It’s not you. It’s me. (Or maybe it IS you!)

There are lots of reasons people decide to switch brokers. Maybe you are unhappy with what they provide or maybe it’s just that a different model fits your goals better. In most cases, as an independent contractor, switching brokerages can be easy and painless. First, let your broker know you are leaving. Believe it or not, TREC doesn’t always give us a heads-up when an agent moves their license to a different brokerage.

I know it can be an uncomfortable conversation. However, as a Broker who has received those breakup calls, I can tell you that I understand it’s business, not personal. When I receive one of those calls I wish the agent the best of luck and let them know they are welcome back anytime! After all, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side of the fence once you get over there.

On the other hand, if your broker does take it personally or makes it hard for you…well, then that’s probably a sign that you are making a good move. Next, the trickier part. Dealing with your active business.

Continue reading “Breaking up with your Broker” →

We were advised by a real estate broker when we started buying a rental property, that the market was about to tank and that we should not invest at that time. That was ten years ago. We all know what has happened instead. Since then we’ve been told by others countless times that it is not a good time to invest.

Residential real estate fluctuates along a continuum generally assessed as either a buyer’s market or a seller’s market. Equilibrium between these two is usually considered 6 months of inventory. Months of inventory means how long the current available listings would take to be snatched up if no more inventory came on the market. By these terms we’ve been in a seller’s market for as long as I can remember. This means demand is greater than supply and that sellers hold more negotiating power than buyers. We’ve been able to buy throughout the sellers market successfully by buying distressed property that is harder to sell and solving problems for our sellers. The upside to buying in this market has been that values continued to rise with the market so the equity in those properties rose too.

Continue reading “Why it’s Never a Good Time to Buy Real Estate – but why you should anyway!” →

You’ve heard it before… there are more millionaires made in Real Estate than any other industry.

But how?

Unfortunately, many hear this, go to Real Estate “School”, get their license and before they know it, they have a “job” they never intended to have. They learn how to analyze retail deals they find on their local “MLS” and help others build their wealth, but never make any of that wealth themselves.

Then it gets worse. They are required to take hours boring continuing education classes every year that tell them myths and conventional wisdom that they can NOT invest for themselves…. that somehow that will get them into trouble and put their license at risk.

Well nothing could be further from the truth.

Continue reading “StepStone University: The New Wave of Continuing Education” →

StepStone Realty is the Brokerage-Home for the Creative Real Estate Investor. But most people, even real estate agents, are not clear on what it means to be a creative real estate investor. What is creative real estate investing?

Quite simply, it’s any type of real estate transaction that doesn’t follow one of your traditional models. Traditionally, people have two options if they want to make money in real estate; either get a license and represent buyers and sellers or use a realtor to help you purchase property (that’s been listed on the MLS) and hold that property (typically as a rental) until it appreciates.

Continue reading “What Makes an Investment “Creative”?” →

Ok, ok… before we get started. Let me preface this by saying that escrow agents are awesome! They have high pressure jobs often bearing the brunt of frustrated sellers, angry buyers, impatient Realtors, slow lenders and they do it all with a smile and often a fresh baked cookie!

However, as a Realtor, you need to be very careful when taking the advice of an escrow agent when sitting at the closing table trying to resolve some kink in the closing plan.

Continue reading “Beware the Advice of the Escrow Agent” →

Folks who have taken my Understanding Agency for the Investor Agent class have likely heard me get on my soap box regarding seller’s disclosures. Unfortunately, many investors and sometimes licensed agents, put too little thought into the consequences of an improperly delivered and executed Seller’s Disclosure Notices.  Read on to hear my thoughts on best practices to avoid potential liability.

When it comes to investors and the Seller’s Disclosure Notice I see two things pretty frequently…

Continue reading “My Seller’s Disclosure Soap Box” →

It seems every day we are bombarded with competing information about the state of the housing market. Just this week we learned that the economy gained back a large portion of the GDP lost during the spring COVID-19 shut-downs.

Housing sales are back up, with a summer/fall sales increase replacing what normally occurs in the spring, and demand continues to press against low-inventory driving up home pricing.

On the flip side, distress for many homeowners is looming. As the Mortgage Bankers Association has reported, 90 day delinquency rates are at their highest level since the third quarter of 2010. And as reported by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), 10 large metropolitan areas (3 of which are in Texas!) are in serious risk of major FHA defaults with current 90 day delinquency rates exceeding 15%.

Continue reading “What Distress?” →

After hundreds of meetings with sellers, I find the best way to negotiate is to not ever negotiate. It’s a mindset change that drastically increased my level of success with homeowners, not only in purchasing their property, but also in helping to forge listing agreements as well.

It all starts with the recognition that we are not in the business of real estate. We are instead, problem solvers. Therefore, I’m not looking for a particular property, but rather opportunities to solve homeowner’s problems.

Continue reading “Best Way to Negotiate on a House? Don’t!” →

Agents often ask me if they can get their commission paid directly to their LLC entity. The answer is no… or a complicated yes.

The Texas Real Estate Commission rules indicate that a broker is only allowed to pay a commission to a licensed agent or entity. So, in general, the answer is No. However, if it’s really important to you it is possible to license your entity which would allow for commissions to be paid directly to your LLC. However, it’s a complicated process with added expenses so you will want to consider that choice carefully.

Continue reading “Can Agent Commissions be Paid to my LLC?” →

With the current economic climate, we are likely to soon see a prolonged period of “subject to” (Sub2) opportunities and owner-financed wraps. Not familiar with these concepts? Take my classes on these... they are vital concepts for making money!

So how do you know when a Sub2 deal is a “good deal”? There are really only two key concepts to look at. First is one you are already pretty familiar with: equity. If the amount of equity alone makes the deal a good one, then it’s a good deal. Remember, “Sub2” is merely a financing mechanism.

Continue reading “Is this Sub2 Deal a Good One?” →