Portico Premium Real Estate

Have you ever wanted just one phrase that you could say at the right time, and it save you hundreds, or thousands of dollars?

When it comes to getting the best price from contractors, plumbers, electricians, HVAC techs, you name it, there is a simple phrase that often works like magic in reducing your costs.

These specialties are always competing for work. However, if you ask any of them they will likely tell you that they are extremely busy!

They might be. They might not.

There’s a game going on here. They need to appear very busy so their services are in demand and support the prices they will ask for. At the same time, you need to appear to be willing and able to get prices from many sources. (Don’t just make it appear that way, get multiple bids whenever it’s practical!) It’s a balance that must be struck.

The good part is that now you know the game…so play both sides since you know what the other side’s play.

How to turn the tables

* Have an idea of what the job will cost. Just a ball park idea will do.

* If you are told something that you think it high, ask why so high. There might be more to it than you know. The reason for the high price might be reasonable. Discuss alternatives.

(For example, if you electrician points out that the breakers you need are especially expensive, ask if he’s got any used breakers that are still in good shape.)

* Then use the magic phrase…

Here it is…

“Is that your final and best price?”

Very often the person you are talking to will squirm a bit at this point. They are having to think…

“Is my price fair?”

“Am I over pricing something here?”

“Can I save this customer some money?”

“Does the customer know something I don’t?”

While your contractor/laborer thinks about this, don’t say a word.

I’ve experienced many reactions from “That’s the best I can do” to “If you give me the job, I’ll knock it down to…”

Often I’ve gotten a range of options that could save me money. More often than not, it saves my money!

* They understand that they aren’t your sole source of the service they provide

* They know you are willing to wait for the best price

* They know you aren’t a push over

* They know you might be a source of future income

But, it WILL work like magic when properly applied. In my own experience, I can point to many thousands of dollars of savings using this simple question.

We like to save money by keeping prices for services reasonable, true enough. At the same time, I advocate and approach of “don’t let anyone get hurt.” If you award a job to someone and it winds up costing them more than expected, I help that person out. I don’t want someone to lose money on a job and leave with a bad taste in their mouth and never want to do work for me again. Be aware of when someone gets hurt. That said, watch out for those that claim to get hurt with each job.

Try out that phrase today. It works in many situations…not just rehab real estate, but in just about any competitive environment.

Many people tend to get caught up in real estate trends reported in magazines, newspapers and on television. This is a mistake of the highest order.

Why You Should Ignore Trends In Real Estate

In this modern information age, you can learn just about anything on a particular subject. While access to information is usually a positive development, things can get a bit crazy if you get overloaded with it. Look long enough and you can find two pieces of information offering exactly the opposite views on a subject. Obviously, that doesn’t really help you make a choice.

In real estate, the information offered in the media is usually uniform. For the last six or seven years, everyone with any brains at all has reported the real estate market has been hot. Now, many of these same pundits are suggesting the market is cooling off. Some are even predicting a crash in the market.

As a potential buyer or seller, how should you evaluate the information being produce in the media? The simple answer is you should ignore it. The problem with these reports is not the accuracy. Instead, the problem is they are reporting national trends in real estate.

National trends are great and all, but they have little or no application to your specific area. Consider the following if you do not believe me. The real estate market for the last few years has been reported as hot, hot, hot. In Colorado, however, the market has been flat throughout this time. If you were considering buying or selling in Colorado, the information being provided for national trends simply did not apply to you.

If you think Colorado is the exception, it is not. The state with one of the worst appreciation rates over the last four or five years, for instance, has been Texas. Put in practical terms, this means homes in Dallas, Houston, Denver, San Antonio and Houston have not followed national trends. The only real estate trends that matter are those in your local markets. Never rely on national data.

If you are considering buying, you have to be very careful when considering real estate trends. If it looks like a seller’s market in your area, you may make the mistake of not buying. Even in a seller’s market, buying a home is better than renting. Every day you are in the home is a day you are growing your personal wealth through equity accumulation. Don’t stay out of the market simply because you feel it isn’t the right time.

It is easy to get caught up in real estate trends since they are plastered in front of your face on a daily basis. In truth, they really should not play much of a role in your decision making process.

Consider this: if you needed work done on your teeth, would you go to a dentist or do it yourself? The same theory applies to real estate. The art of selling a home is something that takes years to perfect. There are so many aspects of home sales that the average buyers and sellers are unaware of. Also there are many aspects of the process that are only easily available to a Realtor. The actual process of selling a home is very time consuming and right about now, the seller has many more important things to consider, such as the impending move.

Realtors spend years learning the art of selling and how to interpret the real estate market. They can offer you insight and information that only comes from years of experience. Realtors are also experts on their area; they know the communities and what they have to offer, the location of schools, transport routes, and how the current market will affect the sale of your home.

Using a Realtor to sell your home has several advantages over a FSBO. Perhaps the most important of these advantages is exposure. The marketing of your home is of the highest importance. Without a robust marketing plan, your home will not be seen by prospective buyers and as such, will take much longer to sell. Realtors utilize the latest in internet technology to ensure that your home is seen by as many buyers as possible. Also, realtors have a large budget to purchase newspaper ads, hold open houses, and create flyers and information packs about your property. Realtors can also utilize a CMA to evaluate the correct value of your home and to price it correctly in your local market. This will enable your home to be competitive and attractive to buyers. Remember, homes sold by a Realtor sell for an average of 20-30 thousand more than homes sold by the owner. use a professional to sell your home, and free up the time you need to organize yourself for the process of moving your own new home.

