All Encompassing Mortgage and Real Estate Thread

[Gil Bang 26230]

What I've seen is a lot of consolidation in the industry. 

I had a client that was buying a home with a PPA, and the paper had changed hands 3 times.  It took over 30 days to get the client qualified with the solar company. 

[kmac30 416]

Any realtor referrals in Burnet county? Asking for a client, so I need them to know their shit.

[UTPhil2006 3930]

2 hours ago, kmac30 said:

Any realtor referrals in Burnet county? Asking for a client, so I need them to know their shit.

Thad.  We've sold a few there and he's been looking at homes for himself in the area as well so he knows it.

[Storm the Field 5366]

So, when are you scheduling the next GO/OF area happy hour? I believe my upcoming closing merits one.

Them's the rules.

[UTPhil2006 3930]

18 hours ago, Storm the Field said:

So, when are you scheduling the next GO/OF area happy hour? I believe my upcoming closing merits one.

Them's the rules.

You are correct sir. Definitely before football season. 

[UTPhil2006 3930]

Close to 5 month lows at 2.85 on the 10 year.

[UTPhil2006 3930]

On 8/10/2018 at 6:36 AM, kmac30 said:

Any realtor referrals in Burnet county? Asking for a client, so I need them to know their shit.

Did you get my email?

[GlenFromTheMailRoom 1640]

@UTPhil2006 Need recommendations for a custom builder in the Austin area.  We're getting stupid high estimates ($300+ a sq ft) for an addition to our house so the wife and I said fuck it, we're just going to build a new one.  We have the plans all done and are looking at lots now.  

[UTPhil2006 3930]

25 minutes ago, GlenFromTheMailRoom said:

@UTPhil2006 Need recommendations for a custom builder in the Austin area.  We're getting stupid high estimates ($300+ a sq ft) for an addition to our house so the wife and I said fuck it, we're just going to build a new one.  We have the plans all done and are looking at lots now.  

Yep, we've got a few depending on the scope of the project.  Shoot me an email to pdubord@prodigymbo.com and give me the lowdown.

[GlenFromTheMailRoom 1640]

31 minutes ago, UTPhil2006 said:

Yep, we've got a few depending on the scope of the project.  Shoot me an email to pdubord@prodigymbo.com and give me the lowdown.

email sent.  let me know if you need any additional info.

[luke duke 6449]

So, when are you scheduling the next GO/OF area happy hour? I believe my upcoming closing merits one.
Them's the rules.

I think that he needs to host a tailgate party for his customers. I know a guy who can help.

[UTPhil2006 3930]

40 minutes ago, luke duke said:

 

I think that he needs to host a tailgate party for his customers. I know a guy who can help.

 

I will have Thad reach out to you on that.

[luke duke 6449]

6 hours ago, UTPhil2006 said:

I will have Thad reach out to you on that.

Sounds good to me.

[Stunns38 3805]

[mention=530]UTPhil2006[/mention] Need recommendations for a custom builder in the Austin area.  We're getting stupid high estimates ($300+ a sq ft) for an addition to our house so the wife and I said fuck it, we're just going to build a new one.  We have the plans all done and are looking at lots now.  

PM Hellraiser97 as well.

[52-80 19377]

we're inching towards getting a close soon ... finally ... in what should have been the easiest transactional thing in the world this has been an extraordinarily annoying PITA

[UTPhil2006 3930]

6 hours ago, 52-80 said:

we're inching towards getting a close soon ... finally ... in what should have been the easiest transactional thing in the world this has been an extraordinarily annoying PITA

Yeah, on the whole, they're way more analytical on loans these days, even the slam dunk ones.

[Murfdogg21 4563]

On 8/20/2018 at 9:59 AM, GlenFromTheMailRoom said:

@UTPhil2006 Need recommendations for a custom builder in the Austin area.  We're getting stupid high estimates ($300+ a sq ft) for an addition to our house so the wife and I said fuck it, we're just going to build a new one.  We have the plans all done and are looking at lots now.  

This is where we were a year ago. The cost to add on was stupid high and even with the addition it wouldn’t have been ideal past 5 years from now, plus little or no ROI based on house layout. We cashed out of our old house and designed a new construction with David Weekley. We spent less (over the sale price of our home minus realtor commissions and closing costs) than if we had done the add-on at the old place, and got to design the house more or less exactly how we wanted it finished out. Upgrayyed. 

[UTPhil2006 3930]

10 year down to 2.82

[Storm the Field 5366]

Wife and I closed on a tear-down on Friday. First major step in our upcoming year+ long process of building our dream house from scratch. I know several guys on shaggy were looking into doing the same before the site's demise, so will try and provide occasional updates on the process.

