Real Estate

how do i go about doing it.PLEASE HELP

You haven’t given us alot of information on what style of investing or ownership your interested in.

You could go with buying multi-family properties and landlording to obtain some valuable experience in that arena. That could be done with zero money down if you decided to also live in one of the apartments. This would allow you to build equity and cash flow to move onto larger projects.

There are many other ways to be an investor, this was just one example.

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

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!

I’m a realtor with a company I truely love but I believe the internet is the wave of the future for real estate. Does anyone work for Realestate.com as a Realtor and how do you like it? Realestate.com used to just sell leads, it seems now they’re trying this where they are actually a broker. It’s a good idea but I’d be interested to talk to someone actually taking advantage of their opportunity.

Ed,
I think you are wise to check out a new company based on agent experience rather than company promises. It’s just the sensible thing to do. Having said that, it seems to me that their web site would feature the names of their licensees. Why not just contact the individual agents, either in your area or, to factor out the possible competitive bias, in another area of your state but outside of your marketing area? Broadcasting a questions like this has a major flaw: no agent is going to bad mouth the company s/he works for and any good Realtor is going to be cautious of the ethical implications of disparaging another agent or company. Then there are the issues of anti-trust violations and civil actions for libel and anti-competitive behavior.

Good luck. I hope it works for you. I am still with the traditional model because I think it suits my professional background and style, but I am always open to new ideas . . . like appearing on Yahoo! ANSWERS

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!

You could become an assistant to an agent. Agents are independant contractors, and are therefore not employess that recive standard paychecks. I’m sure your broker wouldn’t mind holding you commission checks and cutting them up weekly. I know I wouldn’t mind. I’d happily put your earnings into an intrest bearing accout and cut you a draft from it every week. You make what money you earn, you are after all a sales person. Try stepping up your selling a bit, you’ll get morre that way than you can on any weekly pay job. Or maybe just find a diffrent career.

I know they dont require the basement area.The area given in real estate listing is very different if you calculate on your own with the mathmatical formula= lenth * breath. If you can also tell me how realestate people calculate area of the house. They just give you the range and no body knows what is the exact area and what it covers.

Well, there’s such a thing as a "Boeck residential square foot estimator".

What you do, is measure the outside of the house, ground floor. If it’s 2 full stories, you double it – that’s the square footage. You’re right, you don’t count the basement – there’s ANOTHER place where you factor in the basement, if it’s finished, if there’s a garage there, whatever.

Your agent can SHOW you exactly how the replacement value was calculated.

REAL ESTATE listings tend to measure the INSIDE of the rooms. They don’t include bathrooms, hallways, foyers, closets, etc, just the inside measure of each room (not the two square feet BETWEEN the two rooms), and add them together. However, that’s USABLE SPACE. Insurance companies don’t REPLACE usable space, they replace WALLS. So you measure the outside of the walls.

I know right now is a bad time for the price of a house, but does anybody know what city (cities) give the best return when buying a house in a normal market?

san francisco

i want to switch agents without getting sued

You have a contract with them. The terms cannot be changed except by mutual consent until the contract expires. Unless they release you from the contract, you have to pay them the commission the sale regardless of how the house is sold.

So Yes, you can get a new agent but you would then have to pay commission to both agents. Even if you sell it without an agent you have to pay commission.

If I purchase realestate, (residential duplex) to rent out for investment purposes, can I write off the closing costs?

Absolutely! In fact, your escrow company will send you a statement at the end of the year to give to your accountant.