Choosing the Right Realtor Can Save Your Thousands.

by Christopher Seder

Do you realize how life changing your choice to sell your home is? You are embarking on an amazing journey that could impact the rest of your life.  So why would you want to pick a random Billings Mt Realtor?  I know you’re like me and want to only work with the best realtor Billings MT has to offer.  Choosing the right realtor can make for a smooth ride. The wrong realtor can leave you with months of stressful days and restless nights.

So the question you are asking right now is how do I choose a good realtor?  The first way to find a good realtor is to ask your friends, neighbors and business associates who they would recommend. Even post a comment on facebook if you have a facebook.  Everyone loves to give their opinion.  When you ask these people for recommendation bug the heck out of them with questions. Ask them why they liked the realtor, what services he provided, and what their experience working with him/her was like.    This is a great way to start forming a list of realtors, but you’re not done quite yet.

The next step is to do a little research on the list of Billings MT Realtors that you have made up.  Take the list and Google them.  Find out who they are, who they work for, what kind of marketing they do, their internet presence, and pretty much stalk them on the internet.  It’s also important to find a realtor who has an online presence.  86% of home buyers start their search online.

Here is a great tip and but can be a challenge.  Find out which realtor’s in Billings Montana is closing the most transactions.  The reason for this is you will know which realtors are the hustlers.  The top five or ten realtors you know have figured out the game and know how to sell a house.  They are making it happen and they are the people you want to be working with.

Ok so you have your list, you have done your research and found out who looks like good realtors and so on.  Now you’re going to want to narrow your list down to about 3 realtors.  It’s up to you how you do this. I just recommend going with who you think looks like the very best.

Once you have your list narrowed down call all three of them and set up an appointment to meet them at your home.  The reason to meet them at your home is so they can take a good look at is and give you their opinion.  Also have them do a CMA (comparative market analysis) on your house.  This is just what similar houses are selling for in your area and will give you a good feel for what your house is worth.

When you interview them really take note of their personality and how you feel about them.  Also have a long list of questions to ask them.  Here are some example questions to ask.

• How do you plan to get my house sold?
• What is your Marketing Plan for My House or Houses you have sold?
• How many years have you been a licensed realtor in this state?
• Are you full Time?
• How to you market online?
• How many transactions did you do last year?
• How many Listing do you have?
• What other services do you provide? Home staging?
• Do you belong to the MLS? (very important)

There are just a few examples to ask them.  After you have interview them do not make a decision right away.  I know a lot of realtors who will want you to sign the listing papers right away but take a few days and evaluate them.  Go through the pros and cons of each.

In the end it all comes down to choosing the one you feel will do the best job.  Always go with your gut feeling.  After you have made your choice trust your decision and you will be fine.

Choosing a pour realtor in Billings Mt can turn an already stressful experience into a high speed car wreck.  But if you have done your home work you will choose the right realtor and he/she will make your life more amazing than it already is.  Start your Home Selling Journey today.

p.s if you would like my billings mt recommendations let me know CLICK HERE

Most real estate investors start their career off my investing around where they live.  You can venture out when you have more experience.  The reason behind investing in your back yard is because we feel more comfortable with the areas and have a better sense of what is going on.  It is also easier to get local real estate information that we need.   Investing in your local market is also cheaper to start out, there is less travel costs, you can see what you are buying and it may give you a feeling of comfort.

Pick Your Target Area

First you have to decide which part of town is the best place to invest in.  This can be determined by what kind of real estate investing you choose to do.  I have not gone over the types of real estate investing but some include rehabbing (fixing up and selling), wholesaling (finding deals and selling them to other investors), buying to rent, and there are a few others.  These are the real estate strategies that I use for the most part.   When looking at the market you need to see where other investors are buying their houses.  The best deals will be found in low to middle class neighbors hoods.  By low income neighborhoods I don’t mean drug infested war zones, what I mean is blue collar safe neighbor hoods that might have older houses and houses that are not on the higher end price side.  Now you can find deals in the higher priced neighbor hoods but most will be in the low to middle income neighborhoods.  When looking where others are buying ask local realtors, other investors or appraisers.

When talking with investors ask them several questions such as what neighborhoods they prefer, what type of houses they buy (3bed 2 bath), and what they do (rehab, rent, wholesale).  You should not look at other investors as competition but try and work with them.

