Working with Realtors
Purchasing and/or Sales
An Energy Wise Realtor, or one willing to learn, can be your best friend when it comes to acquiring the perfect foreclosed home for your remodel. Even those Renovators, Investors and Buyers who choose to shop by Ads and the MLS, CraigsList or Auctions, may find a good real estate agent can be a tremendous asset when it comes to saving time and money.
GreenEarthEquities finds nearly all our great deals through partnerships with realtors. We daily scan a real estate portal set up to display valuable information and photos on properties meeting the criteria we’ve specified. Once we’ve found an interesting MLS listing, our agents sends us current comps along with the benefit of their experience in estimating the after repair value (ARV) of the home. If the property seems to meet the spread we need for our Energy, WOW and Done packages they place our offer, review our paper work and assist in the close.
Knowing our passion for producing a beautiful, energy efficient home they go the extra mile in our inspection process, apprising us how best to ask for a price reduction ensuring the lowest acquisition cost possible. Sharing our care for their customers and ours, they understand that it may take many offers and counter offers to complete the right purchase, and that we’ve chosen to market our renovated homes ourselves so as to save a sales commission. While we are willing to pay a reasonable sales commissions to any agent bringing a full price offer, we make sure they are the first in line.
Over the years we’ve all profited by our friendship and business relationship, assisting each other in various ways. Our Realtors have and continue to be valuable members of GEE’s team.
Partnering with a Great Realtor
Finding a good real estate agent may take some effort but in the end it will be time well spent. Plan on interviewing several. Keep in mind that serving you is different than serving the general population. Few Realtors are ready for the work you will bring them. Check out REALTORS: How Would You Like A Client Like Me? (or several) for some ideas.
Request that your Realtor provide you with Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) on each neighborhood under consideration. They may have additional favorite tools. Use these to grow your knowledge of your neighborhoods. See Property Evaluation with the CMAandEvaluating A Property With A Comparative Market Analysis (CMA)
Use your agent to help keep track of buying and selling prices and calculate the “spread.” Choose several properties and make some offers through your Realtor. I know, we haven’t talked about where the money is coming from, see Where Do I Find The Money? & Basic Negotiations. For now we are just limbering up, calisthenics, or it’s like at the high school dance and no one’s on the dance floor. It’s breaking the ice. Of course you’ll want to be set up to digitally sign the offers. Your Realtor can help you with that or email me for my favorite.
Keep track of the offers you make and even ones that you didn’t even make but thought were a good deal. After they sell and close, the price will be public so your Realtor can get that information for you.
Visit Houses that are in your buying range. Also visit houses at the top of the market in your neighborhoods. This will give you an idea of what your finished product will sell for. Keep track of all your guesses and keep checking back. You’ll be getting smarter and smarter about real estate in your chosen neighborhoods.
Green Home Reference Guide
by Debra Little and Steve Easley
Debra is a Real Estate agent and a Certified Appraiser and Steve is a Building Science Forensic Expert who collaborated on this Green Home Reference Guide for use in the the PG&E training for Realtors and Appraisers.
Click here to download a PDF or click here to simply view content below.
Additional Working with Realtors Information
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Green Home Reference Guide Part 2
Green Home Reference Guide Part 2 Complexity Vs Simplicity Tonight we will continue our discussion with Debra Little about Appraisals and Appraising Green, Energy Efficient Homes. We will complete the Guide that she uses in the training classes that she conducts for Appraisers around the country. It will lead into a discussion on Simplicity versus Complexity. How complex and complete does an Appraiser's understanding of Home Performance need to be? Can we keep it simple? Or must we (and they) be sucked into the Vortex of Complexity that so easily rises up in an industry with so many variables? Some would say, "Let...Continue Reading!
Green Home Reference Guide Part 1
Green Home Guide Part 1 Dave Robinson Interviews Debra Little Tonight we will go over the Green Home Reference Guide which was prepared by Debra Little and Steve Easley for use in the the PG&E training for Realtors and Appraisers. Debra is a Real Estate agent and a Certified Appraiser and Steve is a Building Science Forensic Expert. Debra and I will discuss each point on the guide and we'll take all your questions and follow the rabbit trails wherever they go. The guide we present tonight will be an Improved and Expanded version and could actually be the basis for a simplified rating...Continue Reading!
Green Home Reference Guide
Green Home Reference Guide by Debra Little and Steve Easley Debra is a Real Estate agent and a Certified Appraiser and Steve is a Building Science Forensic Expert who collaborated on this Green Home Reference Guide for use in PG&E training for Realtors and Appraisers. Click here for Green Home Reference Guide Webinar Part 1 Click here to download a PDF or simply view content below. ... Green Home Reference Guide Energy Efficient Features ... Envelope Assembly type- 2X6, SIPs, ICF, alternating studs… Air/Shell seal- Attic Air/Shell seal- Crawl Air/Shell seal- Wall Insulation R value- Attic___, walls___, floors___ Min 10 inches in attic? Insulation QII - Quality Installation; no gaps, voids Infiltration- Blower Door test results ______CFM@50 Advanced ...Continue Reading!
Wholesalers Can Save You A Lot Of Time!
We are in escrow to purchase our first property from a "Wholesaler." I didn't see it coming, but I'm glad I got a call a couple of weeks ago from Sam Okenyi & his partner, Chris Williams. They were familiar with our Green Renovation and Classy Remodeling work from our job sign and our CraigsList ads and knew that we would be the most likely buyer on their list if they could just get us to take a look at it. (See video of my interview with Sam and Chris) They had found a real mess of...Continue Reading!
Influence The Appraisal With Your Open House Brochure?
Today we had an Open House at a newly renovated home. Several people commented about the brochure that we provided, so I decided to post it. If you click the images they will expand to full size. It's our standard 4 page brochure which is more extensive than the standard one page photocopy provided by most realtors. Each page has a purpose and there is a whole series of slides in PlanetSavers University explaining why we feel it's worth the extra effort. The first page mentions my Realtor, but just barely. Pictures are obviously important but it also includes...Continue Reading!
By Dave Robinson
By Jack Frost
By Andrew Martinez
By Debra Little