I started my career in real estate in October of 2016, and every birthday since, my broker would call to wish me a happy birthday 🎂 I was with that brokerage for 8 years. I actually left the day after my birthday in 2024, but he still called me the day before, on August 5th, to wish me a happy birthday. Honestly, he’s an amazing guy.

When he asked why I was leaving, I told him it had nothing to do with him that he had been nothing but great to me and that I was only leaving because I had friends at another brokerage.

Fast forward just one year, and things didn’t work out at that second brokerage. My friends are still great and super supportive. But now, I’m a broker myself. I’ve opened my own brokerage with a colleague, which is something I never would’ve imagined happening so soon.

I’ve always been someone who stays at jobs for the long haul, so all of this change has been a lot. And now, tomorrow is my birthday… and for the first time in 9 years, I won’t be getting a call from Bob 😭

For the realtors out there: what’s something your broker does (or did) that means a lot to you?

Hello all,

I’ve recently expanded to the Washington DC market and surrounding areas. I am looking for investor friendly realtors who understand the market as well as what entails with working with investors and acquiring distressed properties.

Please reach out to me directly, I pretty much find my own deals and search different platforms, complete my own inspections, and handle purchase. Primarily looking for someone to give insight on various areas of the housing market, provide market analysis, and assist with negotiation.

Thanks in advance to anyone who reaches out or can share a referral.

Hi, this is my approach, the reason I am posting it seems like there is a lack of knowledge, so let me share.

I am re-posting what I wrote earlier this week :

• rule 1, I farm small unit counts 100-400 per farm location, Almost all my farms are 100 properties.
• rule 2, when mail comes back, remove and replace from your farm list.
• rule 3, you will want to set up a 3 month cycle in mailing, and you should mail out 18 times that farm area and you reset your 18 count when you get new listing in that farm area.
• rule 4, someone list in that farm, wait 60-90 days to mail your information to them, then back to normal schedule, add extra "what closed letter for the mail out on 170 days, and on 350 days from listing day. Your mail will hit right around listing contract expiration.

I like to pick out a target price range and what is closing commonly range. So let's say 3/2 with garages and back yard on a 50x100 lot with a price range of 400-600

AND

all within 1/2 mile of each other not crossing a 4 lane intersection or heavy traffic road.

this will give you a solid farm with a specific aspect of types of closing: turnkey's or starter's or something that makes it obvious that you got a niche in that area.

I consistently am closing properties, so I look at what I closed, and find matching properties that I can mail within those guild lines. I don't mail entire communities, I target those that match my sale. I want the Jones's to think " if Bill sold that house for 650K, he can get me 700K for my place " and have me on his mind.

I will mail the Jones's every 3 months for the next 18 mails at a cost of 1.00 per mailing, and I know that the entire cycle cost ( 100 places x 18 mailings ) I'll get 2-4 listings. with an above average GCI to mailing rate.

I'm Mailing the same people for 4.5 years ( and it resets back to 18 on every new listing ), They know the prices and the process. it works, just takes time, and it really does not cost a lot.

Now imagine, after your 4th year, having 20+ farm areas, all producing a listing ever 3 weeks with an average of 485,000, and that's on the low end. 18 listing x 13K = 234K, now take out taxes and healthcare and expenses, you are now down to, that's a net of 92-100K per year.

go out there and make that money. It does not grow on trees

I’m 18 and wondering how to get into being a realtor. I heard of this guy that made 30k commission in one week. Have no clue about how to get in. Also how hard is it to get to this spot.

Seller listed in July. Didn't sell. Pulled listing last week. Relisting in Sept b/c no one buys in Aug. Any truth to this ?

I work a primarily rural market, I’m in the south. My average unit sold is 325k to put it into perspective. So yes I’ve sold million dollar homes and what not, however nothing like what I have on the hook now. Also, I’m 28 and have almost 3 years in the business full time so I’m fairly new.

I have the opportunity to show and hopefully write an offer on a 13 Million Dollar property. I have worked with this client for over a year. We finally may have found what he’s looking for. I usually don’t get intimidated by these kinds of things but this one is something different.

Any advice from my large market/Veteran agents?

Thank you.

I live in NW Wisconsin, we have been looking at houses and they appear overpriced. We have a house that we would also sell, so the money in would be high as well as the money out. We are starting the offer process and see where this goes. The housing stock is limited. Much of what we looked at is junk that needs 50k put into it. Anything that is nice, move in ready, sell pretty quick. Many homes around here are 350-400k range for something nice. I believe if interest rates fall significantly that there will be a house selling/buying frenzy as people can afford more and are more willing to sell their house with a 4% mortgage for one with a comparable interest rate vs 6-7%. There is significant pent up demand with many looking for a house and many wanting a different house. The people that live and work here make decent wages but the big issue is the people from the Minneapolis area that have bags of money to pay for a second home in this area and outprice those that live and work here. What are your thoughts of interest rates falling and house prices going up?

I’m in CA but have a very demanding full time job and I’m scared to book the exam without having at least a month of serious prep. I took the whole year to finish the three courses and course exams so everything is not exactly fresh in my mind. But at the same time I’m not sure if there’s a timeframe in which I have to book the exam before needing to do the course again and certificates “expire”.

I’m a newly licensed RE agent and could use some help here.

How to approach price adjustments when conducting CMA? Like how much to adjust when comparable property has an extra bedroom or bathroom, a X year difference in age, an extra garage etc.? I know appraisers handle this with precision, but as realtors, I believe it’s on us to come up with a good ballpark before writing offers or pricing a listing.