Happy to provide my full recommendation to contact Phil for help with your financing needs. Have used his services twice now, both on my original home purchase and now on the new project.

Edited August 27, 2018 by Storm the Field

[52-80 19377]

how do yall go about selecting house and/or household insurance coverage

[UTPhil2006 3930]

21 hours ago, Storm the Field said:

Wife and I closed on a tear-down on Friday. First major step in our upcoming year+ long process of building our dream house from scratch. I know several guys on shaggy were looking into doing the same before the site's demise, so will try and provide occasional updates on the process.

Happy to provide my full recommendation to contact Phil for help with your financing needs. Have used his services twice now, both on my original home purchase and now on the new project.

Thanks bud!

[Hmbre97 6337]

any R.E. pros mind if I run a couple questions by them about a rental/landlord situation?

[UTPhil2006 3930]

15 minutes ago, Hmbre97 said:

any R.E. pros mind if I run a couple questions by them about a rental/landlord situation?

You can PM me if you'd like.

[Gil Bang 26230]

I'm down.  But I'm not an expert on Texas law.  

[Errestaurants 2570]

Anyone have any experience selling their home through the non-traditional channels, like Redfin? looking to save some money by not having to pay the full 6% commission. Thanks in advance.

[Gil Bang 26230]

You get what  you pay for.  

And you shouldn't have to pay 6% anyway. 

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

You get what  you pay for.  

And you shouldn't have to pay 6% anyway. 

Exactly. Negotiate that way down. 

There is an interesting dynamic I've seen at play the last, I'll say 24 months (I bought a house at the turn of 2018, but first got a realtor and started looking in late 2016), in Texas:

There is such a low barrier to entry to be a real estate agent (e.g. $2400, finding a broker, your time) that the market has absolutely flooded with realtors. Everyone read something about real estate and California expats and Cost of living and Businesses moving that it seems all the stay at home moms jumped in to make some extra income. There is a glut of realtors to choose from and for that reason alone, you can't really negotiate down what they accept.

Two anecdotes;

I have a friend whose wife is in real estate. After crunching the time/numbers (time away from kids, driving people around, open houses, etc.) for what she makes (say, 1.5% on a $300k home), they deduced she wasn't actually really making much of a living and would be better served staying home while he focused on his higher income career.

An uber driver I had recently decried everyone getting into the game and, while the demand is/was high and houses were being bought like crazy, the opportunities to sell actually was reduced due to the sheer amount of representation that flooded the scene. He's position is that he will make more money if/when a housing correction comes and separates the wheat (professionals like him who didn't just wake up out of bed in 2015 and get a license) from the chaff.

[Gil Bang 26230]

I don't really disagree.  A TON of new agents get in the business, and a TON of agents leave the business after a year or two.  It's too fucking expensive to stay in if you're not successful.  It seems that the first deal is the easiest.  Everybody gets that first one under their belt, thinks that they are on the road to getting rich, and then hit a fucking wall. 

[Gil Bang 26230]

I have a friend whose wife is in real estate. After crunching the time/numbers (time away from kids, driving people around, open houses, etc.) for what she makes (say, 1.5% on a $300k home), they deduced she wasn't actually really making much of a living and would be better served staying home while he focused on his higher income career.

 

That part of ORC's post is really interesting, and it's one of the reasons that I'm really happy to be in an expensive part of the country.  I work the lower-middle, and my average sale is in the neighborhood of $600,000.    I've never actually done the math...I probably should.  Selling a $800,000  house takes the exact same amount of work as selling a 400,000 house, although the expenses and expectations do go up with the price...for example, on the $800,000 house, I'm spending more on photography (maybe using a drone guy), brochures/flyers, maybe hosting a brokers cocktail open house, etc.  But still, the commissions are doubled. 

[LCHorn 2750]

53 minutes ago, OatmealRaisinCookie said:

Exactly. Negotiate that way down. 

There is an interesting dynamic I've seen at play the last, I'll say 24 months (I bought a house at the turn of 2018, but first got a realtor and started looking in late 2016), in Texas:

There is such a low barrier to entry to be a real estate agent (e.g. $2400, finding a broker, your time) that the market has absolutely flooded with realtors. Everyone read something about real estate and California expats and Cost of living and Businesses moving that it seems all the stay at home moms jumped in to make some extra income. There is a glut of realtors to choose from and for that reason alone, you can't really negotiate down what they accept.

Two anecdotes;

I have a friend whose wife is in real estate. After crunching the time/numbers (time away from kids, driving people around, open houses, etc.) for what she makes (say, 1.5% on a $300k home), they deduced she wasn't actually really making much of a living and would be better served staying home while he focused on his higher income career.

