Property Investing Secrets 5

Property Investing Secrets:

How To Work With Agents And Get What You Want

When you're property investing, it is important to know how to connect with real estate agents. Here are some techniques you can use when you are out there pressing the flesh. I believe it is important to connect with agents at lease once in person when you're property investing.

I've found that when you walk into a real estate agents office and say "I'm looking for a bargain."- that's a big mistake. When you're property investing, the minute a real estate agent hears that you want a bargain; they size you up and think this person isn't serious-they're a flake. Keep this is in mind, to a real estate agent there is no such thing as a bargain. But it is possibile to buy at a wholesale price. If you're going to form a relationship with an agent they have to know you're serious because these agents get hundreds and hundreds of buyers every month or every 6 months, depending how busy they are, coming into their office. Thus real estate agents must know how to size up buyers. They know how to qualify buyers without the buyers even realizing they're being qualified! Real estate agents question buyers and the answers they hear tell them how serious the buyers are about purchasing.

When you're out property investing, here are some common questions a real estate agent will ask: "Hello Mr. and Mrs. Buyer, are you buying, selling or looking?" And if they say, "Oh, we're just looking." The agent will ask, "How many properties have you looked at so far?" The buyers may respond that they've looked at a couple of properties. The agent will ask if they made an offer on any of the properties they've looked at. If the buyers answer no, the agent will inquire why not? This line of questioning just rolls off the agent's tongue. The buyers get bamboozled. They don't even know that they're being qualified. And if the agent decides the buyer is too difficult, they will put them into the "too hard basket".

It is important to note that an agent has one commodity to sell and that is not houses but their time. I discovered this early while property investing. If a real estate agent has only 8 or 9 hours in the day, they want to get the best return on their time. So it is up to the investor to make it easy for the agent to make their money. Of course an agent will say they work for the seller, but the agents also have wives and kids sitting at home to feed. While the agent may say they're working for the seller, quite often they're working for themselves and you have to harness the agent's desire to make a sale and use it for yourself to get-not steal-but secure a discount to purchase the property.

Rick Otton is the director of We Buy Houses Pty Ltd. He has been property investing full time for 14 years. Rick has completed over 351 property transactions in Australia and the United States.

Rick specialises in creating positive cash flow through a variety of strategies he perfected in the United States and adapted to Australian conditions. He sells home study courses on vendor finance, one year mentoring program as well as a yearly 3 day boot camp on the Gold Coast. Go to http://www.rickotton.com for more property investing information ring 1800 003 588 in Australia.

More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion deal with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure practices. New York, Nevada and Delaware joined California in holding out for better terms.

More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion settlement with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure procedures, but California, New York and other key states were still not among them.

California has until Monday to share in a multi-state deal with banks to obtain mortgage relief and reforms. Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, who walked away from talks last year, says the door remains open.

With a Monday deadline at hand, California officials have resumed direct talks with the Obama administration about joining a multibillion-dollar, multi-state mortgage settlement with the nation's largest banks, a source said Sunday.

The talk show host pays $12 million for the 4,088-square-foot house with four bedrooms and four bathrooms. The ocean-view home sits on 1.26 bluff-top acres with beach access.

In one of the more talked-about transactions in town, actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have sold their Malibu beach house to daytime host and comedian Ellen De Generes for $12 million.

The four-bedroom, five-bathroom house built in 1920 for industrialist James Wigmore lists for $2,875,000.

A decorative cast stone entrance opens to this restored Spanish Colonial Revival-style house in Pasadena's South Orange Grove area. Built in 1920 for industrialist James Wigmore, the house retains such original details as coffered wood ceilings and arched doorways.

They don't believe they can sell their property for what it's worth, so they're spending money on making their homes more comfortable.

Do you fit any of these descriptions?

A biennial research report by the National Assn. of Realtors indicates that a handful of real estate agents and brokers and their clients either don't know the law or don't care to follow it.

When it comes to lawsuits, real estate agents and brokers tangle mostly among themselves.

The president aims to help about 3.5 million people with good credit who are unable to refinance at historically low rates because their homes are worth less than their mortgages.

 

The White House hopes to help millions of homeowners lower their monthly mortgage bill with a $5 billion to $10 billion plan to set up a streamlined refinancing program for people who are current on their payments.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of 20 large U.S. cities fell 1.3% in November from October as foreclosures continue to drag down the housing market.

Three straight months of home-price declines in the biggest U.S. cities showed that foreclosures remain a significant drag on a housing market that is entering its fifth year of deterioration.

L.A. Clipper Chris Paul may be quick down the court, but he moves pretty fast when it comes to buying multimillion-dollar real estate too.