All Forum Posts by: Eddie Egelston

It's all relative. Is the house currently worth $100k and listed for $80k? Then it will likely sell for around $100k. Is it listed for $100k and worth $80k? Then it will likely sell for $80k.

Generally though HUD sells for less than typical REOs. Every so often I do see a HUD house sell for waaayyyy less than it should have. That is why they are a favorite for investors and even wholesalers.

You also get what you pay for mostly. HUD has some pretty buyer-unfriendly terms compared to other REOs. And HUD properties are notorious for not being properly winterized, so if the property is in a colder climate there are likely water supply line issues.

I would feel more confident about my low-ball offer on HUD versus Fannie Mae or any other seller.

You'll need to re-submit the offer. There may be an option for HUD to "hold" your offer for certain time period, so that they can come back to you if another deal falls through; in my experience they never do.

Get a new offer in asap!

@Michael Svoboda Sure Win CE is the place that I have always renewed my license. I believe they offer an online course for getting a license.

Good feedback, thanks All!

@Charlie MacPherson in IL our contracts are "pending attorney review". So your attorney can kill the deal within 5 days and no escrow lost. Also my last buyer killed it before even handing over EMD. And yeah I'd probably collect at every appointment if I could. Awkward, meh. Other professions get paid for services rendered.

@Jeffery Waicak you are right I think "suddenly" buyers would not be asking me for as much, and that's okay with me. That's kinda the whole goal, is for me to stop wasting so much of my time for absolutely nothing. Good call on the lender, I do not know.

@Gary Lucido wow you are already doing this in my market, very cool! I figured it's not for everyone, but rather just another tool, and way to serve a certain percentage of people.

@Nick C. you are right I am reacting to bad luck. That experience just has my mind racing on other ideas.

@Andrew Johnson I too work with house flipper clients, and yeah working for them with this model would be a different beast. It's less likely to make sense for them. That said I think you are nit-picking it a bit. If I can't get you an appointment for 2 pm, there's no charge. And yeah I often find a property for buyers and if they don't like it, it's on me. Oh well, I won't waste any of my time helping people look then! Either they find it themselves and ask me to show it, or I send it to them and they ask to see it, or it does not get shown. Good and simple I think!

Hi All-

I have a bad idea. Please tell me how bad on a scale of 1-10. 1 Being terrible, 10 being a good idea.

Flat fee buyer representation. $59 an hour, or whatever wage makes sense for you and your market;  every dime of the buyer commission gets refunded to the buyer. If they never buy, oh well you got paid. If they do buy a $400k house after a few weekends of taking them out? Congrats Mr & Mrs Buyer you will be getting a $10k check at closing.

I came up with this recently after 4 buyer clients of mine backed out of 5 agreed contracts... In a row...      -__-

It would have to be in a higher than average price range, like maybe $400k minimum. And you likely would have to be your own broker to avoid your split cutting into the deal. Certainly not for everyone in every market. But is it that terrible? Rate it 1-10!

My 2 cents is that I would want to disclose everything- to the point of risking the deal- because I value my license over any one deal.

I have read some people actually disclose in writing to the seller that the seller "likely" would get more for the property on the open market, but have chosen to sell at the agreed price.

I am personally a bit confused over the duty of confidentiality. As agents we are taught that if we meet a seller to list the house, and they disclose that "I'll take $100k for the house" and then they do not list with us, and then you happen to be the agent working with a buyer that makes an offer on that house, you can't tell your buyer "they'll take $100k don't offer more". You owe the duty of confidentiality to the seller. So where does that end if you become the buyer?

And while we are on the topic, never get caught buying a house you failed to sell as a listing agent. Try to buy the house first, then try to list it, and if it does not sell DO NOT BUY IT. Agents have been successfully sued for $$$milllions$$$ because of that scenario.

I am one of those "investor friendly" agents; I have clients that flip houses. I see a lot of good (and relatable) tips from others here. My thoughts are:

Definitely start out in your own market. There are so many challenges to investing from afar. And as others have mentioned it's not a smart decision for anyone- agent or buyer to get involved in something like that.

Issues I have had with my clients are these:

Sometimes they want to make an offer that will net them $60k on a $200k ARV house. I try to explain to them, there isn't an investor in the world that wouldn't take that deal. Make a more realistic offer. Make the offer that nets you $30k and do it before the other dozen house flippers find the same house and out-bid us. Have a conversation with your agent to discuss what a "good" offer for you is, to see how realistic it is.

Another thing that drives me crazy is when clients don't make an offer, period. If we have invested the time to view a property, and then create a CMA, why not make the offer? Even if it's a low-ball offer, we have already put in the time, why not try? At worst it's one more "no" we can cross off so that we can get to the "yes".

Docusign is my best friend. I have a template that allows me spam our offers. Without it I'd be making the clients write their own offers. HUD and Hubzu offers are the quickest. REO's accept the standard contract so they aren't bad either. Fannie and Freddie... I need to stop sending offers to them. Waaayyyy too much work.

CMA's do take 10-30 min as others have mentioned. A good client would do them on their own. Ask if your agent has access to ListingBook.com. It gives clients MLS-like search abilities that I think is better than Zillow etc.

The one thing that has not been mentioned in this discussion, what price range are you dealing with? To me, as your agent there is a huge difference in buying houses for $100k and reselling for $200k versus buying for $400k and reselling for $700k. Approx $7,500 gross commissions versus $27,500.

Hi Michael & Jodi,

I know there are a ton of options for real estate education. I personally believe an in-person classroom is by far the best way to get licensed. Especially if you are new(er) to the business. Just passing a test online with no teacher interaction would not be very valuable.

My very biased suggestion is to contact my broker Baird & Warner to see if they have a class that fits your schedule. Link HERE

When I got licensed 10 years ago it was through community colleges and I had a good experience. College's schedules might not be as conducive to working adults however, since they are geared towards students.

It sounds like you both plan to be involved in your real estate dealings, and if that is the case I would recommend both of you attend the classes. It just seems a bit strange to me that only one of you would gain the knowledge you both might need... even if only one of you gets the license. That's my 2 cents.

I have done the "2 week free trial" on MyHouseDeals.com before. First off, it needs to be said that the website is nothing but a matchmaker between sellers (wholesalers) and buyers. So it's not really a comment on the website if the "deals" suck.

That said, in my market, the "deals" suck, with the exception of one guy who is so established that he actually has his own website. All the other "deals" are very mediocre or are guys trying to assign their Hubzu.com contract lol. It could be different in your market.

I'm sure there is something decent on there occasionally. I'm sure that those websites represent less than 1% of the off-market stuff being wholesaled. But if it introduces you to someone who is a real force in the market, it is worth it.

I have often used Zillow when searching for comps outside of my MLS.

Yes, when comparing 2 houses that are very similar in location, size & construction. Otherwise I would try to avoid it.

Smaller homes tend to sell for more per sqft than larger homes, which is why the houses should be similar in size. Obviously tract-built builder's grade should never be compared to custom built. Parcel size, garage space and view are 3 things that can throw off a sqft comparison, so those should be similar too.

I personally think people make too big of a deal about layout / floor plan. Yes it's somewhat a factor, but hard to monetize. The stuff you have to watch out for are the [usually] older homes that have funky additions added on, and now they are just obsolete mazes. They have eye-popping sqft but then you realize  they are constructed out of disappointment and false promises.  -__-