The final podcast in the buying and selling in the current market is here!
Today we wrap up the series name series with a discussion of the importance of working with a real estate broker that knows their stuff. Let’s take a look!
René Nelson, Eugene commercial real estate broker
Marcia Edwards, Eugene residential real estate broker
Buying & Selling in the Current Market – Part 10
René Nelson: Marcia, let’s talk about experience, knowledge and expertise in a real estate broker. I’m going to give you a quick scenario that I had.
I had a residential broker, and please listeners, do not get me wrong, some of my very best friends are residential brokers, and I support that industry. My mother’s a residential broker and has been for 30 years, so I’m not knocking residential brokers, but this guy was trying to price in an apartment complex, and he didn’t understand the importance of getting the rent role, he was trying to just give me the profit and loss for last year, which shows the income, but the problem is how much of that was COVID.
And then when I really dug into it with him and kept saying, “I need the rent role, I need to see what each unit is paying in rent.” Well come to find out the seller had a family member that was living in there, not paying $800 a month in rent. So when that property sells and that family member moves out, that would have shorted that seller about $200,000 to their bottom line.
Marcia Edwards: And that was just because they didn’t know their market. So you gotta get a realtor that knows the market specifically. Let me just encourage you to interview realtors, there’s nothing wrong with asking how many sales you’ve had in this type of property or in this geographic area, or this price point.
That’s relevant, and it’s important, I think, for you to know who you’re talking to. Before, it used to be the soccer mom on the sidelines with me might be a good realtor, I know she does it when she’s not on soccer sidelines and that could be enough, but really, you’ve gotta understand that you’ve got experts, especially when you want to do real estate smart in a challenged market like this.
René Nelson: Absolutely, because this market is so competitive, your real estate broker needs to be not only your advocate, but they need to get up every day being willing to die on the hill for you. So that means that Marcia is going to call the lender and talk to the lender for the buyer when that offer comes in, and that she’s going to really ask some deep questions to make sure that buyer is experienced and has all of their ducks in a row if they’re going to use financing. So you need an expert to look out for you and to see the pitfalls that you can’t see that could be coming your way.
Marcia Edwards: And it becomes intuitive with experience. Over the years, you start to know it when you see it, and I have to backtrack and explain why I see and how I see it, and that’s not a bad question to ask either. If you want to understand the market, have your realtor explain how they got to their numbers, don’t just take their numbers at face value because evidence that they’ve done their homework will be apparent when you ask why it is what they’re saying it is.
René Nelson: Really good point.
René is available to answer your real estate investment questions. If you’re considering investing in a property or want to know how the pandemic may affect your investments, schedule a 15-minute discovery call today.
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