All Forum Posts by: Rusty Thompson

As Joel Owens said a "good deal is in the eye of the beholder"

I can pick up a rental property with decent cash flow almost any day of the week. Great deals are a little harder to come across, but they are out there.
Now if you are a wholesaler or a flipper the market is much more sparse. It will take a lot more effort & dedication to find something were the numbers work.

Welcome.. Its always nice to see another Oregonian

Tony-
You might want to read

http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/311/topics/70803-how-to-find-a-good-buyers-agent-and-make-it-worth-their-while

It may help you refine your offer making process

Jake-
I just read through that thread. Honest and brutel is much better than half truths and nice in my book. I understand that I'm not worth a good agents time, so I have to invest my own & figure out how to make the system work for me. I hope some day I will be one of the "big fish" in my pond, but until that time I just work, watch & wait.

Recently I've been considering adding a Mandatory Arbitration Clause to my Lease & rental contracts. We all sign them when we buy real estate with conventional financing. So I figure why not add them to my own contracts.

Here is a example pulled from Wiki.
"Any dispute or difference arising out of or in connection with this contract shall be determined by the appointment of a single arbitrator to be agreed between the parties, or failing agreement within fourteen days, after either party has given to the other a written request to concur in the appointment of an arbitrator, by an arbitrator to be appointed by the President or a Vice President of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators."

They seem to be universally acceptable & something like 97% of contracts currently contain something to this affect.

Has anyone been doing this? Has anyone had to enforce one?

I agree that Cat urine =$$$

:-)

-Greg
A lot of the "Gurus" like to talk about forming your "team. Which invariably includes a real estate agent. I have yet to FIND a agent that knows a single thing about investing. I personally believe the only thing I will get from listening to a agent is trouble.The agents I use is are all friend of mine. I do all the work. They might have to show it to me and write some contracts, but that is it. I already know what I will pay & what the market is in a area & were the comps are.

That being said, I prefer to give the $$$ to the listing agent. It gives them the incentive to move things along quickly. I don't approach a agent unless I have a specific property in mind. It's a waste of my time and there's. I already have a idea of what the max I will spend. It's usually hit or miss, if they will show it, because for sellers there are two kinds of agents, there are sellers agents & sellers brokers.

The sellers agent will probably show you the property & probably double commission on it. Its a win/win. If they show it to me, but refuse to represent me I offer them a referral fee to use my agent. Again, a win/win. If all else fails then I would just use one of my agents.

The sellers broker is a different animal. They will not show it. They probably don't even want to talk to you in my experience. That is fine, just ask for a referral. The will invariably recommend a agent in their brokerage. Again a win/win because all the money stays in house.

The whole system is designed to make it "in their best interests" to close the deal & it works

HBD!!!!!

It looks like Williams & Williams won the bid to liquidate their seized properties. Nothing in my area but maybe someone else can find a deal. I am in no way affiliated with W&W, but I have purchased a property through them before & I was very pleased.

here is the link
http://www.williamsauction.com/real-estate-auction/atf

I'm down. It would be really great to trade ideas.