it back in line no matter whether a buyer wants to pay the higher price or not.

@Dylan M. you are probably correct in that we may be pricing too low, especially as our market is heating up. The market here has been stagnant for the last few years, with more of a buyer's market. Last spring was the first time we have had a true seller's market in a long time, with very low inventory of available homes, especially in the entry level market. In the past, we have had trouble getting appraisals to come in over the comps. That's easing up a little now because we are seeing more and more homes sell for higher than list price. We sold one last week before it even hit MLS for what we thought was going to be too high. Hopefully the appraiser agrees with the sales price.

@Wendell De Guzman it absolutely worked! I'm happy for the seller...and the buyer who gets that awesome car.