All Forum Posts by: William Walker

I will check with the sales rep and see if they will offer anything such as money towards upgrades.  I agree @Jay Hinrichs that they wouldn't just lower the price.  

@Charlie MacPherson I have to assume that you mean only in regards to real estate.  Can you point me in the direction of a law (state or federal) that limits a licensed persons ability to pay a fee to an unlicensed person?  I think that's my overall question though, is it legal to get a "kick back" as @Maurice D. mentioned above.

I'm currently looking to purchase a new construction house. I've gone through the preapproval with a lender and don't have an realtor so the lender recommended one to me. Since then the realtor hasn't done anything other than send me the MLS. I've literally never met the realtor, I called her about a lot and she told to call the listing agent to find out more about the property. I've never signed a contract with the realtor either.

So I found a new construction neighborhood (outside of the MLS) and have met with the person that works in the model home. We have looked at lots and I would be picking the lot, picking the home design, and picking the upgrades. The person that works for the builder has told me specifically that if I don't work with a realtor, it makes no difference to me financially. I won't get any incentive from the builder to not have a realtor. But if I use a realtor then the builder will pay them commission, I'm assuming 3%. I'm look at houses in the 350-375k range so 3% would be over 10k. This all brings leads to the question of, can I just use a realtor that is willing to split the commission with me? Get rid of the current realtor that I have and find someone who basically just says "I'm his realtor" and gets a big chunk of money. Are there any legal issues that I should be aware of? I was thinking that I would have a small contract with the new realtor that lays out who gets what % of the commission, and I'm assuming the builder pays the realtor and then the realtor would pay me.

I'm late to the game, haven't checked my notifications for a while.

Agree with Chris Martin on this one.  Whiteville doesn't have the growth or the structure to support a decent rental market.  I see houses is Whiteville posted on the Wilmington craigslist from time to time, usually overpriced and in a poor rental area.  I would head towards Leland for a better rental market that is supported by people commuting to Wilmington. 

@Kelly Carter

Lots of great advice here.  I 100% agree with @Russell Brazil on the 1% rule for the type of property you're looking at (as well as his comment regarding different returns on different properties).  I just posted the other day about how I really don't agree with a lot of the financial "rules" that people here use for properties but I generally agree with the 1% rule in your price range and neighborhood class.

I have a property that I purchased at $134k and rent for $1325, I put the traditional 20% down, and there is plenty of cashflow.

No offense but I don't think a flip would be right for you at this point just based off your post and profile.  It requires more knowledge, time, work, and connections than you might have right now.

It might be worth following up on the properties your real estate agent says will go for 25% over asking and seeing what they actually sell for.  Is he being realistic or is he trying to get you to put in some offers so he can make commission?

Regarding your math, I think that 8% vacancy is conservative but I don't find it unfathomable.  Based on your numbers you are putting in an average of $246 per month into the property.  Does that sound right to you based on the types of properties you're looking at?  Again I think it's conservative but to each their own.  I wouldn't get rid of the management fee when calculating, in fact I'm surprised it's not 10%.

Keep looking, know your market very well, and when a good deal comes up you'll know it right away and can jump on it.

***heavy panting

I hope I didn't miss out on this deal!  I've got $400,000 cash burning a hole in my pocket and you seem to know a lot about real estate.  Please send me the contract ASAP!

I'd keep her.  She'll probably turn it around pretty soon and be a great tenant for years to come, never causing damage to the property, won't give you excuses, and will always pay on time.  Plus she'll make the neighbors enjoy living there and tenant retention will be great along with possibly improved rental prices.

@Robert DelVecchio

I believe that on Zillow under "Price / Tax History" it will initially list the price the house is for sale, then when an offer is pending Zillow will add a line that states "Pending" under "EVENT" but will continue to use the initial list price under "PRICE".  One the sale is complete it will say "SOLD" under "EVENT" with the final sales price. 

So if the house is for sale for 100k, it's listed as for sale at 100k.  Then I put an offer in at 90k and the seller accepts, Zillow lists it as "pending" but still with the list price of 100k.  Then once it's sold it lists it as "sold" for 90k. 

So with the property you're talking about listing for 145k and selling for 140k, I think it's more likely that the buyer and seller negotiated the price from 145k to 140k rather than it didn't appraise.

I'm not 100% on all that though, so someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

This is a really great thread and it's nice to see some healthy discussion about the different rules.  I'm just south of you in Wilmington and I've found that the "rules" use an extremely conservative approach.  Over the past three years I've had literally zero vacancy.  If your buying in the right areas of Fayetteville you should have close to zero vacancy given the high military population looking for ~3 year housing. 

I'll have to bring up my records but my yearly maintenance expenses are much lower than any of the "rules" imply.  Maybe I'm just in a lucky streak and the bill will come due in 5 years but right now my cash flow is much higher than the rules would predict.  Don't get so tangled in the numbers that you're calculating a $6 a month loss.  You should have a general idea of how the money will flow but if you manage the property correctly you'll do better than some rules should suggest.  And not to trash on anyone else but keeping a low vacancy rate is going to depend more on location and condition of the house vs hiring "my guy".