Types of Markets

There are different types of markets such as appreciating markets, flat markets, and deprecating markets.  Appreciating markets are markets that there is no enough houses or a very high demand for houses which causes the price of houses to go up.   The reason there is a high demand for housing can be because of job growth, a very appealing area, or several reason.  Flat markets are markets that have no or very little growth.  This means that there is not a lot of demand; buy just enough to fill every ones needs.  Depreciating markets are where there is a lot more houses than people to fill the houses.  This causes house prices to start going down.  This can be because of a large employer leaving the area, a natural disaster or just over building.  There is an old saying buy in a bust and sell in a boom.  In depreciating markets you can pick up several deals, while in appreciating the house prices are going to be much higher and harder to find great deals.  The deal will still be out there you just have to know where to find them.

Get Help

Learning you market is another key to becoming successful.  Real estate Brokers and experts in your area can be the best source of information for you.  Learn to use them to find out what kind of market you are in.  If you are in Billings Montana we are in a pretty stable market.  Billings Montana has not seen the ups and downs that other markets have experienced.  I will have to say that I have been noticing a little bit of a downward trend but not much, the Billings Market should stay stable.  Once the first time home buyer credit is over with we might see a little more decline. Every market can vary by neighborhood, so make sure you know you market well.  I have seen the same houses just one mile apart selling for totally different prices.

“We Make Money in the a.m. and Lose it in the p.m.”   Paul Esajian

So how do you get started in Rehabbing Properties in Billings Montana?  Billings Montana is like any other city in America; you can find houses all over that need to be fixed up so that you can sell them or so they will be approved for conventional financing.   You should consider yourself a residential redeveloper.  You are making neighborhoods in your city better every day.   The process seems very simple and it can be.  You buy the house, fix it up and then sell it for a nice profit.  It’s simple enough right?  Everyone who has done a rehab before knows that it’s not that simple.  There is always something that goes wrong and it can be some very back breaking work.  What if I could help you make your rehab process easy?  Well I can do that and help you eliminate all the back breaking work.

As a residential redeveloper in Billings Montana you need to start working smarter and not harder.  Let’s jump right into where you want to get started when doing rehabs in Billings Montana.

First you need to find an ugly house to rehab in Billings Montana.  You can find these houses by asking people you know, driving around neighbor hoods, marketing or going to a Billings Montana Wholesaler.   Now all of these options take work except wholesalers who bring the deals straight to you.  With the other option you have to spend time and money talking to sellers, negioating a price and actually finding the deals.   Wholesalers do all of that for you and then sell you the property at a little higher price than what they bought it for.  Its considered there fee for finding the property for you and getting it at an amazing price.   If you would like to join my buyers list I provide wholesale deals in Billings Montana.  Go to www.BuyHomesMt.com.

The next step once you have the property bought and closed you are going to have your initial walk through.  You should have already walked through it with your wholesaler but this is more of the formal walk through.   In this walk through you are going to list out everything wrong with the property in detail.   I have a good inspection sheet that you can use to do this.   Once you have walked through and listed everything you need to list out what everything is going to cost.

After the walk through you are going to make a scope of the work that needs to be completed.   This is listing out everything that is wrong and how long each task is going to complete.

Next you need to hire a contractor to do the work for you.   I recommend when starting out you go through the property with at least three contractors and get estimates of the work that are going to do and price.  Show them the scope of work that you have developed and tell them what needs to be done.   Pick the contractor that you feel is the best, and not just the one who is going to do the cheapest work.  Also make sure the contractors are licensed, have insurance and have extensive referrals.   Never do the work that you can pay someone $10 an hour to do.  Your time is worth more than that.

The next step is you sign the contract with the contractor.   You will need an independent contractors agreement, scope of work, payment structure (never pay them up front), Insurance addendum form, w-9, and final lien waiver.

Then you need to get the contractor to work on your property.  The actual work is pretty easy.  All you have to do is manage you contractor and make sure he is doing the work.  Don’t micro manage him.  Give a little bit of freedom and you will have a happier contractor.

The final touches include cleaning up, land scaping and then staging your house to sell.

Price It Right, List and Sell.

Bonus Material

Give your house the sizzle factor.   This means giving your house a few extra improvements to make it stand out.  This helps get the buyer emotionally hooked on your property.  These include an overhead microwave, washer and dryer, granite counter tops, hard wood, stainless steel appliances and anything that makes the house more amazing.

By

Christopher Seder

www.BuyHomesMt.com