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That was a part of what I was wondering... whethter any of you birddoggers went ahead and got your RE license. After all, it's very inexpensive compared to potential penalties (not that I know what they are...).

One of the things that brought me into RE in the first place was some of the stuff I read about birddogging. It made me think, wait a minute, doing all this work, and not even having the resources that a RE office has must be pretty hard. Then I started to research the difference between the two, and found very little, and was afraid to do any birddogging.

That piqued my interest in RE, and the license was affordable, so I went for it. I dove into RE, and forgot all about birddogging until now.

Thanks guys!

Well it's complicated, that's for sure! Thanks for your opinions and info!

Good Lord! Ohio RE is practically FREE!! Do the people drive expensive cars since they have to spend so little on housing? I can see a row of 10K houses with hummers and lexxuses out front...

Who knew? Thanks for that guidance! I appreciate it!

Im sorry for the Walnut post above...

Ok a new thought. In my state, you can give notice that the landlord is going to inspect the property. After making an appointment, you walk through. I only do this when I suspect the worst, and want to get to the bottom of it. I have never discovered anything by doing so. But I think it may cause these people to be very careful with whatever their "current problem" is. Especially since they now know that you are a very serious landlord.

Another thought.
If they so strongly oppose improvements, just wait until they move out. Why bother fighting this crap? The patio will still be there, and you have evidence that they preferred for you not to do it.

After all, in rentals, you are looking to spend the least that the tenants can ruin (and they will ruin the most they can).

I hate to spoil your day, but do you realize the value of a walnut tree to specialty wood suppliers?

The tree could have been sold for about $9,000 a slab (retail, not to you...) if slab-cut with a mobile sawmill. If the tree had any crotch or burl it would be VERY valuable. So, a 24" diameter tree could have a value of about $54,000. That would be retail, and no sawyer would ever offer YOU that, but consider you could have gotten $500-4000 depending on who cut (harvested) the tree, and how much they know about the industry. Did you pay to have the ttree removed?

This info is for slab-cut. Other $$ possibilities are available for quartersawn (but more waste).

Now go kick yourself.

PS put your calculator away, I'm not telling how thick a slab is.

This is for Manhattan. I don't know about the suburbs, and the rest of America.

1) A good agent is busy and will not waste their time. They will not drive you around (in Manhattan this means cab or limo) like you are the only card in the rolodex.

They will suggest you hit every open house you can for the next month to educate yourself about the market and neighborhoods so they don't waste their valuable deal-closing time... then come back, and get started.

2) A good agent is confident. They have the buyers and the sellers. They know the market, and when to expect change.

3) A good agent will lay it on the line -- tell it like it is. They have no time for lying, convincing, conniving, or any other games. It's all business. So, they will be saying things that are fact instead of what you want to hear. They might come off as coarse or stern. This is good. Don't expect to be coddled.

4) A good agent has connections... from City Hall to the Kiwanis Club to Donald Trumps favorite restaurant maitré D.

5) A good agent can spot a buyer by their shoes.

6) A good agent won't open their mouth to you without pressing a business card into your palm and reminding you that they are still waiting for your 32 year old son to move his new bride into "proper" accomodations.

7) A good agent will have a well-equipped black car waiting outside for you on discovery days.

8) A good agent will be well dressed and well informed. Their response time will be almost immediate since they are techno-savvy. Market statistics, building comparables/neighborhood comparables, buying/selling trends, recent contract data are available within the hour in most cases.

9) A good agent can provide information and response 16 hours a day. Yeah, we live our work, gladly.

10) A good agent is aware that you have a life and a business or important career to run. To that end, we are efficient.

"What questions would you ask of brokers if you were new and just starting out?"

I would ask what kind of training and continuing education/seminars you offer? What about mentoring? Is there a strong culture of internal competition here? What about agent support? Tell me about your intranet tools. Tell me about the brokerage split policies here at XXX.

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Keller Williams has an awesome business model, and they are heavily into training which both work to make an agent very successful. Combine that with the fact that competition is removed internally, and mentoring takes it's place, and you really have a recipe for success.

Unfortunately, I am in Manhattan, and we don't have the KW culture here. Hell, we don't even have co-broke or MLS.

BTW, another interesting firm is Charles Rutenberg. Google it, and check out the commission model. Empowering to the agent, and fosters more independence.
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My favorite thing is catered breakfasts, with a beautiful view of Central Park out my window while I am giving comps in Gwathmey and Gehry buildings to David Geffen, and waiting for my black car to bring my assistant back from the bank with my deposit slips.

Hmmm
This sounds like Charles Rutenberg business model from FL.

Yeah, they recently came to NYC. Sounds interesting, but
the big names provide support like you can't imagine.

So what is the fee per transaction, and the monthly?

I have found a significant amount of info that leads me to believe that birddogging is not really legal since it brings buyers and sellers together. Doing that is highly regulated, and would be the equivalent of contracting without a license the way I understand it.

Please examine the verbiage below, and tell me what I am missing on this topic. Being a Manhattan real estate agent, I am acutely aware of the law and code of ethics that we have to adhere to, but the REI side of me wants to know what you guys think about whether this could be legal, and/or if it is a function of a loophole I don't know about.

Thanks! Terrence

PS the text below is not my writing.

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License laws
A lot of “real estate investment” techniques I hear about sound suspiciously like brokerage. This is one of them. One guru said he was “just a middleman” when he does flips. That kind of talk would make good evidence against you in an unlicensed-practice-of-brokerage prosecution.

To do a brokerage deal, you must have a brokers license or be a licensed salesman and be affiliated with a licensed broker. Laymen tend to believe that they can finesse that by simply not calling themselves brokers. Not true. The law has a doctrine called “substance over form.” It says that the courts will look at what you do, not what you call it. If what you do looks more like brokerage than investing, they will demand to see your license and hold you to the standards of behavior of brokers—most notably a fiduciary duty to the client. Flipping looks a lot like bringing a buyer and seller together for a commission. That’s brokerage.

Furthermore, it not only looks like unlicensed brokerage. It looks like a “net listing.” A net listing is one where the seller says, “Just get me X dollars. You can keep any amount above that.” Net listings were illegal in New Jersey when I was licensed there. They are ethically questionable everywhere because of the powerful conflict of interest regarding the setting of the asking price. Normally, the broker has a fiduciary duty to recommend no less than market price to the seller. But in a net listing, the broker has a strong temptation to recommend less than market so he can increase his take.

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