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real estate agent

Real Estate

Advantages to Having Your Real Estate License When Pursuing Listed Properties

by Stephani Davis | October 22, 2009

It’s no secret that there are some smokin’ deals to be had on the MLS right now in the form of short sales and REOs.    While having your real estate license is by no means a necessity if you want to score great deals off of the MLS, there are definitely some advantages to being licensed.  Following are a few of those advantages..

Having access to the MLS

I’ve been wholesaling REOs for the last two years, and I can’t imagine doing so without having access to the MLS.  Aside from being able to look up comparable sales, I can also do research to find out where the investor hot-spots are,  as well as  find out which properties have fallen in and out of contract multiple times, and which properties are due for a price reduction (I specifically target such properties).  The MLS contains a wealth of information, and is something that I rely on heavily in my day to day investing activities.

Making a Commission on Purchases

Another upside to having your license when pursuing listed properties is that in many cases you will be allowed to take a commission on the deals that you purchase.  While you may elect to give your side of the commission away to the listing agent in order to sweeten your offer, it’s always nice to have the option of making a commission on top of the profit you are making on your deal.

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Social Media

Why Real Estate Pros Don’t Need Facebook or Any Other Social Media

by Christian Russell | September 29, 2009

You’ve been told that as a real estate professional you have no business ignoring social media. It’s the wave of the future. You’ve been told it’s a great way to earn business and make money. You’ve even been told it’s mandatory. But I’m going to give it to you straight. You don’t need a Facebook profile. You really don’t. In fact, you don’t NEED to use social media at all.

Facebook is a Tool, Only a Tool

Good tools can make your work more effective and efficient. But they do not do the work for you. Facebook, Twitter, etc…these are merely tools. I do internet marketing consultation with many real estate professionals, and one popular concern that people have expressed to me is how to “get social media set up” or how to “get this social media thing knocked out”. I’ve been offered jobs to set up a bunch of social media profiles for brokers, because they don’t have the time to do it themselves.

The response I offer is “I appreciate the job, but if you’re too busy to even set up the profile, there’s probably not a lot of point in you having it!” Social media is not something to “set and forget”. You can’t “knock it out” or “get it taken care of”. A social media profile is only a tool. It’s an awesome tool, but it’s just a tool.

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Real Estate

Selecting a Realtor in a Small Town

by Richard Warren | September 28, 2009

Any real estate investor knows that having a strong real estate team is an essential part of the business. You need your attorney, accountant, title officer, lender and real estate agent. The last two are probably the most important. Today we’ll talk about selecting an agent.

Ely, NevadaIn a city or a large town it’s fairly easy. You probably have hundreds of agents to choose from and you just keep going until you select one that meets your needs.  Choosing someone to work with in a very small town is a horse of a different color. You may need to choose from a very small number and it’s possible that none of them will seem to fit the bill. I was recently faced with having to make that choice myself when it was time to list a property.

Defining the Parameters

Most of my properties are in the small mining town of Ely in northeastern Nevada. It is actually a very good real estate market with a strong demand for rentals. When I first started rehabbing there several years ago I had the opportunity to work with a truly outstanding agent. She knew the market and understood rehabbing and investment. Unfortunately after watching me make a lot more money than she did, she decided to go into rehabbing with her contractor husband and she left the business.

When she left I started working with the first agent’s associate. That worked out well until that agent left the area because of her husband’s job transfer. It was back to the drawing board for me. I defined what I was looking for in an agent and began my search.

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Real Estate Marketing

Strategies for Realtor Success in Today’s Marketplace

by Glenn Plantone | September 10, 2009

This past week, my Re/Max broker gave me an award congratulating me for having the 9th most sales in the region. In order to achieve this, I had to sell over a million dollars in real estate in each of the last two months. And I can tell you… you have to sell a lot of condos at $30,000 to sell over a million dollars in real estate. This got me thinking a little bit about what am I doing right. I asked myself, “What am I doing that has afforded me the ability to sell so much real estate in what some call the worst housing market in our nation’s history? What do I perhaps do differently than the average Realtor, that enables me to do a lot more business?

