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
Click link below to view posts
Buy and Hold: Running the Numbers
Buy and Hold Running the Numbers Tonight I'll be reviewing the process of locating and assessing 2 different and affordable properties each with some perks. We'll run the numbers from walk through repair estimates for a Phase 1 Buy and Hold remodel to likely return on investment (ROI). 4877 East McKenzie Ave Fresno, CA 93727 List $125,000, 4 days on market, built 1977 5 bedroom 2 bath, 1,684 sqft, lot 8,580 sqft 2 car garage, large pool RentoMeter.com rent estimate: $1,400 plus 4944 East Illinois Ave Fresno CA 93727 4944 East Illinois Ave Fresno CA 93727 List $128,500, 15 days on market, built 1956 3 bedroom 1.5 bath, 1,700 sqft, lot...Continue Reading!
Tax Deed Auction: Orange Cove DEAL OR LEMON
Tax Deed Auction Orange Cove DEAL OR LEMON As some may recall we recently featured a Bid4Assets.com Fresno County Tax Deed Auction on several webinars. While we were significantly outbid on the properties we identified, Larry Weingarten our resident auction expert had the winning bid for 2 "outside the box" kind of properties. Tuesday night we'll get a look inside one, a 3 bedroom 1 bath about an hour southeast of Fresno. We'll review photos from our inspection and estimate what it's going to take to get this house rent or retail flip ready with at least a Phase 1 Energy Package. Zillow says...Continue Reading!
Online Tax Deed Auction Results
Online Tax Deeds Fresno County CA Auction Results Two weeks ago we reviewed Bid4Assets.com with an in depth look at Fresno County CA's Online Tax Deed Auction. Larry Weingarten, our resident tax deed expert, joined us fresh from participating in several other similar county sales. Tonight we'll be discussing the particulars of the bidding process, with screen shots of each step along the way, from viewing the properties in question to placing and tracking bids. Tune in at 6PM Pacific as we share our interesting experience with this kind of property acquisition. We'll talk about our bidding strategy and how we did, as well...Continue Reading!
Online Tax Lien Sales: Fresno CA
Online Tax Liens Sales Bid4Assets Auction Fresno County estate, on site and online tax lien sales are one way shrewd investors are picking up properties to flip or hold as long term investments. With this in mind this week I'll be interviewing Larry Weingarten, our resident online tax sales expert. We'll be discussing his history with this type of acquisition including price, location and what kind of surprises to look out for along the way. We'll be taking an in depth look at properties available at Bid4Assets.com and how best to participate in local county on-line auctions. Click here to review properties available in...Continue Reading!
Property & Investment Evaluation
Investment Evaluation Investment Property Opportunities Dave's on a Disney Cruise with his grand-kids this week. He will be back for an interview next Tuesday with Larry Weingarten, our resident on-line tax sales expert, looking at properties available at Bid4Assets.com. Tonight we'll be looking at and evaluating a few Fresno CA properties for investment and ROI potential. Click a link below to view pictures: 3404 N. Miami Fresno CA 93727 1652 Norwich Clovis CA 93611 3455-3457 E Terrace Fresno CA 93703 As you know the real estate market's never been better for generating long term cash flow through a buy and hold strategy. Tune in tonight at 6PM...Continue Reading!
ROI: Phase 1 & 2 Rent Then Sell
Return On Investment Phase 1 Rent, Phase 2 Sell Greetings PlanetSavers, As previously discussed, many regional real estate markets across the nation are making energy wise house flipping a less attractive way to turn a profit, revitalize communities and help to Save the Planet. With this in mind our new model has been to purchase and renovate properties for the purpose of long term investments. Of course, this raises the question of just how deeply to renovate while keeping an eye on the bottom line. How much of our Energy, WOW and Done Packages should be including to be competitive in the rental and...Continue Reading!
Investment Properties: Market Recovery
Investment Properties Market Recovery Strategy Tonight we'll be looking at two Fresno property investment opportunities for those interested in an initial buy and hold (rent vs flip) strategy. One fresh on the MLS, the other 68 days and counting. I scouted them out yesterday for a repeat GEE investor (who gets first dibs). Both represent signs of market recovery and a realization by sellers that many investors are looking for rent ready homes for quick if not immediate occupancy. All the houses are 3x2ish, ranging from 1,040 to 1,254 sq ft. Each have interesting improvements. None are in prime neighborhoods yet the expected rents...Continue Reading!
Which “Deals” are Deals?
Consider Carefully Which "Deals" are Deals? With real estate inventory low and investor interest high it's getting more challenging to find and identify great deals. We took a look at a couple of properties in the Fresno/Clovis CA residential market and came away with some concerns about things to avoid or at lest consider carefully when residential remodeling with either flipping or buy and hold in mind. As always looking forward to your comments and questions. If you've got some property photos you'd like to discuss have them ready on your desktop and we'll take a look. Time permitting we'll also discuss the...Continue Reading!
Open Forum: Hurricane Sandy, Investment Alert
Open Forum Hurricane Sandy, Investment Alert Greetings PlanetSavers, As you may know, a couple of years ago longtime sunny California resident Dave Robinson followed the grand kids to Virginia. Today they're huddled up at his house, the electrical power at his daughter's house one of the casualties of Hurricane Sandy. Unless preempted by the further effects of this 100 year storm, Dave will join us for another in our series of "Open Forum" webinars. Either way I'll host the webinar and get the ball rolling. If you've got a project (present or potential), topic or idea you'd care to share we'd love to hear it. ...Continue Reading!
Theft Precautions and Procedures for Vacant Rentals
Theft Precautions Procedure for Vacant Rentals Dave's finishing up a PGE speaking engagement in Santa Rosa California today and may or may not be able to join us for tonight's weekly webinar. As bad luck would have it, a topic introduced itself when a week ago Monday we found a vacancy we were in the process of turning and re-renting had been hit by a professional crew of thieves. Entering through a backyard bedroom window they took the following items: Stove/Oven combo $1,000 Microwave/Exhaust combo $400 5 Expensive Ceiling Fans $1,000 3 Brushed Aluminum Light Kits $750 Glass Shower Door Enclosure $350 5 Smoke/Carbon Monoxide Alarms $200 Hand Tools &...Continue Reading!
By Dave Robinson
By Jack Frost
By Andrew Martinez