I am really sadened over all the clients that contact us for Property Management. Sometimes only after they are too far done in the process of buying a home. Many times using an online auction site. Too late to back out or maybe they have already closed on it. All the advice or most of the help we can be shifts to making the best of a bad situation because....
1. The house may be in tier 3 area so even if we could find a tenant, they better not want to order a pizza or want cable tv or internet because those services are just not available out in outskirts of this 110 sq mile place called Lehigh Acres.
2. All the appliances, ac and water system have been stolen and there are no neighbors around to ask if they saw something
3. Nothing is was it seemed.
Well I would like to give out some tips of things to watch for when you are looking at an auction home site. 7 tips that I would like to share are included in this blog:
1. Pictures can be very forgiving- You may not see that the place is in need of paint real bad. Holes in walls don't show up well as a picture is not a 3D image. Certain angles look better than others when it comes to pictues.
2. Just because you see a nice looking place in a video or a picture doesn't mean that the place looks like that when you finally see it or have a manager see it.
The amount of work needed to make a home "tenant ready" may be more than you realize and needs to be taken into consideration before you buy. Get a pre-tenant inspection.
3. If this is your lifes savings, think before you spend it on a home that just may not meet your expectations for cash flow. Count your costs, all of them, before you take the plunge.
4. Get a Realtor involved- If an auction site will not allow you to have a buyers real esate agent- who will on your side? Who has your back? My advice walk away and find a home another way. Its too big of an investment to not have help for your interests.
5. If you are going to have it professionally managed, get them involved as early as possible. They know what is needed and will have an interest in making sure you get a good marketable rental that will be easy to place.
6. Don't be pressured by a deadline. There is plety out there and there is no deal slipping away. This is a decision that needs to be taken very seriously and methodically.
7. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is. You need eyes and ears on the ground here that represents you. Don't buy blind.
I personally don't like auction sites and not because I can't make money from them. In fact we do make money as investors still need us to get the homes tenant ready and then placing a tenant, repairs etc are ongoing on any property. I just know that they are many times not representing the properties properly. They don't have the regulaion or standards or ethics that must be adhered to by a licensed realtor.
I personally think that finding a property by a realtor helping you puts some boundries in place and lots of protection for a buyer you don't see. Oh and by the way, the buyers premium, that's usually way more than what you would pay a Realtor for a tranaction and in a lot of cases is highway robbery.
My passion for protecting my clients comes from a long list of people that were not treated fairly, honestly or appropriately while buying using an auction site. I am sure there are some good ones out there and I don't wish ill will on those ones but hopfully there will be more regulaions to protect against the not so good ones.
Cheers for now. Please check us out at http://www.aaarealtyllc.com
Tammy Rodriguez
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