All Forum Posts by: Christopher Phillips

No. If they have a record of late payments, they can ask for them whenever. Most property managers have an accounting system that shows all the late payments. Sometimes it's not worth send them out one at a time, so they wait until later in the year to send out a statement of tardiness.

Asset managers and banks won't talk to you directly. It's all about the numbers to them. You have to wait until a property is going to be listed. If you build a relationship with an agent that primarily lists REO properties, they can alert you to things before hand. Otherwise, you would only be able to work directly with the bank or asset manager if you used to work there or have built a relationship through networking.

Agents typically only take a commission on buying or selling a property. There are some agents that also have their own investments. If you were to "partner" on the investment side of things, treat that like any other partnership with the benefit that one of you has a license. Outside of that, just work with agents to buy and sell properties.

As far as "deals" go, that is a misconception. Agents don't have a long list of hidden deals that they are holding on to. As a listing agent on a property, the fiduciary duty is to the seller and no one else.  Your duty is to sell the property as soon as possible and "net" the seller the most possible during the transaction. The agent isn't looking to give any buyer a deal in that scenario. Some people "think" they can get a deal by going to the listing agent, but that is a false notion since the agent isn't there to create deals for buyers, they are there to protect the interest of their seller.

One exception to this would be if a listing agent alerts you about an upcoming listing before he/she puts the property on the market. But this only happens if the agent actively looks for new listings. A similar exception would be if you have the agent look for specific types of properties and approach those owners about selling their properties before anyone  gets to them.

On the buy side of things, the agent is there to help buyers find and research properties, submit offers, coordinate the inspections and appraisals, field questions where needed, and ultimately make sure it gets to the close...

The agent will get you the information you need to help analyze the deal. At the end of the day, what you are willing to "offer" as an investment should be driven by the numbers. That should be clearly stated with the agent. Buyers have problems with agents when they are not transparent about what they are trying to accomplish. Don't create an adversarial situation with your own agent, they are there to work for you. Communication and transparency are key.

There are two type of buyer goals: home buyer and investor.

If the goal is to get the house at any cost (withing budget of course) because you want to live there, the agent is going to try and offer what has the best "chance" of being accepted. In a seller's market, you have to be quick to see the property and quick to put in an offer. What that offer should be should be based on research (average days on market, absorption rate, sales price as a % of list price for the area, seller motivation/situation, comps, condition of the house, other variables). However, sometimes home buyers try to treat this like they are buying a car and want to negotiate for sport. In those situations, they often have to lose out on a few deals before they learn the hard lessons.

As an investor, you can't operate that way. As an investor, you have to protect your profits and that means you have to be willing to walk away from a property if the seller is unwilling or unable to go lower than list. As an investor, you really should be sitting down with your agent on a regular basis to discuss deals and strategy and make sure everyone is on the same page.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/03/04/section-8/

Agents deal with constant scams. One lately is from someone claiming they are trying to buy a house for cash from their home country but need help dealing with transfers and such in an attempt to create a wire fraud setup.

What exactly are you asking?

Go to Zillow or some other site and see what the rents are.

Shortsale just means that the owner is behind on payments. If they can find a buyer, then the bank will have to approve the shortsale price. If they can't find a buyer, then the bank will foreclose on the property and take it back.

There are three phases: bank files notice of default, the owner has a certain amount of time to remedy the situation. If they can't catch up or refinance, the bank goes through the courts for foreclosure procedures. After receiving the judgement, they might try to sell it at auction. If no takers, they'll be forced to buy it back and deal with the liens. Once they clear out the occupants and deal with the liens, they'll list it for sale as bank owned property.

Who ever buys it at auction would get it with the liens. It would be their responsibility to negotiate and deal with the liens. In a situation like this, if nobody buys it because the bank wants too much money at auction, the bank would buy it back and then deal with the liens and any potential occupants. Once they do that, they'll put it up for sale as a bank owned property with a listing agent from the area.

You'll have to verify at tax time, but it should be 5 year depreciation for appliances (stove, fridge). From IRS Pub 527. If you're using Turbo Tax there is a section for adding the appliances in the Assets section of the rental property. This stuff changes, so you'll have to check again at tax time.

Quick update, after the 5 years there's no more depreciation. If you're using Turbo Tax, it carries over the information until the depreciation is zero.

relevy is usually for dealing with unpaid water or sewer bills plus interest.