All Forum Posts by: Peter Tverdov

We try to tell our staff to treat the owners money like it is your money. Don't waste money if we can help it. It's not a hotel, the houses won't be perfect (unless it's new construction or luxury). 

This mindset continues to blow my mind from people. I had someone the other day who brags to me that he only goes to the listing agent...crying to me why I didn't let him know about an off-market deal that closed where I found it for my buyer.

Why on earth would I try to help you when you clearly see little value in me and think we're all the same? I have 200 clients I work with and many who have done deals with me already. I am going to cut all of them in line to give you a potential opportunity? How does that make any sense?

I get an inquiry every other week from someone like OP who just wants off-market stuff, doesn't want any help listing or on the MLS or when they sell their Home Depot grade flip they want 1% listing fee. Then you guys call the realtors dumb lol...maybe you are the dumb one?

A lot of realtors give good ones a bad name but I can also tell you I get people who ask me for off-market some of the time and this is how the convo normally goes: I explain, "sure but I can also show you homes, set you up with the MLS and - NO NO Pete, we only want off-market. We are already working with 4 realtors with MLS deals"

Oh, yeah. Sure bud, I'll just let you cut in front of a few hundred clients that I have.

It goes both ways. 

 File anyway. Doesn't matter if they answer you or not. Many people tell us they will pay just to buy time. It will turn into 2 more weeks and you will run back to this forum asking for more advice. File buddy and get an attorney to do it, not you. If you miss one t or don't dot one I in NJ, it's thrown out. 

 Evict, like yesterday. You live in Hudson County which is one of the longest eviction court time lines in NJ. You're looking at 4-5 months if you file NOW. So file. That's what we do as a property management company every time. You have bills to pay, it's sad that they have issues but it's not your concern and your bank damn sure doesn't care. 

Every house is different and every owner is different. It's a delicate balance as a PM. What you would normally repair on one house, another house same repairs the owner flips out and cries you're spending their money.

When we get tenants who get carried away with repair requests (like 1-2 a month is ridiculous IMO) we usually get on the phone with them, level with them and then tell them we can find a replacement in that apartment since they feel its so bad. That usually calms them down, although I have had 1-2 leave over the years (good riddance). 

I am more stunned that most brokers have given little guidance on this. I have been hammering this to my agents. You do not open a door to someone without a buyers agency agreement signed. My minimum is 2.5% as a buyers agent. As soon as this came out, on the sell side I went from splitting commission to always giving myself 3% so I am making more money this year and can confirm what other people are saying.

I also have it signed on a per house basis and people have no problem with it. 

To answer the other guys question I have people who come direct to me the listing agent to show a house, no problem...you need to sign the buyers agency agreement. I am representing the SELLER not you the buyer so I couldn't by law show you the house. Nice try, sign the agreement or no dice. No one objects once I explain it to them and I have yet to do a listing where we offer 0% because that's short sighted IMO. 

 Most FSBOs leave money on the table for what they could have sold for. Congrats on likely doing that. 

New Jersey has something similar. You need to do a criminal background search last to not be discriminatory in NJ. Our property management company had to seek guidance on that to make sure we were doing things correctly.

Please remember L/T laws differ by state guys! To keep it simple the blue states usually afford tenants the most protections so IL and NJ are no stranger to things like this, whereas Oklahoma and Wyoming might be. 

How have you gotten most of your clients this year and last? This year has been very interesting for us as it's been almost entirely Google. We started doing free REI seminars this year, postcards are always consistent and SEO a little referral as well but its hit or miss and people forget about you after a week or two unless they follow our socials to stay top of mind.