An uber driver I had recently decried everyone getting into the game and, while the demand is/was high and houses were being bought like crazy, the opportunities to sell actually was reduced due to the sheer amount of representation that flooded the scene. He's position is that he will make more money if/when a housing correction comes and separates the wheat (professionals like him who didn't just wake up out of bed in 2015 and get a license) from the chaff.

Yeah, it’s not like this started happening in the last 24 months.  The average realtor sells one house a month.  It’s been this way forever, and they aren’t in it for the money, it’s sell houses or Mary Kay.

Its not unusual for some of the lower-profile firms to have pages and pages of little old lady realtors working for them.  It’s a sales job-you have to have a lot of skins on the wall to still have success in your 50’s.  

[Gil Bang 26230]

13 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

Yeah, it’s not like this started happening in the last 24 months.  The average realtor sells one house a month.  It’s been this way forever, and they aren’t in it for the money, it’s sell houses or Mary Kay.

Its not unusual for some of the lower-profile firms to have pages and pages of little old lady realtors working for them.  It’s a sales job-you have to have a lot of skins on the wall to still have success in your 50’s.  

 I know plenty of agents in their 50's that do quite well, and they don't have to work that hard to do it.  It's all about that referral base.  If you've been successful for a decade or more, you get repeat customers, you get siblings and friends and neighbors of past customers, etc.   The newbies have to work their asses off.  And they often do it as a "team member" of an older, more successful agent. 

Edited August 29, 2018 by Gil Bang

[UTPhil2006 3930]

37 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

 It's all about that referral base.  If you've been successful for a decade or more, you get repeat customers, you get siblings and friends and neighbors of past customers, etc.   

This. x100.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Gil Bang said:

 I know plenty of agents in their 50's that do quite well, and they don't have to work that hard to do it.  It's all about that referral base.  If you've been successful for a decade or more, you get repeat customers, you get siblings and friends and neighbors of past customers, etc.   The newbies have to work their asses off.  And they often do it as a "team member" of an older, more successful agent. 

Sounds a lot like the President of my HOA. He writes up commercial insurance policies for businesses I guess, is the gist of it, but he's somehow hung his shingle to do it. He's been doing it for like 35 years and just coasts to a baseline of $XX,XXX in commissions every year he can bank on and it's just mailbox money as he's well into late 70's.

I only know this because he took a 10% cut off the check we sent for our HOA insurance policy because he was the broker or something lol.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

I have a friend whose wife is in real estate. After crunching the time/numbers (time away from kids, driving people around, open houses, etc.) for what she makes (say, 1.5% on a $300k home), they deduced she wasn't actually really making much of a living and would be better served staying home while he focused on his higher income career.

 

That part of ORC's post is really interesting, and it's one of the reasons that I'm really happy to be in an expensive part of the country.  I work the lower-middle, and my average sale is in the neighborhood of $600,000.    I've never actually done the math...I probably should.  Selling a $800,000  house takes the exact same amount of work as selling a 400,000 house, although the expenses and expectations do go up with the price...for example, on the $800,000 house, I'm spending more on photography (maybe using a drone guy), brochures/flyers, maybe hosting a brokers cocktail open house, etc.  But still, the commissions are doubled. 

My realtor told me, when I was looking, that if you are looking for a house in the $280-350k mark, you have to be a combination of patient, stubborn, crazy, bored, and competitive, but I guess that's the sweet spot for realtors around here because they are in such high demand and you don't need to do much work, if any at all, to sell them in hours/days and earn a commission (hence the "why dont i just FSBO myself and save the money" comments).

Edited August 29, 2018 by Guest

[Errestaurants 2570]

Ok. Which one of you will sell my house for 4% commission?  N.Fort Worth. Thanks in Advance. 

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Errestaurants said:

Ok. Which one of you will sell my house for 4% commission?  N.Fort Worth. Thanks in Advance. 

You should hang on a little longer-- everything I've heard from friends in the DFW area is that the N. FTW area is seen as the new "value" area to get the most bang for your buck while maintaining decent schools and other demographics and will probably really appreciate well in the near/short-term.

[Errestaurants 2570]

You should hang on a little longer-- everything I've heard from friends in the DFW area is that the N. FTW area is seen as the new "value" area to get the most bang for your buck while maintaining decent schools and other demographics and will probably really appreciate well in the near/short-term.

Well i can hold out for the right price but im not sure my neighborhood has much more appreciation in it. Im in Saginaw. Im moving to East Texas to be closer to my inlaws and our ranch. Wife is going to work in Tyler.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[UTPhil2006 3930]

 

On 8/27/2018 at 4:25 PM, 52-80 said:

how do yall go about selecting house and/or household insurance coverage

Start to see what kind of bundles you get with your current auto .  Some clients ask us who we prefer locally.  Really I would say just shop and find a rep you're comfortable with.

