96

I want to buy a building. (You usually find buildings like these in cities). The top floor or two floors is the residence/apartment and the bottom floor is a store). What is this called? Does anyone know of the tax implicatons of such structure? Would I go to a real estate agent who specializes in commercial realestate?

I believe they are referred to as mixed use buildings and are classified as commercial structures. Your local agent would have access to these type of properties if they are norm in your area.

I know they dont require the basement area.The area given in real estate listing is very different if you calculate on your own with the mathmatical formula= lenth * breath. If you can also tell me how realestate people calculate area of the house. They just give you the range and no body knows what is the exact area and what it covers.

Well, there’s such a thing as a "Boeck residential square foot estimator".

What you do, is measure the outside of the house, ground floor. If it’s 2 full stories, you double it – that’s the square footage. You’re right, you don’t count the basement – there’s ANOTHER place where you factor in the basement, if it’s finished, if there’s a garage there, whatever.

Your agent can SHOW you exactly how the replacement value was calculated.

REAL ESTATE listings tend to measure the INSIDE of the rooms. They don’t include bathrooms, hallways, foyers, closets, etc, just the inside measure of each room (not the two square feet BETWEEN the two rooms), and add them together. However, that’s USABLE SPACE. Insurance companies don’t REPLACE usable space, they replace WALLS. So you measure the outside of the walls.

They cant find me a home i like and want to buy,

theres usually a time limit the real estate agent has in the contract, reread it and go over it with them first.and asks questions no matter how stupid they sound to you. after all its is your time and money they’re useing

Need 2 bedroom home to rent or buy.What about daily living expenses like or less than us
how about apartment all need to be near the ocean

Prices can vary a lot, you need to establish what your budget is for renting or buying, they vary from $300- $2000 a month to rent , to buy you can say between US $50,000- 2 million.

Lic.Gregory Kearney Lawson.

I would like to know what a person has to do (tests, certifications, etc…) to become a realestate agent… and is that the same as being a broker?

Am in the Houston area if that makes any difference

Real Estate Agents much go to school to learn the laws concerning the sale and purchasing of land within your state.

You will have to pass a state exam. Being a Broker is different. That is someone with experience as a real estate agent and who has additional schooling and eventually is qualified to own their own agency.

I was researching taxes on a property in Texas, much to my amazement, I ran along a property that doesn’t have title or anyone paying taxes (I couldn’t believe that someone at the tax office missed this one) but I need some direction. Does someone know realestate law in Texas? How do I get title to the property? Thanks in advance.

The better odds are that SOMEBODY has title to the lot. You would have to do a title and chain of title search (not clear above that you did one). It is probably "part" of another tract of property. My money would be on the idea that the tax department overlooked it and some individual is benefiting by not being billed.

You could become an assistant to an agent. Agents are independant contractors, and are therefore not employess that recive standard paychecks. I’m sure your broker wouldn’t mind holding you commission checks and cutting them up weekly. I know I wouldn’t mind. I’d happily put your earnings into an intrest bearing accout and cut you a draft from it every week. You make what money you earn, you are after all a sales person. Try stepping up your selling a bit, you’ll get morre that way than you can on any weekly pay job. Or maybe just find a diffrent career.

how do i go about doing it.PLEASE HELP

You haven’t given us alot of information on what style of investing or ownership your interested in.

You could go with buying multi-family properties and landlording to obtain some valuable experience in that arena. That could be done with zero money down if you decided to also live in one of the apartments. This would allow you to build equity and cash flow to move onto larger projects.

There are many other ways to be an investor, this was just one example.

My wife and I moved to a new city 3 yrs ago for my new job. I am now able to work completely remote and we would like to move back to our home town, but the realestate market here is very poor. We really can’t think about a new home untill we feel confident ours will sell.

Any one have any alternates to listing and selling the home? Its been on the market for almost 4 months now.

Bridge loans do not look like that good of an idea, but any opinions on these?

Thanks in advance.

You have the wrong real estate agent. How long did you sign your listing for 180 days? You should have signed a 60 day lease with a 30 day roll period if you were pleased the agent was doing all in his power to sell the property. Never give more than 60 days.

Now in answer to your question about an alternative plan for your house that you want to do something with. Are you relying on this house’s equity to purchase another house in your home town?

If not then I would lease it with an option to purchase (buy) Advertise this in the local paper. This way you will be able to get a small down with a known term that you can rely on. A down payment is normally between 3-5% Non-refundable even if they do not take their option.

If they refuse or can’t exercise their option, you can offer them another new option with another down payment or get others on a new lease, doing the same thing over again.

If you feel comfortable leasing it for 2-3 years do so, make sure that your contract with the person leasing the property has a clause that all landscape is the responsibility of the person leasing the property. Also all repairs under $100.000 are the responsibility of the person leasing the property. Other damages will be negotiated at the time of the occurrence.

This will keep the maintenance calls down to a minimum, so you can have peace on weekends.

You can designate that a certain amount of the rent will be held toward the down payment of the property if and when they decide to exercise their option.

You can find lease agreements at Staples or Office Depot or any other stationary store. You may add or take away what you want to say or not say in the lease agreement. Specify the number of people that will be living there if you will allow pets and how long guest are allowed to stay (Normally 30 days) If you are going to leave any appliances there make sure they understand they will not be replaced at your expense.

There is nothing secret or so impeling about a lease that you would need any help in doing so. A person with good common sense can accomplish it without problems.

In your search for someone to lease your place you must interview them, find out about their ability to pay(Look at paystubs and 2 yrs of W-2 from each adult on the lease), length of time they have been on their job Telephone #, call Human Relations. to verify that they issued the W-2 as pay stubs. Ask for a couple of month of bank statements this will prove that they have enough for the down payment you ar asking for so that they may exercise their lease.

After you have found someone to lease the place, both you and them ahve signed the lease, give them a move in date, a set of keys and turn off all utilities.

I hope this has been of some use to you, good luck

"FIGHT ON"

i want to switch agents without getting sued

You have a contract with them. The terms cannot be changed except by mutual consent until the contract expires. Unless they release you from the contract, you have to pay them the commission the sale regardless of how the house is sold.

So Yes, you can get a new agent but you would then have to pay commission to both agents. Even if you sell it without an agent you have to pay commission.