All Forum Posts by: Chris Clothier

Vishal Verma and Tracey Williams - I recopied part of the original post from above to help with the mentions in your posts.

"To use the @mentions you simply type "@" followed by their user name. As you type their name, a new box opens below your post listing all of the possible people you are mentioning. Simply select the user and their name is populated and highlighted in your post. When you hit enter, a message is sent to that user."

There was a really good forum thread from the past 5 or 6 days that I had started and I think it illustrates the use of this really, really good.

http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/48/topics/75412

When you look at that thread - and there are a lot more examples on here each day - you will see that there are 46 postings to it. A big reason there are that many responses and that almost every post has an @mention in it. IT alerts others that you want to have a conversation and you can draw other participants into the conversation by mentioning them in the thread.

Get to @mentioning on the site and you will find yourself in some great conversations! Best of luck -

J Scott - excellent posts as always. Thanks for your input. Like usual, you get all the rest of us thinking. Great stuff -

Chris

Joel Owens, I'm sure you're wife would love the comment about her soap mags. Secretly, I read them too...

Seriously though, the magazine has already started to blow up the leads to our website. We had roughly 25 on Sunday and Monday that identified the magazine as the lead gen., which is a really good number. The conversations we've had with those investors have been really positive as well.

Thanks for the shout out on it. We have been working with a lot of news writers with all kinds of news outlets and this was a really good piece to be included in.

Phillip Dwyer - thank you for the mention and for jumping on the thread and taking the time to throw down you're knowledge and input. All the best.

Take care - Chris

For me - I started the topic after reading a local headline about appraisals coming in low and contracts having to be adjusted. If you recall the title of the thread, it is a question. After reading both the responses on this thread and the comments on the actual BP blog, I think most in the real estate profession, including appraisers, believe that appraisers are absolutely bringing in values lower for many, many reasons - and "because they want to come in low" is not one of them.

I think the current problem is in large part created from response to the previous problem and the fix lies somewhere in the middle of where we were and where we are. IMO, I still believe there are problems within the guidelines themselves and within the industry as well as sellers asking for too high a value on their homes. All mixed together, it looks like appraisers themselves simply come in low for the sake of coming in low and I still don't think that is true - it just looks that way from the blogs and the headlines.

Phillip Dwyer I hear what you are saying, but I would love for someone with your knowledge to explain it on here. Why can an appraiser not take the buyers intent into account when appraising a home? Does that contract not play into the value at all? If not, how are prices supposed to go up? Can they only go up if buyers are willing to pay for the difference if the appraisal comes in lower and the bank lends on the lower number?

I am asking these as legitimate questions. I understand that appraising is a completely subjective opinion and any number of appraisers may place different values on the same property at the same time. I am simply trying to understand how in the world prices can go up in such a strict environment.

Jack Lee - First things first, do not apply any figure for appreciation in your return calculations. That will not allow you to maximize your cash. If you are able to purchase an investment property that provides cash flow and is located in an appreciating area, you are doing very well, but that doesn't mean you should calculate that appreciation in your return. It can distract you from what is most important and that is getting your money working for you. I have made that mistake and lost money.

With your expectation of selling in 5-7 years, investing out of your area may not be a good idea. You are taking some risks by putting a limit on the time you want to be invested. It may make sense to look at other avenues including short-term lending or partnering. I would reach out to Kevin Kaczmarek who may be close to you. He is in that area I believe and I think he would be a great resource to talk about note investing and possible short-term opportunities closer to home.

I have made many mistakes as an investor - i've lost money and I've made money and going forward I don't plan on repeating past mistakes. So if I can be of help, feel free to reach out.

Best of luck - Chris

We deal with this stumbling block for buyers on a weekly basis Samantha M. and I think some of the advice towards dealing with it is pretty good. I tell investors that Zillow recently laid off staff and today employs about 300 people - and not one of them is walking the streets of Memphis or Dallas to help determine the value of properties. Unfortunately, Zillow cannot tell you the difference between two identical houses side by side and will place the same value on each regardless of the fact that one of them can be a burn out and the other can be completely renovated and practically brand new. It takes the experience and knowledge of someone on the ground to help determine value.

I don't know if that helped any or not and it may not be as entertaining as the other side argument, but that is how we handle it. For what it is worth, if a buyer cannot get past a zesstimate on a property, they may not be worth the hassle of dealing with.

You are correct! If you don't have to worry about lenders and qualifications, inspections and appraisals, then you position yourself for a lot less stress. Cash buyers and even selling below what you know is market value makes life much easier. About 30% of our sales each month are to cash buyers and everything goes so much smoother.

Hey Daniel Doran - I may have read that blog when I was researching. The title certainly rings a bell. I think after writing the blog article, I came away with a different perspective of the pressure that many appraisers are under and the ridiculous excuses that property sellers can make when they want to blame the appraiser. However, the appraisal industry's answer to the problem has been so bad that many long time appraisers decide to get out of financing based appraisals. Many appraisers with years of experience are tired of dealing with the hassles from sellers, banks, AMC's, agents and buyers. They have simply had enough. That is not good for any of us.

And you correctly noted that banks play a role in the pricing. It is going to be crazy over the next few years and doesn't appear as if it is going to get any easier for the appraisal problem.

I didn't think I had made an argument either way Phillip Dwyer. As I noted in the article, the whole point of writing he blog came from news headlines and blog headlines written by real estate professionals. I could not tell you one way or the other if appraisers are holding prices down, but the headlines point out that a lot of people think they are.

I liken the argument to the 13 years I spent as a youth travel club soccer coach. The parents used to yell at the referees always complaining about every call they made and every call they didn't make. I used to tell them that if the ref is in the right position, you can't complain - they were doing their job and making a judgement call. That may be too simple, but I think the same is true here. If the appraiser does his job properly and can back up the work, then you can;t complain. When they do not, and that absolutely happens, there is room for sellers to be legitimately upset and want a different result.

As for the argument that the market sets the value, I think that is too lazy of an answer from an appraiser. If that were the case, then prices will never go up - they can't. Past sales will always dictate the next value and since the period we just came thru has depressed pricing, with that simple answer, prices will never increase.

Cash transactions will not help since many appraisers will not take cash transactions into account if possible closing adjustments are not taken into account. Private transactions not listed on the MLS won;t help since many appraisers will not take non MLS transactions into account.

I noted in my article that sellers are lazy when they blame appraisers as THE culprit when their contract price is not the appraised value. That simply is not the case and I found that out when I researched the article. We all know that there are issues within the appraisal industry and many think that something is going to have to loosen up for the industry itself to figure out how to keep up with buyer demand.

That is not just my feeling, that is shared by many professionals across all spectrum's of the real estate business and that sentiment is clearly supported by the articles and information anyone can find on the internet.