happyardy

Thanks a Million, Michael & Bev for the birthday wishes & balloons! You guys made my day! I feel so hono(u)red and privilged to be apart of the best and brightest folks and forum out there! Thanks "guys"! Faithfully yours, Jean! P.S. The weather is awsome today! Mild and sunny! Wooo Hooo!!! What more can a girl, I mean, woman ask for???? Belated Happy Birthday, Jean! I hope you had fun. - Rahul

Darin, As a soon-to-be realtor, this is what I have in mind for CAs with private sellers(FRBO/FSBO). I'll need to iron out some issues after talking to my brokerage but you'll get the idea. Here it is: As far as licensed salespersons doing their personal deals are concerned, I am told that DISCLOSURE is the key. After you have made an upfront disclosure to the FSBO/FRBO about the facts: a] you are a registered salesperson b] you are doing this deal for your personal investment and may profit from it, you are good to go. After the disclosure, I am told that you could low-ball, negotiate etc., just like any normal buyer would do. Without going into the vital differences between a client Vs a customer relationship that they touch upon so many times in the real estate course, I would suggest you have the FSBO/FRBO as your customer & not your client. I am assuming that licensed real estate business is the same in the US as we have here in Canada; I may be wrong. So now, if the terms deal is a CA, you could ask the seller(FSBO/FRBO) to mention in the agreement that the option money payment will be given to you & will serve as your commission. Then you could pay a part of that to your brokerage, if required, according to whatever your split arrangement with them is. Everyone is happy; FSBO/FRBO: because their property moved quickly & they got a realtor's services free of cost. Wasnt that their original intention of going private; to save the commission costs? You: because you got paid for your efforts(upfront option money) Your brokerage: because they got their cut(split % from the option money) T/B: He is getting your services(as as client or customer) without paying any commission. You could charge your T/B a small percentage if & when they buy the property. I am not sure if I would do that; it depends. Thats my take on it. Similarly, as a realtor, you could do terms deals(SLOs, CAs etc) with listed properties too. You'll need a co-operative listing agent for that. - RD

Hi MC, Yeah, I had been away for a while..was travelling internationally for a couple of months etc...anyways, it is good to be back here again... - Rahul

Of course you can work with an Agent and, no, they needn't be a broker to work with you. But they will probably need to check with their Broker to proceed. That's pretty much the standard Agent/Broker relationship. How they get paid is open to discussion and negotiation. Every deal is different. I imagine they can charge whatever you are willing to pay them. That's between Agent and Broker. Done correctly, none. Don't be signing any restictive, long term agreements, for example. Find an Agent who mirrors your personality and goals and you have yourself a valuable ally. I am almost done with my real estate licensing requirements here in ON. I have one last exam(Phase 3) in Sept. and then I am done. I'm hoping to be the source for any "investor-realtor" related questions; atleast pertaining to Ontario, Canada. If I wouldnt know the answers, I'll find them out at my brokerage and let you know. - RD

Thx. for the wishes, guys. - Rahul

Great stuff, Adam. - Rahul

Steve, Do you fix the terms over the phone and then send them the short offer letter with the terms discussed? Or you just gather information over the phone and tell them you'll let them know. Then you do your analysis and then email them the short offer with the best numbers and strategy that the house can qualify. Has the 2nd method given you more success with sellers? Probably, when the sellers receive the actual short offer document, it makes you look like a serious guy in their eyes, unlike the other investors who have just discussed things on phone. What has been your experience? thanks, - Rahul

Hi, You got my name right except for 1 letter; it is Rahul As I had mentioned in my previous post here, which got deleted, my NL lawyer (& she seemed to know her stuff; answered all the Qs right) didnt suggest any changes to MC's contracts; except for a couple of NL specific things. Ofcourse, I havent got the contracts checked out in ON since I think they should be fine here. I may need to add/omit the ON specific things, if any. - Rahul

Hehe BTW, I read in today's Toronto Metro newspaper that the average house price here in Toronto went up by 11%. Not a motivated seller in sight - Rahul

What Adam said. I dont think there is any way a mortgage broker is going to send you his client's information for you to call them. He will be in trouble with the privacy laws. Atleast he wont do it till he gets to know you really well and has confidence in your skills and track record of helping people out. And still, he may do it discreetly without admitting in public that he does that. However, what your mortgage broker can do is ask his troubled clients to contact you instead. Then, everyone is in the clear and plus you will get calls from seriously motivated people only. Ofcourse, for a mortgage broker to recommend you to his clients, he needs to be in your network. He needs to have faith in your systems and your intentions. That you can build only over time. Do a mass email to mortgage brokers and send them your doc. as to how you can help their clients and in turn, them. If a few respond, you can take it from there. That is what I did in St. John's and had 3 brokers respond favourably. I wasnt there too long for anything to come out of it, but it worked fine. - Rahul

MC, Many Happy Returns Of The Day ! NJoy ! - Rahul

Your mom-in-law is a realtor?..Thats a gold mine right there, dude...comps, expired listings, network etc.. - Rahul

