Knowing the true value of real estate

There are a lot of ways that you can value real estate. They may not all be right but they are used. Zillow is a website that comps (sold homes) homes and comes up with a price. The problem with Zillow is it does not take into consideration of the condition of the home. Also was it a short sale, forclosed, retail, tax, trustee sale. You need to know that to get a good idea of what your home is worth.


Other things to consider 1-2 bath or more. Garage, no Gargage-Fixup, not fixed up....and much more. Zillow does not take that into consideration.


The other way some people do it is thru their friends. They tell them what homes are selling for in that area and boom thats it. I had a listing once that I comp'ed (value of sold homes in that area) and the client had talked to a neighbor. This neighbor had went to some open houses recently in a luxury high end area. He for some reason noticed the bathrooms in these luxury homes and informed my potential client that his bathroom was nicer than any luxury home bathrooms. Therefore his conclusion was that his home was worth 3 times more than any other home in that subdivision was worth. I didn't take the listing.


The right way and my only way I do value a home, whether it's an investment home or not is thru MLS (multiple listing service). Realtors are the only ones that have access to this but it's the best information you can get.


You need all the details. For example condition, Sq ft, bedrooms, bathrooms,what type of sale is it, and you want the property in the same subdivision or 2 miles radius of that propetry. You want to see the Days on Market and the sales price. You may want to drive the area and see if the lower prices ones are by apartments, busy streets, commercail etc.


When you get all these facts you can easily make an informed decision on what that home is worth in todays market. This will help you make money on your home whether you are living in it or if your an investor.


One other important tip I should mention if you are an investor is to watch the square footage. Why? Flooring is usually the most expensive part of rehabbing a home. So I like to keep my investment homes around 1100-1800 Square feet. Less fixup more money for you as an investor

. Brett Young Valley Realty http://www.wealthbuildingequity.com/

Listening to people talk

When I started my career as a Realtor, I spent a few months at Wing Realty to start my real estate career. It was a small office that had some very knowledgeable people in it. I learned a lot about being a realtor there.One day one of the part time agents told me about a home he had listed for a local college. The home had been gifted to the college, and they were motivated to sell it. He gave me the address and I drove over right away to see it. It looked like a good deal, so I made an offer.I happened to be going skiing that week in Oregon, so I knew that I would be out of town. I have always made sure that people could get a hold of me. So this time was no different. On the ski lift I got a call from the realtor informing me that they had countered. I verbally agreed to the counter and ask him to open escrow. I bought the home, remodeled it, sold it quickly and made a fast $15,000.The moral of this story is….Keep your eyes and ears open! You never know when a deal will come your way. Then don’t be afraid to act. Hesitation could mean that you have missed the boat!Brett Young, Valley Realty http://www.wealthbuildingequity.com PS Real estate investing is a great way to build your cash flow and real estate equity

Marketing do's and don'ts

When your doing marketing do your homework. Their are all types of ways to advertise your product. I'm going to go over a few successful ways I carved out a great income from my advertising.

The first is postcards. With the birth of the Internet this path is lessor traveled. I had just started in real estate and started sending out 150 postcards a week. They were basically for listing properties. I consistently sent them out for 10 weeks with no success. On the eleventh week I got a call from a gentleman that needed a lot sold. I listed and sold that lot. He then let me sell a home and bought two more homes from me after that. He was a plumber by trade and called me on a home he was re plumbing and wanted to know what it was worth. I informed him of the value and he said the owner would sell it to him at a considerable discount.

I was searching for a home in that area at the time and offered him $10,000 over what he was paying for it. He sold the property to me and I remodeled it and lived their for two years. After that property was sold I made over $75,000 from that one post card that I continue to send out today.

Another great way to advertise is social networks. You can network and find people with common interest and potential clients. The biggest asset that it brings you is notarization. It shows people that you have a presence in the market and brands your name and business. People need to see your name a few times to trust it and remember it. So social networking can help get your business, website, blogs, and events out the the world.. It will at least get some new traffic in your business.

The last one I want to talk in this article is events and having events. Meetup.com has boatloads of these events. You can find meetings that you may get business from. You can also find social meetup's and hobby type stuff. You can join these meetings and you'll get their schedules. I would always have business cards in my pocket when you go to these types of meetings. That's just another sign you can put out their when your at these meetings. Meetup does cost some money but is well worth it.

You can also create your own events that can meet up weekly, monthly or whenever you want. These meetings do take a while to build a following but does keep you in direct contact with your clients. So if you have a slow start don't quit be consist ant and run your meetings at least monthly. I had three at my first one and sold 6 homes to two people that where at that meeting. Have an interesting information and always be at the top of your game when you have these type of meetings. Set up an affiliate program with your business to create word of mouth growth for your group. All that is paying people to refer people to your business. Be creative when growing your company.

Other event social sites Facebook, Craigslist, Oodle and I'm sure their are more!

