All Forum Posts by: Brett Tousley

@Dave Carella Your agent should have warned you in advance that there was a good possibility of this happening in a short sale.  Not a rare occurrence at all.

@Mike Cumbie your response to @Dave Carella was spot on from this broker's perspective. :)

I used to list, negotiate and represent buyers of short sales back in the hey day of the market crash.  Sure I helped a bunch of people in tough situations, but when I think back to all the wasted hours and effort involved in a short sale, it makes my blood boil.

I would still list one for a good client, but only if the seller agreed to have a local attorney handle the negotiations and closing.  

I'll never make another call to the loss mitigation dept of a bank and I'll never FAX the short sale packet for the 3rd time because they still don't show it in the system.

Let's just say I don't believe the best and the brightest wind up in the short sale dept of the bank.

Price it correctly.

There are all sorts of things you or your agent can spend money on.  Matterport 3d, virtual tours, drone video, enhanced listings on websites, micro sites, 1800 numbers, open houses, all the way down to an old school ad in the paper, if that still exists.

But nothing sells a home like pricing it correctly for the market.

Where the heck were you when I was 17? :)

I'm sorry, I don't have any advice for you on how to accomplish your goal. 

I just want to let you know that you are clearly doing a great job as a Father!

Thanks for the link to the flooring.  I've looked at it at the store but it was nice to see how it looks in a home from your pics.  Nice work!

Hi Kevin,

You'll be competing directly with the new construction homes in the area, keep that in mind when you budget your rehab.  You'll want as many of the features the new homes have as possible if you are going to compete with them.

You may also be dealing with buyers that have a home they need to sell to allow them to buy yours?  You might want to budget in an additional month carrying the home just in case that happens?

After learning about the BRRRR strategy, I'm a fan of that personally. But whether you are going to flip or BRRRR, I think it would be wise to really do some market research regarding your projected sales price. $350,000-$400,000 is a wide price range.

Once you have that dialed in pretty close, you can better evaluate which strategy makes the most sense for you.

It seems like a good time to run that question past your attorney. 

I'd get him out as quickly and legally as possible.  

If I were planning on investing in Seattle this wouldn't deter me.

What would deter me is their homeless problem, socialist city council woman harping about rent control, prices, the traffic and finally the frequent protests.

I know prices are surging and housing is tight but the political climate there would concern me enough that I wouldn't consider investing inside the city limits.

I'm curious, why do you think you'll have a better chance of the sellers accepting your offer if you work with the listing agent?

Best for you to speak with your broker about how contingencies work and whether he/she agrees with your business plan.

Personally, I don't want my agents running around writing a bunch of offers they can't close on.  I'd much rather have you writing offers for pre qualified buyers that will buy what they get under contract.

Your market may be different, but in both the markets I've worked in, the reo/distressed listings are generally held by a small group of agents.  

If you fail to close on a few, it won't take long to burn your bridges. 

Make sure you are really negotiating "deals" your investors will buy and you shouldn't have that problem.

I see no value in addressing the issue one way or the other.