All Forum Posts by: Joseph Chen

Get a skip tracing services to track down the current owner of any property or vacant home located in the United States. The good thing about this services is that it can track homeowners even if they moved out of state and the house is vacant or has an unlisted telephone number.

An experienced and reliable Realtor can provide you good property deals. The easiest place where Realtors often get a great deal on a house is the Multiple Listing Service or MLS. Sometimes, great deals could also be found in foreclosure auctions.

The best investment property for beginners is a residential, single-family dwelling or a condominium. Condos are low maintenance because the condo association is there to help with many of the external repairs, leaving you to worry about the interior. Because condos are not truly independent living units. 

Single-family homes also tend to attract longer-term renters in the form of families and couples. The reason families, or two adults in a relationship, are generally better tenants than one person is because they are more likely to be financially stable and pay the rent regularly. This owes to the simple fact that two can live almost as cheaply as one (as far as food, rent and utilities go) while still enjoying dual income.

There are a lot of ways to find motivated sellers and it depends on what strategy works for your target. Try to attend your local REIA meeting in order to network with and see what other active investors are admitting or even bragging about doing (get into confidential conversations). Advertise what you are looking for on the web or in the newspaper. Team up with a motivated real estate agent who is not just agreeable but actually does make and is fairly happy making lower offers for you.

For sellers you can start by:

• Figuring out your finances.
• Decide if you should also look for somewhere to buy or if you will rent for a bit
• Decide who will sell the property
• Decide what price to sell it for
• Ready your home
• Hire a solicitor or conveyancer
• Fill out the relevant questionnaires
• Negotiate the draft contract
• Complete the sale
• Pay off the mortgage
• Settle up with the solicitor/conveyancer and estate agent

For Buyers, you can do the following: 

• Hire an Agent
• Get PreQualified / Preapproved
• Look at Homes for Sale
• Write a Purchase Offer
• Negotiate and Write Counter Offers
• Make an Earnest Money Deposit
• Open Escrow / Order Title
• Order Appraisal
• Comply With Lender Requirements
• Approve Seller Disclosures
• Order Homeowner's Insurance Policy
• Conduct Home Inspection
• Issue Request for Repair
• Sign Loan / Escrow Documents
• Deposit Funds

Try to connect with investors who may be interested in purchasing real estate properties from you. Find serious investors and build relationships with real estate brokers who can become a great asset to you because they buy and sell a great deal of properties, and they have title records that are not that easy to gain access to.

@James Ezzell For buyers, you can use these following key words as guide:

• house for sale
• buy home
• buying a home – home buying
• real estate listings
• real estate listing
• find real estate
• cheap houses for sale
• buy your home
• house 4 sale
• real estate agent listings
• big houses for sale
• find real estate for sale

• for sale by owner
• fsbo
• property for sale by owner
• properties for sale by owner
• sell your own home
• sell your own house
• selling your own home
• selling a home on your own
• for sale by owner listing
• for sale by owner listings
• listing property for sale by owner
• selling your house by owner
• selling your home without an agent

The violation would affect the value of the property. You should look a distressed property in two ways: What is going to cost you to make repairs and whether there are major building code violations. Code violations is not something you can escape. 

Make a separate list of these violations so that you can ascertain their cost as well as make sure they are dealt with if you decide to follow through and buy the property. 

The best way to deal with code violations is to have a local building inspector give the property an thorough analysis before you buy so that the requirements are figured into your repair cost.

Follow the lease contract. You can only evict them for a cause. If they violate some of the policies there, then, you can file a notice of lease violation. If none, then, you follow whatever is written in the contract with regards to their stay.

Notice of lease violation can be filed if the following violation occur:

• Your tenants are delinquent with the rent
• There are unauthorized occupants in your rental
• You want to enforce your No Smoking clause
• Or your No Pet clause
• Your tenant is causing a disturbance to neighbors
• You have a tenant in violation for not maintaining the property as agreed. Tending to the matter early can eliminate a big expensive clean-up job
• The tenant is storing an unregistered vehicle on your lawn
• The tenant is damaging your property

They communicate well. The real estate market is time sensitive, so you need an agent who will let you know quickly where you stand with your current buying or selling situation so you can move on quickly to another property or potential buyer.

They’re proactive. Good agent should be proactively calling potential buyers, communicating with existing customers and constantly chasing new leads.

They listen. As a client or customer, you’re the one who should be doing most of the talking and making sure that your agent understands your special requests and needs. A good agent should be asking all the questions not the other way around.

They’re client motivated. A good agent will always have their clients needs as their top priority.

They can adapt to their clients needs. It’s the responsibility of a good agent to suss out the clients preferred method of communication so they don’t feel either ignored by silence or pressured by too much communication.

They know their clients time frame.

They know their customers selling motivation.

AND

They aren’t afraid to give you their last 20 clients as references.