All Forum Posts by: Eric C.

The agent is successful.. he has over $13M of listings active right now and they are all agreeing to the 3.5% listing fee.  Just wanted to hear if anyone had experiences with these types of agents who also tried the lower fee agents.

I have a 1M investment property I'm looking to sell in CA and noticed a model match closed for $30k higher than the previous comps.  I called the listing agent and he gave me a 1.5 hour presentation about how great of an agent he is and how other agents get steam rolled when they deal with him due to his "success confidence".  I asked him why he thought he was able to get $30k higher than the previous comps, but he just provided general information - good staging, photos, clean up the property, and re-painting the interior.  

When I asked about his commission structure he told me he charges the highest in the area - 3.5% on the sell side (2.5% on buy side so total 6%).  The highest I've heard of in my area is 2.5% and most agents go much lower.  I would say average is 2% with a few broker agents going down to 1%.  All full service agents.

I'm wondering if anyone has experience with BOTH a premium selling agent (above average in the area) and a lower fee agent.  Would you pay a premium again?  What do you think was the secret sauce of the premium selling agent?

Some of the cons mentioned regarding DSTs are not 100% correct. Generally, DSTs are illiquid, but you can sell your ownership to other investors. Your DST sponser would have to facilitate the transaction though. If you got in a good project, there should be no issue selling your ownership for a positive return.

Lower performance vs. traditional RE investments is also not 100% accurate. Remember, it's all about the sponser and their track record. Most DST sponsers aim for an IRR in the mid-high teens. I would say the average RE investor is NOT getting this type of return on their own without having to put in a lot of sweat equity.

Tax rate remains the same.  Homestead exemption just exempts part of the assessed value.

$140/hr is a fair rate for a CPA.  However, your situation doesn't sounds like the return should take 4 hours to complete.   Unless that time includes chatting with you about your situation and going over numbers, giving advice, etc.  It's always hard to get good referrals on CPAs since you'll always be in a situation where you don't know what you don't know.  I've had 2 referrals on here from people who praised their referral, but in the end, I found a number of mistakes and had a bad overall experience with them.  Good luck.

@Matthew McNeil the max is $2499 for the 3% rate. Anything higher dramatically drops the rate all the way down to .25% for 100k+. Not really useful when you have $120k to hold.

Pretty long winded response from the PM company.  I would prefer this type of detail and explanation over a few sentences or a few word response though.  Anyway, I'm not clear from your post what the PM did incorrectly when selecting the tenant.  Typically, the PM would provide you a list of min criteria for a tenant.  If you don't agree, then you are free to change some part of it (ie. PM sets min FICO of 650, but you want 675).  Are you saying that the PM company ignored part of the tenant selection criteria when selecting the "bad" tenant?

Also, does your agreement with them have any verbiage that states they can run a "move-in" special?  Personally, I always view my listings after the PM posts them so I can verify the content.  Maybe yours had move-in special in the description which could have been addressed right after the listing went live.

Also remember that an offer is more than just price (faster closing, cash buyer, lease back, closing costs, etc.) in case you see a closed sale with a price lower than what your offer was.

@Gabriela Kroh HD can be cheaper than independent contractors if you are a bit savvy.  I used a 10% off coupon + paid in HD GCs which were purchased for 85% on the dollar on gift card reselling websites.  Also the cost of the carpet install is all inclusive at HD so if you have an abnormal amount of stairs (ie. a tri-level unit) then you will save a ton by not paying per stair.   I saved a total of 20% from the cheapest independent contractor I could find.  Plus after the job, I got the contact of the guy doing the work and used him on the side on another rental.  Good luck.