Check out my meetup site http://realestate.meetup.com/1125/ Brett Young Valley Realty

Learning to make money in different ways

While sitting at an open house in central Phoenix, I decided I needed to take it up a notch! I needed to start buying homes in multiples, instead of one at a time. The only way I could do that is with private financing.
So, I ran the ad the next week. I quickly got a call from Ross, in Canadian. He explained that he privately loaned to investors, but would need to see some of my homes before he would lend to me.
A few weeks later, Ross came to Phoenix and looked at the two homes I was doing at the time. He approved me on the spot. I immediately bought a home in Phoenix, using my newly found asset. I was so excited that I had successfully accomplished the private money task. Construction was to began right away. Ross called me the next day and ask if I was interested in selling this home to his son Kevin. Kevin had recently dissolved a partnership and was looking for an investment property. He was a accomplished investor who need properties to flip.
After analyzing the profit potential, I had to say no. I could make more money if I flipped it myself. Ross reminded me that I would make my 3% commission on the sale of the property and whatever I charged for the wholesale. Then he said something magical. It changed my business thinking forever. He said, “what will you take for it”. I asked for $3000 from Kevin and I reiterated that I would still get my 3% commission. Ross quickly agreed.
I had unknowingly started a whole new business. From then on, I started recruiting investors. I charged them 10% of the projected equity, plus my 3%, and I made another 1% on the back end. Since then, I have sold over 200 homes with this formula! And have made a massive amount of money doing it! (As a realtor, I can have the buyer/investor pay additional compensation if it is stated in the a real estate contract).
As for Ross…..I have done millions of dollars in private loans with him. He is a super guy to work with!
My need for private money not only open a huge door for my own investments, it helped me create a completely new and very lucrative business. Always think outside the box. A new business could be just around the corner for you.
Brett Young, Valley Realty http://www.wealthbuildingequity.com/

Doing the lease option thing

Lease options are a great tool to use if selling your property is not an feasible. In 2002-2003, I completed 3 lease options. The homes were in Mesa, Chandler, and Phoenix. I had remodeled the homes and at the time sales were soft, so I lease optioned them. (This happened right before the Boom). My profit margin was $20,000 on each home, with a $2500 lease option premium paid at the beginning of each option.
The chandler home was very nice. The optionee lived in the property for several months, then sub-leased it to a tenant. After some time, he sold the home to the tenant for a great profit. He closed the transaction within the term of the lease option and I made my $20,000.
The Mesa home also closed on time. The optionee made the payments and repaired his credit. There was considerable equity in this home also. However, when the time came to close, the optionee did not have the $2900 needed to cover the closing costs. I could have taken the house back at a huge profit, but I like win, win situations. I lent him the money, at a very nice return of course ($2900) and put a second on the home. After 60 days he refinanced and repaid me for the loan. (I talked to his loan officer ahead of time to and made sure he was going to be successful doing that.) I netted my $20,000, plus the $2500 option premium and the $2900 interest for the loan for a nice $25,400 profit. And the optionee happily took ownership with a nice equity position.
The Phoenix deal was a single mom that worked as a nurses assistant. She made great tamales for Christmas and paid her lease payment each month on time. With a little help, she closed the property on time.
All these options closed because I managed them. I made sure each optionee had a loan officer to help them with credit and financing. I also met with the appraisers to make sure the lenders had the true value of each home.
Remember, in order to make money with Lease Options you need to leave a little money (equity) on the table. That way the buyer has some incentive to close the deal. If the option is at market price at the time of closing, good luck! And “work the deal”. Some optionees need some help getting the deal done. Also, BE SURE there is plenty of profit in it for you!
Brett Young, Valley Realty http://www.wealthbuildingequity.com/

Making Money with signs

One of my investors had purchased a home on Mulberry in Phoenix. We got a great buy and started construction on it immediately. We had a new contractor that started and look promising. I put my sign in the yard! To me that's like a free billboard.

As we were doing the construction the neighbor came over and informed me they wanted to sell their home. I went back did some comps and met them the next day. They were very nice people and the home needed a lot of fix up. I told them that they could sell it only if they wanted to fix it up. They didn't have the money to do that. So I made them an offer to purchase their home for cash. They accepted my offer and I placed the home in escrow.

In the mean time a family came by and bought the home that we had just remodeled. Of course the client was very happy and the was the important thing. One day I was over there for the inspection and another couple came by and wasn't happy they didn't get that home. I informed them that the home across the street was in escrow and that I would be willing to sell it to them at a discount.

I marked the home up $10K and sold it to them. That is called Whole selling and it's a great way to make a quick profit. But it wasn't over yet! Their was another young lady that came buy and liked the home also. I told her that the home was sold and that I had sold the one across the street.

She explained to me what she wanted and I found her a home also. Altogether in this transaction I sold 3 homes and mad over $30,000. All because I made people notice that I was doing work in that one home by putting a sign out there. Remember there are many ways to market and you can do it pretty much everywhere.

Brett Young Valley Realty http://www.wealthbuildingequity.com/

Getting the most for your apprasial

The one thing I think people don't understand about appraisals is that the appraisal is just that persons opinion and not written in stone. A value is attached to your property this way and I'll tell you a story of a home that I had to deal with this.

I had a home in Phoenix that an investor had bought. We bought, remodeled and sold the home for our client. I always took before and after pictures for my files. I also made sure the appraiser got a copy of those pictures. This would prove that we had indeed remodeled it. Being a good realtor I also gave him sold's in that area to back up my selling price.

I gave that to our buyers appraiser so that we would get the price we needed. I got a call on Friday night that he came up $5,000 short on my projected price. If you know me I get pretty steamed about these matters concerning my clients and immediately told that I did not except that opinion. He said what do you mean by that, I said put that quote in your circular file(trash can)! Your opinion of this home is wrong I'll get someone who has a $5,000 better opinion of this property.

I did get another quote and added my $5,000 and learned a valuable lesson that appraisals are not recorded anywhere for the public to see. So if you want to either help your client's or your own homes value remember that you can get as many appraisals as you want. Make sure you have solds to back up what you think the home is worth. You can get the best solds from licensed Realtors and they can help you get those values if you are not a realtor.

You may need to switch mortgage companies. If you call them and pick up your package (it is your information you provided therefore it's yours) from them (the mortgage company) you can take that to the next mortgage company to expedite your underwriting.

Remember never give up if you have the evidence to backup your opinion!

Brett Young Valley Realty
http://www.wealthbuildingequity.com/