All Forum Posts by: John S.

I'm almost done closing on a duplex (Long Island, NY) with Section 8 tenants. Each side of the duplex has 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, washer/dryer, and dishwasher.

Each unit has a family of 5 living in it.

Would it make more sense to replace the hot water heater with a tank or a tankless setup?

Hello everyone,

I just acquired a Section 8 duplex. I'm looking to use a "white" paint (or any off-white), that is:

-most durable

-easiest to clean

-readily available

-easy to do touch-ups with

I had read that a "semi-gloss" would be good since it can be wiped down and cleaned easily, but I wanted to get everybody's opinion. This property will not be fancy, and will be painted the same color throughout (walls, ceilings, trim, etc.).

What "white" paint would you recommend for a Section 8 property that should give me the best results?

Quote from @Robert Meck:

Quote from @John S.:

Quote from @Sean Hudgins:

Interesting story. I want to touch on something that stood out to me in the story first, and then I will give my opinion on the dual agency approach. 

When you got the "Offer accepted," what should have happened was that the offer should have been signed by both parties and ratified. Now, I am in Virginia, and I will not pretend I know exactly how RE transactions are done in NY. But here in VA, an offer is only accepted once it is ratified, i.e. signed by both parties, holding both parties to the terms of the deal. It sounds like you got a word-of-mouth acceptance, and your agent should have pushed hard to get the signed contract completed so that the sellers would be in breach of contract by accepting another offer, and you would have grounds for a lawsuit if they did. To me, this was a big blunder on your agent's part.

Now, Dual Agency is a tricky business. My perspective on this as a buyer and investor is that if you are savvy enough to look out for yourself, then it can be a good way to get on the inside of the deal. Technically (once again in VA), if I represent both parties to a transaction with dual agency, I really no longer represent either party. The agent is only an intermediary between the buyer and seller at that point. Now, plenty of agents out there will see this as a way to double their commission, and they will push to make the deal happen, which is not ethical or legal.

As an agent, I don't like dual agency, and I would rather get a referral fee by sending the buyer to another agent so that I can do my job of representing the seller, which is what they are paying for. I have seen that usually, in a dual agency situation, one party feels like they lost out somehow and it opens up the way too many opportunities for me as the agent to get sued.

I just asked my agent about this and he said:

"That's not the way it works in NY. There’s no inspection contingencies in NY therefore you would never sign a contract before having an inspection unless you were completely waiving your inspection as mentioned during the process. That's how it works in escrow (non-attorney) states."

Thoughts?

 My experience has been your purchase contract is just that, a contract. You can put whatever stipulations you like, it’s a matter of whether the seller will accept. All else being equal, the seller will prefer no inspection contingency. That said…. Properties represented as being in good working order will understand this is just due diligence and not likely to be an issue, and typically accept such terms.

 I just asked my agent about this and he said:

"That's not the way it works in NY. There’s no inspection contingencies in NY therefore you would never sign a contract before having an inspection unless you were completely waiving your inspection as mentioned during the process. That's how it works in escrow (non-attorney) states."

Thoughts?

Quote from @Sean Hudgins:

Interesting story. I want to touch on something that stood out to me in the story first, and then I will give my opinion on the dual agency approach. 

When you got the "Offer accepted," what should have happened was that the offer should have been signed by both parties and ratified. Now, I am in Virginia, and I will not pretend I know exactly how RE transactions are done in NY. But here in VA, an offer is only accepted once it is ratified, i.e. signed by both parties, holding both parties to the terms of the deal. It sounds like you got a word-of-mouth acceptance, and your agent should have pushed hard to get the signed contract completed so that the sellers would be in breach of contract by accepting another offer, and you would have grounds for a lawsuit if they did. To me, this was a big blunder on your agent's part.

Now, Dual Agency is a tricky business. My perspective on this as a buyer and investor is that if you are savvy enough to look out for yourself, then it can be a good way to get on the inside of the deal. Technically (once again in VA), if I represent both parties to a transaction with dual agency, I really no longer represent either party. The agent is only an intermediary between the buyer and seller at that point. Now, plenty of agents out there will see this as a way to double their commission, and they will push to make the deal happen, which is not ethical or legal.

As an agent, I don't like dual agency, and I would rather get a referral fee by sending the buyer to another agent so that I can do my job of representing the seller, which is what they are paying for. I have seen that usually, in a dual agency situation, one party feels like they lost out somehow and it opens up the way too many opportunities for me as the agent to get sued.

I just asked my agent about this and he said:

"That's not the way it works in NY. There’s no inspection contingencies in NY therefore you would never sign a contract before having an inspection unless you were completely waiving your inspection as mentioned during the process. That's how it works in escrow (non-attorney) states."

Thoughts?

Quote from @Basit Siddiqi:

Quote from @John S.:

Quote from @Russell Brazil:

Im a little unclear here. Did you not actually have a contract to buy the property?

 No, we were waiting to do inspection.

That is strange, you normally get an inspection after getting under contract.
I would never get an inspection if not under contract.

I just asked my agent about this and he said:

"That's not the way it works in NY. There’s no inspection contingencies in NY therefore you would never sign a contract before having an inspection unless you were completely waiving your inspection as mentioned during the process. That's how it works in escrow (non-attorney) states."

Thoughts?

Quote from @Basit Siddiqi:

Quote from @John S.:

Quote from @Russell Brazil:

Im a little unclear here. Did you not actually have a contract to buy the property?

