All Forum Posts by: David Uriarte

There are a lot of houses in NJ that aren't technically "house hacks".  They are basically single families that have separate entrances or single entrances and are walled off call mother-daughter homes in NJ.  They aren't technically separate residences but I've seen many rent out one section.  This usually gets past local ordinances.  It is risky to rent that area out depending on the town.

I'll answer your questions from a former long time real estate agent in NJ perspective, so answers may vary from a true wholesaler.

1.What was your biggest ‘oh crap’ moment early on? Don't believe everything your buyer says.  They will say they are investors, can close quickly, etc..  Basically the old saying buyers are liars is true in many instances.  On the real estate agent side, I've had buyers that were dying to get a house quickly and then had to show them dozens of houses.  Claimed they were closing with cash and closed with a mortgage.

2.Did you ever sign a contract without checking title first? On the agent side most deals are done without checking title, once under contract title is checked and most issues are paid for by the owner.

3.Get ghosted by a cash buyer?  Yes.  Happens all of the time.  Cash doesn't mean anything, even if they paid a deposit.  Like mentioned previously cash buyers with enough time turn into mortgage buyers sometimes.

7.For the New Jersey folks: Any weird laws or title issues I should watch out for? Basically Central to North Jersey closings are mostly handled by attorneys.  South Jersey is mostly title company closings.  I'm in Central NJ so closings are mostly handled by attorneys and my experience within the state are all attorney closings.

Out of state title company closings on my end.

I'm in NJ and got my RE license about 20 years ago of the few things that I remember from the licensing course, this actually stood out to me.

According to my instructor (who was a broker for like 40 years) he said that you own the land beneath your property to the center of the earth and air to infinity above your property.

I then asked, "What's the value of the air rights?  Can I charge airplanes a toll?," as a joke of course.

The answer to that is no.  Basically they have a right to fly above your property.

He gave a real world example.  He said something like: In Atlantic City they wanted to expand a casino, they bought out the surrounding houses but there was one homeowner that didn't want to move.  They wanted to die in that house.  The casino bought the air rights from the owner, then built part of the casino right above the house.

Just for fun, I googled Atlantic City casino built above house and got this Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Coking_house .  Not sure if this is the same case, whether the instructor made up the story or what.

If you have the buyer, you don't need a real estate agent.  Just contact a real estate attorney, they'll hold your hand through the whole closing.  For your buyer give him the number of a mortgage company to see if he can get pre-approved and get started on the process.

An agent isn't required to present an offer if it isn't in writing.  If the agent is suggesting to put it in writing it might be because he can now nudge the seller into accepting a lower than previous offer since the house has been on the market for a long time with no other potential buyers.  You won't know until you put it in writing and an earnest money deposit.

What happens a lot is someone calls the listing agent and says, "I'll pay $900K for that house."  Then the listing agent calls the owner and tell them about the verbal offer.  He convinces them that it's a good offer and the seller ends up agreeing.  Then the person that made the offer decides they don't want to do it anymore.  Now the listing agent looks like he can't bring in any serious offers to the seller.

Another version of this is the offer comes in verbally, then when it comes time to put it in writing the buyer has expensive or unrealistic contingencies.

It only takes a few minutes to write up a contract.

A verbal offer is worth the paper its printed on.

Because until it's in writing it's not a real offer.

If you have a signed lease the owner has to respect the leasing agreement.  Doesn't matter whether it's the old owner or the new owner.  If they don't want you in the property they can offer you compensation for your troubles, doesn't necessarily mean you have to accept it.

In NJ a lot of real estate attorneys don't get paid if the deal doesn't close (at least on the residential side).  They have motivation for closing.

It's a great book. The book basically tells you to not leave the equity in your home because it's not liquid and to put it in a liquid side fund. The side fund he mainly talks about is a tax preferred Indexed Universal Life plan. So if you have a 401K for example you are not taxed at the beginning (or like the book says on the seed), but taxed when you go to pull the money out usually at a higher rate (on the harvest). With an IUL you earn compounding interest on your money and can also pull a certain amount of money per year tax free, the easiest way is taking out a loan on your policy (which never has to be repaid, because it's your money anyway). The IUL is a long term plan for wealth.

I suggest reading the book. Read Missed Fortune 101 and not Missed Fortune or read them both. They are both basically the same thing, but Missed Fortune 101 is an easier read, much shorter and to the point. They both have pretty much the same information, I think the only thing the original Missed Fortune book has in it (that's not in Missed Fortune 101) is about reverse mortgages (which is for people that are 62+ years old).

There's one of these in Philly this weekend. I'll be there tomorrow and depending on how it is, I'll go on Sunday. All of these big "get-togethers" are good because of the networking opportunities and also the chance to see what products are out there. I don't usually buy anything at these type of events, but it's good to know what's out there and then you do your research when you have spare time to see if it's worth it and of course find a cheaper place to buy it.