All Forum Posts by: Mark Johnson

Congrats @Alex Bekeza.  I'm currently doing my first flip in Creve Couer and am about to pull the trigger on a duplex in the Southampton neighborhood. That one just needs a ton of work and I keep 2nd guessing if I'm making the right decision.  Nice job on your deal!

@Jake Blickenstaff I'm an agent here in St. Louis, MO.  I don't see any reason you cannont utilize additional financing options beyond the standard lenders.  I just purchased a property to flip using a private investor.  You just need to make sure you properly fill out the financing section of the sales contract. My main focus has always been making sure they know I am an agent and that I will be buying this property for investment purposes to make a profit. 

Also, I would check with your broker about how they handle personal deals. I list my flips on the MLS but only charge a BA commission. My broker is fine with this as long as I still have other business coming in. And if you're buying a property off market, I would assume that it does not need to go through your brokerage. Just confirm that with them.

If it is a residential 1-4 unit property, a real estate agent would be able to provide you with a market analysis for free.  I provide this service all of the time for estate lawyers who need to present a value to the court but the heirs do not want to pay for an appraisal.  

@Axel Lafortune I am a real estate agent in St. Louis, MO and probate is my main source of business outside of referrals.  It varies by location here in the US and I have no idea about Canada but I am able to pull all the information (name & mailing address of the executor and the address of any properties that are apart of the estate) for free from the court's website.  I use a paid service to locate the phone numbers of the executors.  

I usually call them a couple weeks after the estate first appears in probate court.  The calls are not nearly as scary as you might think.  The top 2 responses I get are 1) "we are not sure what we are going to do so call me at a later date" and 2) "we got it all taken care of".  Vary rarely do I get yelled at for reaching out to them.  It has happened and it sucks but it has only been 4~5 times over the last 2 years.  

I completely agree with what  @Account Closed said.  Do not offer any sympathies or condolences.  Keep it professional.  The better I got at doing that, the more business I picked up.  I will say that I am one of the few realtors prospecting them (and usually the only one calling them) so I tend to stick out more than the investors who are giving low ball offers.  

Lastly, AllTheLeads.com offers a good course on prospecting probate leads.  I highly recommend it.  

Feel free to reach out if you ever want to talk more about it.  

@Dante Foreman I am sure the reliability varies by location but here in Saint Louis, the averages or pricing suggestions are only accurate in subdivisions or other neighborhoods where all the homes are similar style and size.  However, the older the homes the bigger the variance in the accuracy of the pricing suggestion. 

If I was relying on just Zillow or Realtor.com then I would find 4~5 comps that have sold/gone under contract within the last 90 days and base my pricing off of that.  Just make sure the comp is no longer than a year old.   

Make sure you are taking an honest look at the comps and not just cherry picking the ones that support your price.  What were the comps used in the appraisal and how do they differ from the ones you or your agent were looking at?  Appraisers definitely do not like to be told they are wrong and that is a pretty significant gap so I would suggest getting another appraisal over fighting this one.  Just make sure you are being honest with yourself about what the comps are really saying about the market.  

I agree with @Chris Soignier & Ralp, knowing the absorption rate for you market is a must.  Look at it for the last 12/6/3 months and see if there is a trend.  I always read it as 1-4 months is a Seller's Market, 5-7 months is a Balanced Market, and 8-12 months is a Buyer's Market.  

Days On Market and List Price/Sales Price Ratio are the other 2 numbers I focus on as well.

@Kai Kopsch I am with KW in St. Louis and did not choose the location closest to me.  Go visit the different locations and see which atmosphere you like best.  Try a talk with some agents from each office and get a sense of what it's like.   

I just sent you a PM.  I would love to talk more to see if I can help.  

@Carrie Shillin

Questions for the agent:

1) Do you work with investors?

2) How many MF properties did you help buy/sell in 2019? You should be able to verify this on 3rd party sites like Zillow & Trulia. 

3) What type of advice do you have for 1st time investors?  or What are some mistakes that 1st time investors make that I should avoid?  This is mainly to see if they know what they're talking about.  Do they immediately have some ideas to discuss with you or do they kind of fumble and not have much input?

Make sure to let them do most of the talking.  This will allow you the opportunity to really get to know them and see if this is someone you want to work with.