Carlos

I think, more importantly than hiring a realtor, find an experience property manager or tenant placement expert in your area. Sure most of the time, this qualified individual will be a realtor as well. But the idea is to find someone who specializes in leasing. These days, I have found so many agents who are in the rental market just because it's HOT and they do not have the marketing experience needed to handle rentals.

So look for a property manager or an agent who has experience in rentals. In the meantime, do some marketing of your own to begin lining up prospects (then allow a pro, when you find one, to take over and screen those tenants if you DO get some inquiries). You can use free websites to post your listing. Craigslist.org, kijiji.com, backpage.com, and for a fee you can list on rentals.com

Again, all these sites may get you some hits and tenant inquiries, but I 110% recommend you allow a management company to handle further advertising, scrfeening/qualifying, etc for your properties potential tenants. You will be looking at anywhere from about 70%-105% of one months rent for tenant placement. And 10% of monthly rent is pretty standard for monthly management services.

Best of luck,

Carlos http://www.shortsalesforrealestateagents.com - Fri Oct 3 2008, 07:55

There are couple different avenues with foreclosures and they should be researched well in advance depending on what you are able to handle.

First of all an actual foreclosure would be, in my opinion, when you go to the court house and bid at the court auction on the home that is being foreclosed. At that moment (in Orange County, FL) you would have to pay about 5% in cash or cashiers check then have to come up with the rest of the money in cash or cashiers check along with the court fee in about 2 hours from the time you win the bid. Needless to say, you need to have the cash in hand. With this situation, you need to have really done a lot more research than with any other foreclosure situation as there is more risk (other mortgages, knowing lien priority, taxes, etc.) And you will most likely not have seen the home inside and would have to assume estimated repair costs.

Foreclosure type #2 would be where a home in pre-foreclosure where you would either be paying cash to settle the owners loan (which these days doesnt make sense most of the time because most of the loans are exceeding that actual property value). You can also make an offer as a short sale where the bank would have to approve a lower sale amount than what they are owed. This is a good was to purchase a home at a BIG discount, if you can wait the extra couple weeks for the bank to make their decision on an approval. There are MANY misconceptions and fears about short sales, but besides the potential waiting time, there is not a whole lot to it. You will be able to inspect the home thoroughly and for a buyer, it is not hard to get out, if you decide you don't want the place.

Foreclosure type #3 is basically the best situation to buy in. You have a large discount, not the waiting time as in a short sale and without the risk of buying at the court house. Look into these and dont hesitate to make an offer. Although most should be priced right, make sure your agent still runs some comps to and negotiates aggressively to get your the lowest price possible.

Best of Luck,

Carlos http://www.shortsalesforrealestateagents.com - Tue Sep 30 2008, 09:22

Having worked with investment property for a long time I saw this all the time. Mostly with vacant property but it is still a risk if you don't take the time to change the codes frequently and even then there are a lot of problems that can arrise from a non-agent gaining access to the keys for a property.

Just be straight up with the agents who may be doing this. Get serious with them about how this is not smart to do. And with the supra key? That's another extreme, not only are they giving the code to a buyer, but they are loaning their supra key which can give people access to any listed home with a supra key!

There is a very very very thin line between what is ok to do here and what can ultimately be extremely risky.

Carlos http://www.shortsalesforrealestateagents.com - Tue Sep 30 2008, 08:39

I agree 110% with everyone that this is DEF. not the first time any of us have heard this. You were right expecting that a company like Remax would take care of you with education and training. The fact that they failed to do so does not surprise me these days. Wanting to become a top producer should not depend upon the company you work for. Although it would definitely help because of the amount of advertising that a place like remax does, it almost creates a sense of dependence that I see in many agents in your situation. Once they do decide to go to a smaller, more INdependent office, they find themselves unable to generate the business they were generating in the past.

In MY opinion, it is more important to learn how to be a great marketer. To learn how to generate leads and turn those leads into solid buyers or sellers and to get those buyers and sellers to then work hard for you in referring your constant business. Cold call if you have to, create an email newsletter for your buyers and sellers, knock on some doors, have a website with all your information, attend home buyer seminars and even write to your local paper about a certain topic to see if you can land an interview. Be perceived as the expert in your area. Most of all, in a market like todays, be creative. Learn other strategies for your buyers and sellers. Brush up on financing, investors, short sales, BPO's, Bank owned properties, etc.
I know learning the legalities and how to correctly fill out a contract is important, but there are easy ways to figure that out, and you will only be confused with the first one or two you do. Once you learn to STOP relying on a place like remax to provide you with business, it will not matter where you work, the leads will never stop and you WILL be that top producer you are wanting to become.

BEST OF LUCK...and STAY PRODUCTIVE

Carlos http://www.shortsalesforrealestateagents.com - Tue Sep 30 2008, 08:32

There are many companies you can sign up with that will provide you with BPO orders. You should stay in touch with them and let them klnow you are interested until you begin receiving orders. Once you have completed a few of them, it'll be a breeze.
Shoot me a message, I have put together some information to help agents get involved and signed up with doing BPO's.

Stay Productive,

Carlos Herrera http://www.shortsalesforrealestateagents.com - Tue Sep 30 2008, 08:15