All Forum Posts by: Priscilla Z.

When we have had agents involved in bringing a buyer we pay them out of our wholesale fee, period.  That way buyer is happy and seller still gets their net.

We put the agent in the purchase contract with the end buyer, if it's an assignment she will still get paid at closing as long as you have her in the contract with the end buyer.

@Rob K. stated I think we would be losing on a lot of good prospects that don't want to spend their time filling out the form just to make our life easier.  Have you thought of putting in your ad ALL your requirements?  I do that and it helps, I let them know how many pets I allow and what will not pass on the application.

I just got stood up for an appointment yesterday at a house that is 30 min away from where I live, even after I had confirmed with the person one hour before the scheduled meeting, so I would love to implement your strategy....but again, I think I'd be missing out on some people.

This thread has been brought up to my attention since I am in Florida.  I have spent a good part of my afternoon reading up on this part of the statute and researching it.  This is what I found..... 

The Florida Bar website states:  

"To be a binding contract, there must also be an offer and acceptance that involves the exchange of promises to act and/or provide goods, services or money. The act, promises, goods, services and/or money are called “consideration.” In order to have a binding, enforceable contract, there must be consideration."

http://www.floridabar.org/tfb/TFBConsum.nsf/0a92a6dc28e76ae58525700a005d0d53/6a653200b74c8a2085257405007a3ac3!OpenDocument

Furthermore, the book titled "Florida Real Estate Principle, Practices, and License Laws states on page 177:

"The first requirement of a valid contract is consideration.  Consideration is a promise someone makes to give up something of value.  In a typical home sale, the seller promises to give up his/her home, and the buyer promises to give the seller money (the purchase price)."

It continues, stating:  "In a real estate contract, consideration is NOT the earnest money, but the exchange of the purchase price (or something else of value) for real property."

http://books.google.com/books?id=w5tfQMgmXDgC&lpg=PA176&ots=TTBO0RFBh0&dq=florida%20real%20estate%20substantial%20consideration&pg=PA177#

I'm not a lawyer (even though after doing all this research I realized I like it :), I'm just an investor that wants to understand and make sure what I do is right at all times.  IMO what the statute is saying is that if there is NO consideration, i.e purchase price, and someone is selling a property and they do not have a license, then they are in trouble because they are acting as broker.  Real estate agents do not give consideration, they just get a listing signed and tell the seller they will try market and bring a buyer.  

Investors, on the other hand, sign a contract and give a consideration (purchase price), with the intention of purchasing the house, and since they do give a consideration (purchase price) then they are exempt.  So FL investors....don't forget to put your purchase price on the contract :)

Again, this is all my opinion.....

@NA Beauvais - As far as the verbage, I just took three that I had found recorded in other counties and used the parts I needed.

@Account Closed - Thanks for the reassurance.  At times I do let others get in my head, but then I do my research and realize that I am doing everything right.  I work with very competent people and if I were doing something wrong they would let me know.  Thanks for the motivation to keep going too :)

Our contract was not cancelled, it was still in place.  The affidavit was stating we had a contract.  Our fee was for releasing our interest in the property (affidavit), and in turn this cancelled our contract.  This was all done at the closing table.

This was presented to a lawyer and he agreed that was the correct way for it to be done....

Thanks for the info on the FL law you said was posted today, I'm going to take a look at it for future reference.

No money exchanged, no contract....at least that's how it works here. 

@Michael Baradell - would his broker receive any commission if the poster were to sell his own home?

My experience was that they don't take you seriously, until you close.  You may have to go through a lot of offers, usually low balls, and not a lot of Realtors want to deal with that.

I found my Realtor after I bought one of her listings.....I haven't used anyone else since. But...she is a SUPERSTAR and is willing to do any deal, so maybe start like that, look for the type of Realtor that isn't picky and doesn't care how much you are offering.

I may not be the most experienced investor here, and I am sure that there are other agents that can chime in, but....no you don't.  You are working as in investor in this case, not as an agent. 

You have equitable interest in the property with a contract.  You can resell it in a double closing immediately after you buy it without any problem.

Let me ask you this...if you sold you own personal home would you give your broker part of your profit.

I want to begin by saying that I do not recommend just ANYONE doing this, and my story is based in Florida and what we are able to do here....with that said, here's how our deal went down.

I was contacted by a seller who wanted to get rid of his house and not deal with Realtors, staging, showings, repairs, etc.  I went into contract with him just a little over what I would normally pay. I pitched it to my fellow investors, but numbers did not work for them and we did not want to purchase the house ourselves, our initial plan was an assignment.

As time passed we decided this house needed to be listed on the MLS to get a retail buyer. We spoke with the seller about having him list it to get exposure to retail buyers, and if a buyer showed up then our contract would still prevail, and we would just assign our contract over to the buyer, but we would deal with everything. He agreed and signed listing agreement.

Within a few hours of the house being listed we had our first showing and got an offer in the very next day, which we accepted.  Problem was the buyer was conventional, so now we needed to figure out how to go about this since we had never done this before.  We spoke with the Realtor that represents the buyer and lucky for us, he understands what we do.  After going back and forth with different people about what our best option was (submitting an invoice to be paid at closing, signing an option with seller and recording it, etc) we decided that the best and only sure way this deal could happen was if we recorded an "Affidavit and Notice of Interest in Real Property" (which states we have a contract on the property) and put the buyer and seller in contract directly.  We consulted with various underwriters and all said they would call for a release if this came up in a title search.  So, we had the buyer and seller go into contract.  At this point the seller knew what the sale price on the contract was.

During the title search our Affidavit came up, they asked us for a release, which we gave in exchange for...our wholesale fee.  Buyer was happy to get a deal, seller got what we agreed on, and now we know how to wholesale to a conventional buyer.