Real Estate Investing

Several months ago, I piled in a car with other agens for our weekly “caravan” of homes.  During the caravan, agents drive from house to house looking at new listings.  We check out notes and try to consider whether the new listings will work for any of our buyers.  Sometimes they do, many times they do not.  At one listing, the home felt overpriced for the neighborhood. 

I commented that it was very highly priced compared to one I sold up the street six months earlier.  Other agents said the paneling made the house dark and it felt small.  One said it smelled funny.

The next week at our meeting, the listing agent told us something that made our hearts stop.  The seller had secretly placed a tape recorder on top of the refrigerator so he could hear the “true feedback” about what the agents thought of the house.  He didn’t want the listing agent to pull any punches.

I was mortified because I’m not always positive when I tour homes.  I try to be, but when the smell of dog urine is overwhelming… well… I say so.  Thankfully that time I just compared the price to one up the street, so it was a factual comment and not opinion-based. 

Then I read that an agent in Connecticut has been accused of taking food from her listings, along with spare change.  Wow.  She proclaims her innocence, but wouldn’t a Teddy Cam or a Nanny Cam be a more logical step to take than so you’ll have proof and not just accusation?  I remember several years ago an agent from a well-known national company was caught stealing lamps out of a home he listed.  He was a multi-million dollar agent, too!

I have never understood how anyone who steals anything ever thinks they can get away with it.  Maybe I’m just naive to the dark side of human nature - or it could be guilt reflex - but it’s just incredible to me that people would have the gall to pilfer, plunder, and be deceitful.

Thankfully most agents are honest to a fault.  To carry the title “Realtor” we follow a very strict code of ethics designed to both protect and serve a customer and client, but to also treat other agents professionally and fairly.  The vast majority of Realtors take the code of ethics to heart, so perhaps a question you should ask your potential real estate agent is whether they’re just an agent or a Realtor.

One lucky buyer in Florida describes how lucky he was to find a buyer for his house, 

At least I managed to attract a buyer for my house, someone who was willing to crush my spirit, flatten my soul and drag the remnants of my battered hopes and dreams through a heaping mound of irate fire ants before forking over what I considered a rather paltry sum for my family’s beloved hearth and home. 

Daryl Lease,  columnist and editorial writer for the Virginian-Pilot, had me laughing my head off as he described Realtors who seem perpetually lost (that’s why I now have a Tom-Tom), mortgage processors who want their mother’s sister’s nephew’s wife’s maiden name (or words to that affect), and the paltry sum of money he received when he did sell.  Yes he threw in some politics but no matter the party you’re supporting, read past it for the rest of his account about buying real estate.  It’s worth it!

In Michigan, the medical field is helping to keep real estate going through constant expansion and improvements.

“Due to the nature of the medical supply industry, we’re not as affected by the economy,” Bieker said. A medical supply distributor, MarketLab has seen a compounded annual growth rate of 50 percent year to year since the company’s founding in 1998. The company has recently completed its second expansion in three years.

Yet two states to the west, Minnesota’s banks are feeling the squeeze from commercial loans.

While soured home mortgages have gotten much of the public attention in the last several months, LaPierre and Otto told bankers that their focus these days is on faulty commercial loans — including debts tied to multifamily residential projects.They said that regulators are finding an industry more heavily involved in commercial real estate than ever, just as an economic slump has undermined the value of all manner of brick-and-mortar projects.

Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn would love Russian Architect Vladimir Plotkin who designed a floating home.  The raft has room for a bed, a bath, and the walls separate for socializing and barbequing.  What a great, lazy way to spend your summer!

Every single day in real estate there are new challenges to address.  If it’s not problems from a home inspection, it could be appraiser issues, dealing with another agent who is either uneducated or overly prideful, or a myriad of other situations.

Today I talked with another agent who told me he received an upsetting phone call from a buyer’s agent he worked with over a year ago.   Last year, the transaction went smoothly from contract to close.  But there was a little item - a hidden glitch if you will - that has reared its ugly head.

The buyer’s agent said the storage building in the back yard had not been paid off, as promised in the contract by the seller.  Now, the company that financed the little shed is in the process of repossession and showed up this week with a truck to haul it away.   I think you could put “Shed Repo Man” in the top 10 list of jobs I do not want.

What is the liability for the agent?  None.  The liability lays with the former homeowner (seller) who in the contract agreed to pay off any liens or leased items prior to closing.  As agents, we review the property condition disclosure form to see if the “YES” is checked for the item that states, “Is any system, equipment or part of the property being leased?”  (This does include a lease purchase agreement for a storage building!).  In the actual contract for the purchase and sale of a home, it specifically outlines who is to pay for leased items prior to closing.

So the seller from a year ago could clearly face some litigation.  Of course, I’m NOT an attorney so can’t say for sure how it would all play out.  I just know if I was to sell, I’d make sure everything that was to remain with the property would paid so it wouldn’t come back to bite me later.