All Forum Posts by: Martin Scherer

You must disclose you are an agent.  Comfort has nothing to do with it.  Failure to do so will cost either a license. a lot of money or both.

I do not understand why disclosure should be a problem.  You make an offer they can accept or not.  When you disclose your agent status in writing as part of the contract that takes away any claim of "he took advantage of me by hiding his agency".  You are putting them on notice that "hey I am a real estate agent and a principle to this contract and I want to buy your home at the lowest price possible". They don't have much wiggle room to say you didn't tell them you are an agent when it is a part of the contract.

I can understand a reluctance by if the agent is just trying to get a listing. He may feel  the owner won't take the offer seriously.  That I get but if you are making a serious offer it shouldn't be a problem.

Yes, many people are leaving CA for the cheaper greener pastures in other states.  I have left twice and both times returned.  The lifestyle here in NorCal is just too valuable and I am willing to pay for it.  I am surrounded by mountains, vineyards and microbreweries.  The weather is outstanding most of the year.

Sonoma County where I live (it is listed on your chart #14) there is less than 2 months inventory of homes for sale and rentals are insanely difficult to find but people keep moving here. I wrote offers for clients recently one having 7 offers and one having 11 offers.  Most of those were all cash so while some folks are moving out there are many others moving into the county.  More than 30% of offers, no matter the price, are all cash. Does that sound like there is a shortage of people to buy or that there are homes sitting waiting for a buyer?

I have sold off all but one of my out of state rentals and moved the money back to CA real estate.  All of my out of state rentals were positive cashflow from day one which is great but after 13 years of owning most of them they had increased a whopping 2% in value and rents had increased less than 20%.

So while I am not sad I purchased all those out of state rentals I would have done much better here in CA had I spent my money buying rentals even with negative cashflow.

Hi , What is your goal?  What do you want real estate to do for you?  Do you just want to buy a home to live in or do you want 75 profitable rentals?  Are you looking for a flip or are you a buy and hold investor?  Knowing the answer to these questions will go along way to answering your question.  If you don't know the answer start asking yourself what it is you want not whether you believe you can do it or not.  How you ask your questions is really important to getting the best answers here on the forum.

You must look at houses, many of them, to learn the market.  Agents will show you homes it doesn't cost you a dime but be prepared to get a lot of resistance from most agents if they feel you are wasting their time.  They only make their money when they close a transaction.  The seller pays a commission not you.  

I won't comment on the book you reference above because you can make purchases with no money out of pocket but it is much rarer than most books let on. Your market is different than any other and you must learn it by actually getting out driving neighborhoods and walking through homes for sale.  This is not a sit on the sofa and read proposition you actually have to do something.  Analyzing does you zero good if you never leave the house and get out there.  You could be the best analyst around but if you haven't looked at dozens if not a hundred homes you will not know the value of a property.  Neighborhoods are all different as are towns and cities so it requires lots of work.

Think about what you want to accomplish and then jump in it can be very fun and profitable but you can loose your shirt if you don't know your market.

Is the entire structure post and pier?  If it is and at least part of it sounds as if it is, than you will likely not be able to fund it unless it in an all cash deal.  Lenders do not like them and on resale your buyer will run into the same problem. 

I personally don't care how long someone has been an agent.  Usually one of my first questions to a prospective agent is "Do you own rental property?". If they don't I usually move on.  Most agents want to sell property and investors are a picky bunch that are looking for something outside the norm of their typical buyers.  Most agents are used to dealing with "people" not "numbers" and do not understand what motivates you the investor.

They are used to people who don't like the pink tile or the color of the living room wall.  Not  how you can maximize the return on your investment.  What the typical buyer finds offensive and not good the investor may find as an opportunity.

Some agents can be trained.  If they are squeamish about making a low offer or don't want to ask questions of the seller for you they are not going to be a good fit.  

Perhaps the seller simply wants to know how much this is going to cost him/her.  Some inspectors put their guesstimate on the inspection form others don't.  It can depend how you stated your request as well to the seller.  Did you make specific statements i.e mold to be removed by a "mold remediation company" or simply 'mold to be removed".  Not saying you had mold just using this as an example.

Sometimes your request as stated may require an expert and it may take a little longer to know the actual cost to the seller.  If you want the property be patient and realize sometimes being patient can pay off big time.

I had a buyer recently for a property I wanted to sell and he decided some white paint in the attic was mold and insisted it be removed by a "Mold Remediation Company".  Had he simply said white stain to be removed I would have removed the paint.  The MRC wanted $3500 to remove the "non mold" so I told the buyer to take a hike and he lost out on a good deal.

@MikeGrayord,

Remind me not to show anything you have worked on.  Encouraging a seller not disclose a potential issue in a buyer's mind, even if "it's nothing", is dangerous and not ethical.

What is minor to you might not be to a potential purchaser.  Disclose, disclose disclose and keep yourself out of court.  If it even enters your mind as a question when selling, disclose it.  If it's minor it won't be a problem if it's not you may save yourself a lot of money and keep your reputation intact

@Carlos Enriquez

You have unreasonable expectations both to imagine that a seller knows everything about his home and that an inspector will catch every thing.  If this small issue sets you off perhaps being a landlord isn't a good fit for you.

You were very fortunate that the inspector folded so easily.  He didn't owe you any money.  They are generally responsible for items that can be seen and this was covered up so not his issue.  Could he have "suspected" further damage, perhaps, but you shouldn't rely on their seeing or guessing about possible damage.

Were you there for the inspection?  Did you do a final walk through before closing?  How did you miss it?  I have been on many many inspections and I have never seen an inspector walk "all" the perimeter walls.

As to the fact that the subfloor is 2x6x20 that is no big deal you can piece the floor just as easily as plywood.

Don't whine take a deep breath and have a glass of some Sonoma County Cabernet instead.

Bad idea, one of my best friends retired a few years ago and sold 6 properties he owned surrounding a gas station in Flint Michigan.  Thinking he had a nice nest egg to be paid out over the next 20 years.  

After the EPA went after his buyer the  buyer defaulted and my friend is still being harassed about cleaning up the sites.  He didn't own the gas station just the surrounding property but the owner of the gas station died so the government went after the only person with deep pockets.  

The test you need is called a stage one and you need an environmental engineer to do the test.  It is not cheap.

I do understand your feelings as well believe me.  I had an agent screw me over early in the summer and I was ready to tear her heart out.  But, as suggested I moved on and bought a much better home in the same location after missing out in a series of multi offer offers. 

I am so glad she tight roped walked her ethics. I am happy you got your HUD good luck with it.