All Forum Posts by: Brandon Schlichter

Do you like Sec 8? In your previous posts, you seem iffy on whether sec 8 is a good thing to be in.

In my area, they're REALLY lax on the inspections due to the fact landlords won't rent to sec 8 most of the time.

In addition to that, the rents recieved from Sec 8 is usually a bit higher than you would normally have.

I'm curious as to if I should put any properties in it or not.

Well , unfortunately it's on the removable storage drive at the office....I'll have it up tommorow.

Yes , it's a lease agreement.

I'm curious to those of you that do participate in sec 8, why you're still in it if it's poor?

I'm just curious, very few landlords in my county will do Sec 8 ,and we always get letters from them asking us to go through the program.

Here's a little secret about commissions....

If the real estate agents/brokers were able to , they'd do less!

There are sooo many costs with doing business, and if you ask a broker how much money they spend on worthless advertising, they'd tell you alot.

In my area for instance , EVERY broker advertises in the local newspapers. The newspaper ads for a full page runs $750 per WEEK. Only about 5% of homes sell because of newspaper ads, so they're almost worthless. Having said that ,EVERY SINGLE PERSON I HAVE EVER DELT WITH LISTING PROPERTIES ASSUMES THAT NEWSPAPERS SELL HOMES regardless of what information I provide them.

I'm telling you, if we could just do away with the majority of print material, the commissions would be a bit less.

I'll have to post MY expenses of being a full-time agent. It's tax time so I should be able to post them shortly.

The costs of being a real estate agent are EASILY 2 good commissions on properties per year.

I highly sugguest you think about the simple question we ask agents in my area that want to be part timers , or agents for that matter "Why would someone buy a house off you?"

Right now in the real estate market for agents, there's about 2-3 times more agents than there needs to be. 80-90% of agents are failures in the business, so you need to plan on being in the 10% of agents that DO MAKE IT. Then furthermore, you need to be in the top 30% of the agents that do make it , becuase they're the only ones that make decent money.

SOMETIMES you can find a lender to do that, FHA still does it relatively often with a 203k type loan, they will deal on the properties a BIT by doing that.

You don't have to go all cash on a REO , you can use a mortgage, as long as the property can be mortgaged.

Banks can deal on their REOs, they just have to be in a position where they want to.

You can do it in any area, usually.

I'm in central Ohio (Columbus area) and it could be done quite easily. I was talking to a builder last night about a few ideas for building a few spec homes and selling them.

The problem isn't what area to pick ,it's knowing the market of any area, and how to do something that complies with that area.

Take my area for instance , there's a TON of 1500-1600sf homes in the $130,000 range.

We're looking to build 1100-1200 SF homes in the $90k-$100k range. They'll sell just because I have the market statistics sitting in front of me every day (I'm a real estate agent).

Knowing a market well is 100 times more important than just picking a area that's "Good"

Would anyone be willing to give me thoughts on my rental agreement?

A landlord in my area gave me a copy of one similar to what they use, it seems GOOD to me, but I haven't had anyone else take a look at it.

Agreement :

http://realestatecircleville.com/rent.doc

Thanks for the replies....

I can't say that i'm EXACTLY looking for a super good place, and you're right about materials vs time spent.

Have you ever delt with their contractor department? Do they offer discounts at all?

As for the 10% thing...I do know about it, as they are partnered with NAR for providing discounts to us.

Lots of opportunities out there right now, and in my area, things aren't bad at all.

National lenders and AMs are starting to get very agressive towards selling REO properties, and that means that there are REO deals out there.

Last property I saw that was a REO and a deal was a 3br 1ba home that only needed about $10k in work to make great. List price was $37,000 and the area would support an ARV of $89,900 to $94,900. In addition to that , I believe the property had a double lot, with the ability to build an aditional home.