Saturday, April 4, 2009

Emerson Update: Progress to Date

We are starting to get our pricing on Emerson. We have one more contractor we are getting pricing from and we will be ready to begin.

We will also be starting a series of videos that will have two purposes.
  1. The first is to show exactly what work will be done to the property. This video is intended for the prospective buyer. We have found that a video showing the rehab progress creates excitement about the property but also shows the buyer exactly what work we have done. A lot of times a buyer comes into our property and they see the new paint & carpet, etc and it does not show the full story of what we went through to rehab the property. The video does that for us.
  2. The second is a learning aid for those investors that have not done a rehab or those that want to compare notes on how we do it. There are many ways to do rehabs and we are constantly learning and refining our process. We will show the process we go through rehab a property. All the steps and missteps we take to get a property ready for sale or lease.
Today we will be going out to Emerson and begin filming our progress on the project. This first video will be a site survey and overview of the property. Please let us know if you have and questions or comment as we go through this process. We want to provide relevant information to you.

We Are Moving to New Digs

We started this blog in 2008 and we have learned a lot. One of them is that there are a variety of tools to help reach more people. So we are updating our blog and moving to a dedicated domain. So you will find us at this link Two Average Joes .






Please go visit our new website and register so you can stay informed about what we are doing and learning in real estate.

"Most successful men have not achieved their distinction by having some new talent or opportunity presented to them. They have developed the opportunity that was at hand."
–– Bruce Barton

See Ya,
Mike

Friday, April 3, 2009

Why You Need a Realtor

If you have been an investor for any length of time and have gone to any real estate seminar you will hear how real estate agents are the scourge of the industry. I have been to dozens of bootcamps and workshops and everyone loves beating on the real estate agent. Like they caused all the problems the investor had on their last deal.

Yes, like in every profession, you have people who are not professionals and do not know what they are doing. Real estate is no different. But I am here to tell you that you need and want a professional Realtor on your power team. A professional is someone who understands how an investor thinks, knows to ask what they are looking for and not afaird to say when they do not kow something. They know their market and can bring deals to the investor. A good realtor will save you money and time.

I can relate a costly mistake we recently made. We were selling a house and it was a good house with a good profit margin on it. But we gave thousands of dollars based on a disclosure. A simple disclosure that we signed and left off limiting laungage about the max amount of the repairs we would agree to pay. A typical thing to do according to a realtor friend of mine. We missed it and we had to do the repairs that we could have split with the buyer. All to save 3% on the deal. By the way, the cost of repairs is more than the 3% we would have paid the realtor.

So have a real estate agent on your power team and tell them up front what are your expectations. If they do not meet those expectations then let them know ad find another one.