[MNLonghornFUKM 8975]

Sold our house in contingency that the buyer( who's a realtor herself) sells hers which was just listed today.

 

Huge potential monkey off our back since our new construction is supposed to close in mid November.

 

I was getting in the beginning stages of getting a tad nervous

 

[Gil Bang 26230]

well,  you should stay nervous.  Contingencies suck.  Did your agent do a market analysis of the buyer's home to make sure it's priced appropriately and will appraise for the asking price? 

I avoid contingent deals at all cost.    

 

[Catpfish 618]

Even though the buyer is a realtor, that doesn't mean that they will price their home appropriately and do what is required to sell.  

[MNLonghornFUKM 8975]

On 9/7/2018 at 3:31 PM, Gil Bang said:

well,  you should stay nervous.  Contingencies suck.  Did your agent do a market analysis of the buyer's home to make sure it's priced appropriately and will appraise for the asking price? 

I avoid contingent deals at all cost.   I thought it was cheaper too considering that bough it for about 8K less a year ago. painted up the inside some and its good starter home at a very buyer friendly price of 164

he told me they listed it cheaper than he thought they would. 

Edited September 8, 2018 by MNLonghornFUKM

[YChang 3566]

About to spend the first week in our house — props to Phil & Thad! They're good people and took care my mortgage needs. Also clearly their staff are well trained — saved my butt from a potential scam of wiring my closing money to a total stranger. 

[Dbeasy 15561]

About to spend the first week in our house — props to Phil & Thad! They're good people and took care my mortgage needs. Also clearly their staff are well trained — saved my butt from a potential scam of wiring my closing money to a total stranger. 

Can’t emphasize enough how important it is to have those instructions right, and to ignore emails. A ton of money could be gone in an instant. I just finished a transaction and quadruple checked it.

[T’Boo Ted Marshall 2779]

I think the answer to my question is no but I’ll ask.
Wife bought our current house in her maiden name prior to our marriage.
I have a condo I bought years ago and converted to rental after we got married. I can’t sell my condo and do a 1031 to make our current house a rental right?

[Gil Bang 26230]

4 hours ago, Dbeasy said:

 

Can’t emphasize enough how important it is to have those instructions right, and to ignore emails. A ton of money could be gone in an instant. I just finished a transaction and quadruple checked it.

 

Fuck yes.  I tell my clients 100 times on every deal to be careful of wire scams. The CA assn. of Realtors even now has a mandatory form that the clients must sign

[UTPhil2006 3930]

On 9/8/2018 at 5:32 PM, YChang said:

About to spend the first week in our house — props to Phil & Thad! They're good people and took care my mortgage needs. Also clearly their staff are well trained — saved my butt from a potential scam of wiring my closing money to a total stranger. 

Thanks bud!  And yeah so glad we caught that.  

[South Austin 53220]

On ‎9‎/‎8‎/‎2018 at 5:36 PM, Dbeasy said:

Can’t emphasize enough how important it is to have those instructions right, and to ignore emails. A ton of money could be gone in an instant. I just finished a transaction and quadruple checked it.

 

 

This shit is happening all too commonly.  One of my good clients is a title company, and it's general counsel told me that he suspects a lot of these scams originate from realtors who conduct their business in coffee shops or other places that don't have secure Wi-Fi networks.  All crooks need is an opening to access documents in a transaction file, and they get names, addresses, draft settlement statements -- everything you need to create a dummy email to a buyer with seemingly plausible instructions for wiring of closing proceeds.

[Storm the Field 5366]

We got targeted twice leading up to our closing by bogus email accounts that tried to provide "updated" wire transfer instructions in sloppily-written english.

Be extra careful in verifying the email addresses that contact you when getting ready to close on a house. Scammers have apparently thoroughly infiltrated the email accounts of title companies and realtors, and go out phishing when they see talk of closing dates or wire transfers pop up.

Decent chance you'll get an email during the time leading up to closing that says your wire transfer needs to be arranged within the next 24 hours in order to close on time and they'll provide wire transfer instructions These guys build email accounts that look similar to the realtors/mortgage/title people you've been dealing with. They'll even steal the signature block and logos. Make sure to check the actual address. Instead of something like "Stormthefield@titlecompany.com" it will instead be something like "Stormthefieldtitlecompany@gmail.com."

If you respond to their email saying you're forwarding it to the FBI, they'll usually leave you alone after that.

[Storm the Field 5366]

Too late to edit, but wanted to add that you should not listen to any email concerning wire transfer instructions, nor should you accept any INCOMING phone call regarding same.

A day or two before closing, call the title company on a direct phone line and have them provide you with their wire transfer account instructions. Then call your bank directly and provide them with that information. You can even set up an extra layer of security with a password or something you have to call and provide on closing day before they will release funds.