 No, we were waiting to do inspection.

That is strange, you normally get an inspection after getting under contract.
I would never get an inspection if not under contract.

 Hmm, I didn't know that. I'm still new and haven't closed on my 1st deal yet.

Quote from @Russell Brazil:

Im a little unclear here. Did you not actually have a contract to buy the property?

 No, we were waiting to do inspection.

Quote from @Sean Hudgins:

Interesting story. I want to touch on something that stood out to me in the story first, and then I will give my opinion on the dual agency approach. 

When you got the "Offer accepted," what should have happened was that the offer should have been signed by both parties and ratified. Now, I am in Virginia, and I will not pretend I know exactly how RE transactions are done in NY. But here in VA, an offer is only accepted once it is ratified, i.e. signed by both parties, holding both parties to the terms of the deal. It sounds like you got a word-of-mouth acceptance, and your agent should have pushed hard to get the signed contract completed so that the sellers would be in breach of contract by accepting another offer, and you would have grounds for a lawsuit if they did. To me, this was a big blunder on your agent's part.

Now, Dual Agency is a tricky business. My perspective on this as a buyer and investor is that if you are savvy enough to look out for yourself, then it can be a good way to get on the inside of the deal. Technically (once again in VA), if I represent both parties to a transaction with dual agency, I really no longer represent either party. The agent is only an intermediary between the buyer and seller at that point. Now, plenty of agents out there will see this as a way to double their commission, and they will push to make the deal happen, which is not ethical or legal.

As an agent, I don't like dual agency, and I would rather get a referral fee by sending the buyer to another agent so that I can do my job of representing the seller, which is what they are paying for. I have seen that usually, in a dual agency situation, one party feels like they lost out somehow and it opens up the way too many opportunities for me as the agent to get sued.

 Thank you for your response. I found on Google:  "Dual agency in New York is completely legal, however a real estate salesperson or broker is required to fulfill several disclosure requirements before being permitted to transact as a dual agent."

So in NY, it looks like it wouldn't be illegal. I figure, even if the agent feels like their seller may not like it, there's no reason why someone else at their agency can't be my "agent", and then work out a further commission split with the other agent. 

Thoughts?

So quick story.. I recently found a duplex in my area (Long Island, NY) that was exactly what I was looking for for an investment property. It was in exceptional condition and needed very little upgrading, except for just some minor cosmetic stuff.

Price = $749k

The property had only been listed for a day and I was the 2nd person in there to view the property. I went with my agent and we were able to view the property as he had the keys.

As soon as we finished the viewing, I had my agent call the listing agent to find out what we can do to get this house sold and off the market immediately, without any further showings. To my surprise, the listing agent told my agent that the homeowner was just trying to get asking price, so I quickly told him let's do it and we offered him an even $750k CASH (I have this liquid and was not doing any type of financing whatsoever).

About 10 minutes later, the listing agent called my agent back, and said they accepted the offer and gave my agent "his word" that there would be no further showings on the property. I had to rush to get an inspection lined up for the following day, but we were being held up waiting to hear if the current tenants that were occupying 1 of the 2 units would allow us to get in there to get an inspection done on short notice the following day on the Sunday before MLK Day.

At this point, everyone goes dark. Sunday rolls around and still nothing about getting us in for the inspection. At this point, I knew we were going to be screwed as the listing agent was for sure going to be showing his other scheduled showings the following day on MLK Day (even though he said he wasn't going to and gave us his word).

Monday comes around, and of course, the listing agent says they jumped the gun on accepting the offer, and wanted to see what else they could get as an offer. My agent told the listing agent they dropped the ball and at least owed us the opportunity to compete and be transparent with any new offers, as we originally had our offer accepted, and they owed us at least that. He agreed.

2 days later, we were told the house was "hot" and that they had offers coming in. The listing agent said that if we wanted to improve our offer, that now was the time.

I increased my offer to $786k CASH, given the excellent condition of the house. No duplex in this neighborhood has ever sold for over $800k, and that was a few years ago and was in an even better area of the neighborhood (off the main road, and surrounded by much nicer houses).

The next day, we are alerted by the listing agent that they went forward with another offer without even giving us a call or a chance to compete. My agent and I were floored given how aggressive our offer was and that we were really owed the opportunity to compete and beat whatever the best offer was, but we weren't. We both told the listing agent this behavior was extremely unprofessional.

I told this to my father, and he asked why I was using an agent at all. He's bought over a dozen single family properties over the years (for vacation homes mostly) and he said every single time he just called the listing agent directly and got it done.

I know most people generally frown upon this because the buyer agent is supposed to help get a better price, negotiate based on issues w/the house, etc. However, I'm skeptical how much the buyer agent really tries to get you a lower price, since their commission is also based on a higher sale price. Also, any issues will come out during a thorough inspection anyway.

I figure if I work with the listing agent directly, they're more likely to disclose the price I need to hit to win, and even if I come in slightly lower, they can still get a much higher commission by dual agency, as opposed to having to split the commission with the buyer agent.

What are your guys thoughts on this? Has anyone had success purchasing directly through the listing agent?

Quote from @Theresa Harris:

If you do concrete, make sure it is thick and reinforced with rebar.  The nice thing about pavers is you can replace one or two if they get damaged or take them up and relay them.

 Will this keep it from cracking or what's the purpose?