Real Estate

I would like to know what a person has to do (tests, certifications, etc…) to become a realestate agent… and is that the same as being a broker?

Am in the Houston area if that makes any difference

Real Estate Agents much go to school to learn the laws concerning the sale and purchasing of land within your state.

You will have to pass a state exam. Being a Broker is different. That is someone with experience as a real estate agent and who has additional schooling and eventually is qualified to own their own agency.

I have several realestate properties and would like to know the advatages or disadvantages.

Thanks for any insight.

I would definately encourage you putting your real estate holdings into a trust fund. I believe a trust fund is the same as a corporation. Either way it protects your assets. If you get into a car accident they cannot sue you for your property. It is protected. Also I believe it is part of a will which is always great, ya never know when your number is called! Its better to be protected any way possible.

Good luck to you and all the ventures that come your way!

what?

Ok so heres the story. about a month ago i found this house i absolutely love and when i went to get info on it and possibly put an offer on it i was told it went in to escrow and it was very rare for peoples loans to fall thru at that point and have the house open back up so my realestate agent basically told me that house was hopeless and keep moving. the house also went "inactive" on the website i found it on.
so kept looking for a house and nothing has compared.

but just a few minutes ago i was sent an email saying one of my saved home listings had been updated. i looked to see what home.. and there i was the house that was hopeless to get.
i researched it on another website and there it was….
im trying real hard not get my hopes up.

do you think the home is actually for sell again?
this seems to be a sign that this is supposed to be MY home

also me and my boyfriend make about 3000 dollars a month and dont have much debt do you think we can afford a 88 thousand dollar house? we both have pretty good credit scores also

i sure hope this isnt some sort of glich and my house is really gone.

There may have been family problems too so that the house couldn’t be sold until all the heirs agree. All I can tell you about buying a house, is that you don’t want to get too enthused so that you inspect it very very carefully and be sure it is worth the $. Have all the right inspections done and look for damage and check out the neighborhood. $3000 is not a lot of money when it comes to home ownership. They cost a lot and there are always repairs and some can be extremely expensive. Be sure you don’t get in the mess so many others are and buy something you really can’t afford. Anything can go wrong in your life like lose your job, have health problems, bad car wreck and then there is the weather problems like hail damage, tornadoes and hurricanes and all of that. Be sure you have enough $ to tide you over a pretty good time . . .like six months saved up and then a good savings account for when the house needs fixing, and then a tidy down payment. Without all of that, don’t buy a house. Nothing is worse in a relationship than to be short of money so that you have to constantly worry about how you are going to pay the bills and then you want to have enough to have some fun and you need to be saving on a regular basis. Plus you are moving in with no commitment from your bf. What happens if you break up? Protect yourself very carefully. . .always. . . .Good luck!

My wife and I moved to a new city 3 yrs ago for my new job. I am now able to work completely remote and we would like to move back to our home town, but the realestate market here is very poor. We really can’t think about a new home untill we feel confident ours will sell.

Any one have any alternates to listing and selling the home? Its been on the market for almost 4 months now.

Bridge loans do not look like that good of an idea, but any opinions on these?

Thanks in advance.

You have the wrong real estate agent. How long did you sign your listing for 180 days? You should have signed a 60 day lease with a 30 day roll period if you were pleased the agent was doing all in his power to sell the property. Never give more than 60 days.

Now in answer to your question about an alternative plan for your house that you want to do something with. Are you relying on this house’s equity to purchase another house in your home town?

If not then I would lease it with an option to purchase (buy) Advertise this in the local paper. This way you will be able to get a small down with a known term that you can rely on. A down payment is normally between 3-5% Non-refundable even if they do not take their option.

If they refuse or can’t exercise their option, you can offer them another new option with another down payment or get others on a new lease, doing the same thing over again.

If you feel comfortable leasing it for 2-3 years do so, make sure that your contract with the person leasing the property has a clause that all landscape is the responsibility of the person leasing the property. Also all repairs under $100.000 are the responsibility of the person leasing the property. Other damages will be negotiated at the time of the occurrence.

This will keep the maintenance calls down to a minimum, so you can have peace on weekends.

You can designate that a certain amount of the rent will be held toward the down payment of the property if and when they decide to exercise their option.

You can find lease agreements at Staples or Office Depot or any other stationary store. You may add or take away what you want to say or not say in the lease agreement. Specify the number of people that will be living there if you will allow pets and how long guest are allowed to stay (Normally 30 days) If you are going to leave any appliances there make sure they understand they will not be replaced at your expense.

There is nothing secret or so impeling about a lease that you would need any help in doing so. A person with good common sense can accomplish it without problems.

In your search for someone to lease your place you must interview them, find out about their ability to pay(Look at paystubs and 2 yrs of W-2 from each adult on the lease), length of time they have been on their job Telephone #, call Human Relations. to verify that they issued the W-2 as pay stubs. Ask for a couple of month of bank statements this will prove that they have enough for the down payment you ar asking for so that they may exercise their lease.

After you have found someone to lease the place, both you and them ahve signed the lease, give them a move in date, a set of keys and turn off all utilities.