Thinking Like An Investor

The first thing I do, is that I think like an investor, not like a Realtor. I understand what the investor wants and I find it for him. Savvy investors in today’s market want good, new houses or condos at the lowest price possible, with the highest cash flow, and the greatest appreciation potential. More than ever, investors know what they want and they are able to make a good, fast decision about buying it provided you get them the necessary information in an expeditious manor. In today’s market you have to be ready to pull the trigger immediately if you see a good investment property. The key is to train both your investor clients and your owner occupants to be as aggressive as you need them to be in order to get the deal under contract and closed.

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Real Estate

A Note to You Crappy Real Estate Agents Out There

by Joshua Dorkin | April 10, 2009

Got your attention Realtors? Good!
I’m not accusing all agents of being crappy, but there are some of them who are giving the rest of you a bad name!
In the current real estate environment where vacant homes litter our neighborhoods, a flock of crappy real estate agents reign control over our futures. These are [...]

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Commentary

The BiggerPockets Real Estate Show (sort of): Episode 3

by Joshua Dorkin | January 3, 2009

This episode covers such topics as setting your goals, localized real estate markets, the challenges for real estate agents and brokers in the current market and more.

Any thoughts? Comments?

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Economy

Investing in America, as The American Dream Crumbles.

by Michael Creel | March 5, 2008

As we see the mortgage and real estate industries go through tough times (with thousands of homes falling into foreclosure) we can only hope that any money made from this disaster will at least stay in this country. Many investors are pouring millions into buying these foreclosures, often at fifty cents on the dollar. One [...]

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Commentary

Why You Don’t Need a Realtor

by FSBOJane | February 22, 2008

I recently came across an article that put something so well and so clearly that I really don’t think I could improve upon it. Everyone interested in real estate investing would do well to check it out.
In “Why Do You Still Need an Agent to Sell Your Home?” author Douglas Gantenbein makes an excellent case [...]

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Learn Real Estate

First Time Real Estate Investing – The Contract Phase

by Mike Farmer | February 19, 2008

If you are averse to paper work, formal agreements and legalese, get over it. You can’t avoid it and it’s vitally important. Think of your contract as a big safe to protect your huge amount of valuables. The subject here will be the contract – I’ll circle back in later posts to cover the [...]

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Real Estate Tips

Real Estate Agent = Middle Man

by FSBOJane | November 16, 2007

Your favorite farmer’s market. The blanket you bought at the craft show. The discount you found by going through the company directly. What do these things have in common? No middle men.
Today, middle men are everywhere. Some are good: the grocery store, the post office, the restaurant. But some are purely optional; in fact, [...]

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Real Estate Law

Buyer Beware: You Don’t Have to Use the Mortgage and Title Companies Affiliated with your Real Estate Broker. Make Sure You Shop Around!

by Joshua M. Marks, Esq. | October 8, 2007

Caveat emptor is Latin for “Let the buyer beware”.
A recent class-action lawsuit filed in the state of Minnesota is bringing to light a long-standing issue that affects buyers of residential real estate throughout the country—alleged steering of home buyers to affiliated title, settlement and mortgage companies by large realty brokers. This widely utilized practice [...]

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Commentary

Are There Really Other Offers Coming in on this Property?

by Joshua Dorkin | April 28, 2007

I was recently reading a discussion on our forums, where someone asked “How can you know for sure if someone is really making another offer? What if this happens…is there anything you can do?” There were some good responses on the forums, but I wanted to share a little story about a situation I [...]

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Commentary

Real Estate Agent Steals $3 million and Keeps Her Real Estate License

by Joshua Dorkin | January 23, 2007

Last week we talked about the emergence of the selfless real estate agent. Today, we’re going to look at a piece of dirt who makes the rest of the agents out there look bad.

A real estate broker in Shakopee, Minnesota was charged with with 15 felony counts of identity theft; in addition, she [...]

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Commentary

The Emergence of the Selfless Real Estate Agent

by Joshua Dorkin | January 11, 2007

As many of us know, real estate agents have a reputation similar to that of sleazy used car salesmen. They frequently rank amongst the least trusted of the professions – right down there with politicians. (I was an agent once, and yes, my family and friends couldn’t look me in the eye for [...]

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