Caleb Yamanaka's Discussions

I think that Buyer's Agent incentives are wrong.  I think where Agents get in trouble is that they push one way or the other.  A good Agent will only speak to facts and not push their client either way on a decision... following that logic an incentive shouldn't help either way, because if your home is priced correctly, or in the right location, etc,  then a good Buyer's Agent will point it out to their client.  I would put that incentive into something marketed towards your potential Buyer.

How many similar homes on market in your area?  What has been the absorption rate over the past 3 months?  If your area is adding new homes on the market versus taking them off I would suggest a much more aggresive pricing strategy. 

And let me give you another piece of advice. Do not blindly trust anyones valuation system. For instance, I know many appraisers in this area use this income approach to appraising rental property. However, what they do is take the average cap rate for an area, and then value the property based on that. While that is normal Appraising Practice, I do not trust it for myself. The reason why is very very simple. 90% of real estate investors are not very good. So if they are buying it at say 6% cap rate, I don't trust it. JimSulli, best advice on this string.  Silver, you need to develop your own valuation system.  You need to have a way of taking the raw data that can be provided by your agent and crunch your own numbers to figure out what is a good deal within your own parameters. I disagree with Corona.  There are opportunities in every market, but you don't want to follow the crowd.  If people in your area are bidding up REO's, you probably don't want to be bidding on REO's.  Just because the market is dropping like an anvil doesn't mean there aren't deals out there.  

Sorry

So

damn type O's Corona I guess I read your string wrong earlier.  I agree Silver should probably keep educating herself on the market before moving in.  Its becoming clearer that she needs to really decide on her own investment strategy and the market around her before doing anything. The biggest mistake you can make is to take everything your Agent says as gospel.  Unless the Agent has a proven track record of putting his/her clients into solid investments.  I would ask for him/her to show you what deals and possibly to meet and talk to his clients that he/she has helped put into good situations.

Supercub, You don't offer a criminal a gun and assume it's his ultimate decision to pull the trigger on you or not. Whose the criminal? Anyway I agree that we do have bad apples in the industry, but those bad apples are a product of the publics want to cut costs, publics belief that they can do the job themselves and only need Agent to list on the mls... As in any industry when you try to cut corners and cut costs you leave yourself open to those bad apples.  How do you regulate that?  I'm not sure.    

In all these posts it seems to fall on either one side or the other.  DO NOT BUY REAL ESTATE vs THIS IS THE BEST TIME TO BUY.  Every market is different and even certain niches in those markets.  What are the best deals in your area?  What are the most overexposed/overrated deals in you area?

real estate as with any market is cyclical.  we probably will not see the same reasons for a downturn or recession, but we will see a downturn and a recession just as we will see an uptick and boom in the market.  DbtsNMesses, everything is preventable in hindsight. 

I have talked to a dozen realtors in the past year and all to a T have told me after I told them the price was to high and I couldn't comfortably afford it, tell me, they can get me a loan at any price and make the payments work. fair enough.  A related issue.  We do not have this problem so much on my small island, but i have seen it in Las Vegas and California where Real Estate offices are also Mortgage Brokers.  To me this is a huge conflict of interst... maybe that would be the first place you could regulate.  If I'm selling you property I shouldn't be the one also qualifying you for the property.  There is too much to lose to tell you the truth... On the other hand Buyer's and Seller's need to be somewhat smart about this also... By the way in your list of criminals you included pretty much everybody that is part of the transaction process except for the Buyer's.  Everybody was criminal in this last market cycle.  I will agree to that.