I hope this has been of some use to you, good luck

"FIGHT ON"

I want to buy a building. (You usually find buildings like these in cities). The top floor or two floors is the residence/apartment and the bottom floor is a store). What is this called? Does anyone know of the tax implicatons of such structure? Would I go to a real estate agent who specializes in commercial realestate?

I believe they are referred to as mixed use buildings and are classified as commercial structures. Your local agent would have access to these type of properties if they are norm in your area.

do realestate have anything to doo with make…4 example..the person thats selling the house do they have to deal with math?

no, you don’t really need to know that much math. you will have to MEMORIZE things such as how many feet are in a mile, but only for the real estate exam.

marketing real estate SHOULD involve you really and truly wanting to help PEOPLE. some of that will require you to learn a few little math tricks, but you just buy a calculator and have the mortgage broker that you like, who is reputable and caring also, give you a little card that will give you applicable rates, so it’s easy to figure out the principal and interest charges on a mortgage per month. it is so easy!

as for comparables: the computer does all the work. you have to get to know the BUSINESS of selling real estate, which has everything to do with people skills and high ethics. your business will be easy if you attain a good reputation immediately. your clients will send you clients (ask them to), and so on. then you do not always have to search for new business.

the real estate field is only this: service, service, service for people, people, people, who want location, location, location. that is all it is. the better you understand that, the better you will be in the business. if you need to understand math for some client’s question, you tell him you don’t know the answer right then and there, but will be happy to call him immediately after you talk to your manager. the broker manager where you work will show you how to calculate whatever figure he wants. then you call him, that same day, with what you promised you’d get for him. that is called SERVICE.

ethics come into play because the most important thing for you to do as an agent is to act as an AGENT (look that word up in a few dictionaries). that means that you always put the interests of your client ahead of your own. you protect your client, who is sometimes a seller and sometimes a buyer, and occasionally (this one can be tough) a dual agent for both parties. you get help from your managing broker in such a situation and handle it carefully. remember: it is the client that counts. you will count soon enough, when you close the deal, but before then, all that counts is your service to your client.

i wish you all the luck i can! this is a very stressful business. you never know from one year to the next how you will continue to live. some years are lean, some are fatty. save money from those that are fatty!

They cant find me a home i like and want to buy,

theres usually a time limit the real estate agent has in the contract, reread it and go over it with them first.and asks questions no matter how stupid they sound to you. after all its is your time and money they’re useing

Lets say im the investor. Who plays the most important position on my team in the business? Is it the Realestate lawyer, the broker or the accountant or the bank? Im tryng to get and understanding of the priorty rolls of this positions in the order of whose most important in the relationship with me the investor and maybe some insight on cost difference between them.

Let me tell you about the people I consider important on my team I have 3 businesses by the way a tax deed and lien investing business a rehab business and a rental business.
Here are a list of people on my team
Lawyer
CPA
Managers
Foreman= runs my rehabs
title company
appraisers
inspectors if you use them
government people can be important too like the building inspector,zoning board people,gov officials in charge of you getting the ok to do project, political people become small % partners can help slam through the most difficult projects
bookkeeper.
general labor: works to do unskilled labor like clean up and painting and makes simple service calls, may also be called maintenance
realtor if you use them
broker or banker if you need them
private money lender or hard money lender if you needed one
advertising firms: to move your reale state and get it sold
Marketing person in your business if you have one hired on.

Sub contractors to include the following below
a) heating, cooling guy
b)electrician
c) plumber
d) concrete,excavation guy, also does landscaping
e)rooto rooter= they unplug the plumbing lines when they freeze or clog up different then plumber
f) some might use roofers and siding people I keep that in house but ill just say rough framers and finished carpenters just to be on the safe side
g)Distributors of building materials and other important suppliers
h) such specialty shops like window repair,or hardware store or other places that fix equipment you need.

In my business I needed a good lawyer, foreman ,managers,CPA, book keeper because the rest of my parts where interchangeable. A good group of these people can really make life a lot easier. The larger your business grows the more parts to your team that need to work well.
A general labor guy that screws up a small drywall project probably wont hurt you as much as a lawyer can on a realestate case. So you see what I am talking about.
I hope this helps you out also for ever person or persons and skill i have listed i might have 3 backups on the list.
If the plumber screws up or doesn’t show up you got to have a back up plan! You are the ceo and when your business grows large enough you may consider people on your team like an operations manager or a marketing manager that manages teams of other professionals.
The key to the team is to let them run the business so you can stay creative and keep building your business. The team must bring in there part of the profits to make it all make sense. Watch the team close and as it grows your leadership skills must grow too. The complete role of your team is important just like in football if a lonely corner back takes a play off the touchdown the other teams receiver can mean a loss for your team. This is the Ceo’s job to make sure his team is effectively moving forward towards the objectives of the business in there goals to serve or and make profits while doing so and also make the right adjustments along the way when needed. CEO must understand everyones job , while you don’t know necessarily how to do those jobs you do need to understand when that part of the team has produced or not produced results. Also to understand what impact moving forward your changes will make in your business. I hope this helped.

A realestate attorney stole to deed to one of his deceased clients and falsified the documents to the court. Gained the property and sold it.

Do you have a question?