All Forum Posts by: Josephine Wilson

@Mark H. Porter Because I'm the buyer not the seller. I'm not sure having an agent represent me is worth 3% of the sale cost to me. So I'm curious if I need to be an agent to get the buyer's agent commission deducted from the sale price or whether I can refuse representation as a non-agent and still get it deducted. 

Great job! Thank you for sharing. It sounds like you may have been sweating it a bit while the house languished on the market but in the end, it all worked out great. Will you invest in the same type of property/neighborhood again?

@Shiloh Lundahl Fascinating read! I think you are right to list your RE agent partner high up in your list. Having someone to cut through the spin and facilitate connections seems essential. 

Are you doing the Burley lease options? 

1) If a real estate agent buys a listed property for themselves, do they get the buyer's agent commission? Do they have to split the commission with their broker?

2) If a person who is not a real estate agent buys a listed property without a buyer's agent, can they decline to have the listing agent represent them and instead represent themselves? What happens to the buyer's agent commission?

3) If a property has been listed for some time on the MLS, can a person who is not an agent contact the owner directly and offer to buy the property without agents? Would the seller be able to get out of their contract with the listing agent?

Thanks for the info!

Hey, @Travis Biziorek, sorry took a break from BP for a while, no doubt partly to observe the political thriller unfolding in DC. At any rate, yeah, I see what you are saying. But isn't landlording just a hassle for retirees, or they pay for property management that eats into the income? Maybe the numbers still work out better than passive investments.  

Are there any Covid precautions being taken?

@Travis Biziorek Thank you for being super tactful in pointing that out. So it seems like RE is a better deal than that comparison suggests. 

@Travis Biziorek Wow, BP saved the best for last here with this response. Yeah, I get what you are saying. The average yield for Vanguard Total Bond Market over the past 10 years is about 3.8%, so the yield here is better, and that's without factoring in potential appreciation in rents or home value. So if you are looking for somewhat better yield, security, diversification, and maybe an inflation hedge, it makes a lot of sense.

@Ashley Vellon I heard additions are on a four-month backlog. Hopefully that's not the case. It's a combination of more applications, slower process with employees working at home and that they switched to a new computer system right before the pandemic hit. They used to have walk-in/call-in hours but they cancelled them recently. I'm assuming that's because they need the full staff addressing the backlog. 

Plumb Plumbing specializes in repipes and they were able to do the whole thing in day with a five man crew. I got three or four estimates and they were the cheapest. I did however have to call them back to fix a leak and redo parts of the insulation that had been done improperly. They were surly about this but came and did it. Aside from that, it's been fine except that the line to one toilet gets air bubbles. Work was done in 2015.