All Forum Posts by: Karen Margrave

@dean a broker looks at two things, the amount of money being generated by the agent for them from their deals, and does it make it worth the liability? More than likely the investor/agent is going to be working only on their deals. That includes commissions coming in from purchasing, selling, and renting their properties, which could be a nice little income stream for a broker, without the headaches of training new inexperienced agents. They may also look at it as a way to pay overhead, and charge the investor/agent a set amount per month for desk space, etc.

The City can take the property through Eminent Domain. The value is what a willing seller and willing buyer negotiate. I'm not seeing where someone would buy a piece of property that they know could be taken through Eminent Domain proceedings for far less than what they purchased it for. If they do, and the City takes it paying far less than the purchase price, YOU might end up on the hook with the buyer for the difference. I'd use an abundance of caution on this one.

There are pros and cons to having a license. You have more liability if you are licensed. It actually can prevent you from getting the deals you might otherwise get. For instance, let's say you find a property and a willing seller. You know you can negotiatie a price with enough room in it to flip it to someone else and make a hefty profit. If you are licensed, you are expected to tell the seller that information.

On the other hand, if you are licensed, you get the benefit of acting as the selling agent, and collecting the commissions. Commission amount depends on your split with your broker if you have to have your license under someone else.

The question is, what is your motivation for getting a license? To represent yourself on deals? To list properties? Act as buyers agent or ?

Closed escrow on a lot where we have pre-sold a house, plus made offers on 2 different REO's. REO's in our area are very hard to come by, with some getting full price offers for ARV, sight unseen! Crazy!

I'm glad all of you like it!

Look at this from the banks standpoint. If homeowners in default were granted short sales from banks, and they had someone that would come in and buy for the discounted price, and that buyer then sells the original owner back the property at the discount price plus a small profit, the banks are out a huge amount of money.

At the same time, the fact that most banks won't modify loans encourages such ideas, and doesn't exactly cause people to be sympathetic to the banks or their stockholders. However; it's still fraud, and illegal.

Steven Marks, sorry, but not so creative. It's called "fraud", it's against the law, eventually it would catch up with you. No amount of money is worth the risk!

Yvette Bauman You're very welcome. Will is right, in that it's different for everyone, and should be based on their experience and knowledge. However; in your question it is obvious that you are not an experienced investor, and are in the beginning stages of getting into the game. Therefore; my advice is that you're best served by having a licensed agent that works for your benefit represent you. REOs are very different than a standard sale, and sometimes there can be issues with title, etc. not picked up by someone less experienced. Good luck!

Unfortunately, California has "squatters rights" that supercede owners! Turning off utilities is illegal. When you served them, did you put Does 1-99, or just list the people specifically? Did you use a lawyer or do it yourself? You need a lawyer. These situations can escalate into dangerous problems, so use caution. I've heard of people that just decided they'd move in their house, went in and told the tenants they were new roommates. They called the cops who told them it was a "civil matter" and they'd have to take the landlord to court. It worked. The tenants moved out! But, that would be very risky and I definitely would never recommend it, but it goes to the heart of how ridiculous some of these cases get! Good luck!

Mike Nelson, why not just ask the agent you were discussing it with, or ask if you could refer deals to him, etc.? But... should anyone have specifics on how to find those foreign investors, I know we'd all be interested.