The answer in one word is: UGLY. You need to have a motivated seller (DON’T WANTER) and property that is ugly. Great buys in real estate are in rough condition. I can count the nice properties on one hand that I got great buys in over the years. I am talking about thousands of properties. So if you have not guessed it yet, if you get in this business you are going to need to be in the rehabilitation of property business. What do I mean by ugly:

a. Weeds two feet high in the yard

b. Gutters hanging down from the house

c. Holes in the roof are good

d. Maintenance neglected

e. Out dated kitchens, shag carpet, unpainted walls for 10-20 years

a. “Keep cool indoor pool”. I bought a house in Pontiac once such that when you walked in the front door, the paint was pealing from the walls. The house was full of moisture. When you got to the top of stairs to basement, you ran into crystal clear water. The water was to the top step. Someone had stopped up the floor drains and broken a water pipe. Water was running out of the basement windows. I had no competition on buying this house. We called the water department and had the water turned off at the street. We had the house dried out and got a great buy. The point is that there was little competition to buy this home. They could not see past the water coming out of basement windows. This was a foreclosed property and the bank was a motivated seller.

b. “A little smell” I purchased a house where the owner had a dump truck load of sand poured into the basement. The sand was for a permanent litter box for her 25 cats. I had to take my clothes off in the garage when I got home. Again, I had no competition on the buy. The rehab on this house was labor intense.

c. “Moving walls” In this house, you opened the door and roaches fall on you or better said, “the walls move”. Again, the competition fell away- this required an exterminator and all was well.

d. Also look for backed up sewers, fleas, houses full of trash, as things to look for when looking for a great buys.

This business requires hard work but the rewards can be great. The majority of properties that people donate to charities meet the above conditions. There are great buys in real estate but it requires investors with a talent to restore the homes to a classic condition. Restoring homes, and putting them back in great shape, is for me, part of a process of fulfilling the American dream for homeowners and is what I love most about this business. The investors who look and see fully restored homes instead of the above are ones that get the great buys on homes they otherwise couldn’t afford. If you are new investor, I recommend you focus on the lighter rehabs, paint and carpet changes for example. Some of the examples above were light rehabs they just had obstacles that others could not see past.

In the world of commercial real estate, not all appraisers are considered equal. It takes a certain expertise and knowledge to correctly appraise commercial property, and not just anybody is qualified. There are two types of appraisers, a fee appraiser and a staff appraiser. A fee appraiser is generally available to the public for hire, and a staff appraiser works for a specific lender or lending firm.

The appraiser that you hire for your commercial investments before you buy can have a great impact on the amount of money you spend and your chances of getting funding from a lender. Most lenders will not accept just any appraiser. So, if you get an appraisal with an appraiser that a lender does not accept, you have just wasted your time and money, and you are no closer to getting the property you want.

Let’s look at what makes a qualified appraiser, and who it is you want to hire to evaluate your potential investment.

It is common practice for a lender to appoint the appraiser that is to appraise the property in question. This practice is in place because there are dishonest buyers who work with certain appraisers that will inflate the property’s true value. This, in turn, allows the buyer to borrow more money than what a lender would normally allow, thus increasing the lender’s risk.

Inflating a property’s true market value is surprisingly easy because appraisals are simply guesstimates of a property’s true market value. They are interpretations based on the surrounding property and selected criteria. An appraisal can be “fixed” according to a person’s interest. That is why the two parties must not have any prior dealings or common interest in the subject property.

A very widely used and accepted type of appraiser is one that is certified by the American Institute of Real Estate Appraisers. They are members, making them M.A.I. designated. Most lenders will require that you use only an MAI appraiser. These MAI appraisers have gone through intense study, years of practice, and have had to perform under tight supervision while appraising many different properties.

Most MAI appraisers will not conspire with a borrower because there is too much to lose and too much invested in their practice. For this reason, most lenders will accept MAI appraisals regardless of whether or not they know the appraiser personally. For the most part, lenders will have trusted appraisers that they work with all the time, and will require that you use only their appraisers. Be sure to get clarification on this issue before you hire an appraiser because you do not want to pay for two!

An MAI appraisal costs more than a non-MAI appraisal because of the added expertise and experience of the appraiser. In fact, the cost for a single appraisal can run from $2,000-$5,000, or two to three times the cost of a fee appraiser. Be sure to include this in your total cost of purchasing the property so you are prepared to cover the cost.

If you have been in the commercial real estate business for a while, you may have a few lenders and appraisers that you work with often. They may even be considered as part of your team. This can greatly increase your productivity because you have professionals at your fingertips to get many properties handled quickly, if necessary.

You can trust MAI appraisers to perform an accurate evaluation of your prospect property. With this appraisal, you will be able to get the proper amount of money loaned on the property and not come out short.

It is always a good idea to research your appraiser and view some of the work that he or she has done. The appraiser and the appraisals should be of the utmost professional quality because so much is riding on their appraisal. Even if it costs you more money, always use an MAI appraiser to avoid problems with the lender and unnecessary expenditures.