Jonathan, When did you get into real estate full time? What were the types of deals you did in your early days? How did you get your big break? Anything, that you can & want to share. Success stories always help to fire us up here. thanks - Rahul

Doug, thats preety cool, if it works out. But why would she ask the homeowners if they are tired of the landlord game? I mean, if they say yes and if you take over then she loses her business with them, right? Even if you do a SLO on a property, you arent going to give any property mgmt. business to her for that property. I can understand a working relationship where you refer people to her and vice versa. But I dont know why she would want to get rid of her already existing clientele. Perhaps, I am missing something. - Rahul P.S: And yes, we wanna know how she looks

I have a friend in San Diego, working for Qualcomm. He replied to my email saying that his house wasnt affected but he has been busy playing host to a few friends who had to evacuate their houses. Man, I remember our evacuation during hurricane Rita(Sept. 2005). I was living in Lake Charles, Louisiana and we were out of the house for 19 days ! I wouldnt want to do it again. - Rahul

Members from South Calif., I hope none of you have been directly affected by these fires. - Rahul

Great points, Adam. Thanks for that. - Rahul

Doug, yeah, that was my intention. I could offer the realtors their full commission, all upfront, for properties they have for rent. All that they would need to do is find out from their clients if they are ready to do a rent to own. If yes, then I take it from there. My idea was that once realtor(s) realize that this is literally a "have ur cake & eat it too" situation for them, they would probably get 10 more rental listings for me. Houses here, are around $1400-$1600/month for rent. Even if I collect around $5K as my option fee, I dont mind(atleast initially) paying $1500 upfront to the realtor. I know they are getting money for doing nothing but atleast I am making money in the process too, and probably in good volume. After a few CAs, I can negotiate it down to a flat fee or half their commission or something. I am really thinking I should try this out and see if anyone bites. I mean it is really a no-brainer; if I were a realtor I would do it. Full-commission, all upfront without you taking the efforts; it doesnt get any better than this, right? But then again, realtors can be a strange breed, as we all know. I'll email a few realtors and see the response. Will keep y'all posted of the results. - Rahul

Yeah, in fact now I am thinking, how much is the realtor going to charge her for commission for leasing her property? Probably, a month's rent($1500 to $1600), right? If I can find a find a T/B, I dont mind giving the realtor about 1000/- I can take care of that from the option deposit. That should keep everyone happy. Anyways, I just spoke to her. She seems interested but wants her husband to speak to me before we meet up. She said that he is out at the moment(god knows if that is true or she just developed cold feet) and will call me. Anyways, we'll see. thanks, - Rahul

Guys, A lady called on my ad and is interested in a CA. She has her property listed with a realtor yesterday for "lease only". Now she is OK with lease-to-own(a CA). I told her that I wouldnt be able to give any commission etc to the realtor, if I get someone. She is OK with that and says the realtor would be too. Should I ask her to get a confirmation from the realtor? Would the realtor come after me for any reason? I havent initiated the contact with this lady. It was she who called me on my ad. thanks, - Rahul

Mostly email marketing on FSBO sites and Craigslist. I also market my web site. A few bandit signs but not as much. Your typical nose to the grind stone marketing. Get a bunch of potential deals, send out short offers and snag a deal or two. I have the attitude that today’s marketing is a deal two to three months from now. Many are not willing now but some call back later. I try to keep my name out there so they can find me. I have also been able to connect with a few "Senior Investors" I call them. Senior because they are some pretty smart business guys, older than I, that do other types of businesses and also rehab properties to flip. As things have worked out they want to just sale, but the way the lease options are set up with no typical landlord head aches they keep calling with another property. I just closed a CA with an investor this afternoon and have 2 new construction houses from another investor coming available in a week or two. Just waiting for the paint to dry. This year I have also had some repeat CA's from tenant/buyers that ended up not buying and the seller calls back to do it again. It's kind of like a SLO with out the worry of a vacancy. But I always tell every seller there is no guarantee of a sale. I just place the best qualified tenant/buyer I can find in their properties. I think they appreciate the honesty and are motivated to get the property off their back knowing that their is a strong possibility the tenant/buyer will purhcase their house. Awesome, Steve ! Yeah, I have been somewhat keeping a track of your success through your postings here. Truly inspiring, man ! - Rahul

Hi Steve, Thats preety amazing ! What marketing methods are pulling in most of your leads(that actually materialize)? Are you still calling on FSBO/FRBO ads or you just let your marketing bring leads to you these days? thanks, - Rahul

OK, just chatted with Dang ..yeah, he is the same guy that I have met ! Hey Doug, just to let you know, I did meet up with Joe Tam(J.T) too, in St. John's, NL. We met over lunch just before I left for Toronto. Small world, man - Rahul

MC, How did you land up with these out of state deals? Are you marketing for them on city specific craigslist/kijiji etc? How are you choosing which cities you want to do your long distance deals? thanks - Rahul

Hey Dang ! Are you the same Dang. N. that I am in touch with? I have met up with a fellow investor a couple of weeks ago called Dang and hence the question. - Rahul