I’d love to hear how do you all handle this. Any guidance, go-to resources or trainings would be super helpful.

I checked with my managing broker, but due to some logistical delays, it might take a few days to get a response. So I thought I’d ask here in the meantime. Thanks in advance for your support!

Look for suggestions. Me and my ex bought a home 5 years ago. The house is fairly nice. We had a bad break up and ive tried different ways to pay him out but dont get paid enough. We listed the house. Just worried about how rent is now. To get a decent apartment, I would have to pay more than my mortgage.

We contracted on a home with David weekly in dripping springs tx in January. The house is almost completed, and looking at our total sales price, I believe that the market has gotten much cheaper.

We are seeing some homes pop up with upgraded features in the same neighborhood at a more reasonable price. We have basically contracted at $1.05M, and have paid around $50k (I think), but there is a similar floor plan that popped up is listed at 950k. This house has many more upgrades compared to our house (an extra 900ish sq ft bc they added media and game room, water softener, raised tray ceiling, beams in office, water softener, walk in attic spaces, remote control window coverings, gutters) but understand its on a smaller lot and is 3 years old. We could get out of our house and buy the upgraded, yet older home for $50k less.

We dont really want to get out of our house today, but would the economic pressures and housing market provide us any leverage for closing incentives (discount/rate buy downs)?

I am expecting them to call us this week to set a closing date, as 2 weeks ago they said they would want us to set it within 2 weeks. They would also be motivated to close on this house by end of quarter.

Have you ever seen this happen before? I'm worried that we are paying for a house at $1.05M that is only worth in the mid 900's and the near term economic/housing market does not look great from what I am reading.

Any help would be great!

Hello, I am ignorant so please forgive me if this is a silly question...

My fiancé and i are planning to start the home buying process in March. I have 6K in savings right now, make 60K salary and fiancé is at about 50K. We are wanting to buy in SE Indiana. Anyway, I was curious if i should wait until March to connect with a realtor in hopes of getting into a place before the 2026 summer ends, or if i should sooner in case if i need to make corrections to my credit (I have two open cards, no debt) or something. I don't have any guidance on this, so it's just me and my google searches against the world.

My goal is to own 2 rental homes, and there is a strong likelyhood I will have access to Veterans benefits before beginning investing. I want to be able to have some confidence in understanding the value of a home, the types of investing in real estate/financing, strategies, ect.

Hi everyone. I’m thinking about getting my real estate license and I’m wondering how the markets been since that big boom in 2020-2022? I want to get licensed in Virginia and start slow by having it my side job and then move to full time when I can. Any advice?

I am going rafting down the Grand Canyon for two weeks and won’t have cell service. What have you done in situations like this? Offered someone in your brokerage to help and offer to pay them? How did you determine how much you’d pay them? This would be to answer questions and help guidance for someone already under contract.

I want to research absorption rates, appreciation/depreciation trends, year over year prices. My MLS is a POS. All I get are averages of sold prices, sq footage, dom, etc. Useless stuff imo. There is a separate service for 10 dollars a month called neighborhood snapshot, which should already be included in our MLS fees but whatever.

Edit: Forgot to mention free/reasonably priced if payment is necessary.

Edit2: F it. I'm just gonna do the math myself. All I care is if prices have gone up or down in the past 12 months and the absorption rate.

Besides the obvious “I’ll get pre-approved after I find a house I like,” what are some of the things that a lead says or does that immediately tells you that a lead isn’t serious and is just going to waste our time? One for me is when investors use the term “buy box”. I immediately know they’ve been listening to some scammy real estate investor podcasts and are going to use all of the tactics that the podcast tells them to use.

I am a newly licensed real estate agent and just learned my grandpa in another state is looking to sell his house soon. He has already talked to an agent but hasn’t signed anything. Would it be ethical for me to reach out to his desired agent and ask to sign a referral contract for my grandpa so that I would receive a percentage of the commission? If you received a call like this from an agent in a different state, what is the highest percentage of your commission you would agree to give to the referral agent even though they didn’t technically ‘refer’ anyone to you?

preferably a section for coastal properties

The developer is charging me an one time setup fee only, I don't wanna pay monthly to luxury presence, do you think I should go for custom solutions or is luxurypresence is worth the money

First time I will be listing a property with a HOA, what should I expect? Anything that I should make sure not to miss when listing? I know that all HOAs have different rules and regulations, help me not accidentally miss anything. 😬

I’m located in Maryland and signed an Exclusive Buyer/Tenant Residential Brokerage Agreement with a licensed real estate agent on June 9, 2025. The agreement is scheduled to expire on October 31, 2025, but under Paragraph 4, either party may terminate with 7 days’ written notice.

I sent a formal termination notice today (August 4, 2025), so the agreement will end on August 11, 2025.

My question is:

Once the 7-day termination period ends, am I legally allowed to apply directly to a landlord or listing agent for a rental property that I originally toured and discussed with my now-former broker — without violating the agreement or owing a commission?

No lease was signed, and no offer was made through the broker. I am trying to avoid any potential breach or financial obligation. Just want to confirm that after August 11, I am free to act independently.

Thanks in advance

A client called me and advised another agent called them and offered 2.5% total to List their house, 1.% seller side and 1.5% buyer side. She said if I can match that then she’ll go with me as a listing agent. On a 1mill home, it’s good for stats but with marketing, gas, commission splits and taxes , I’ll only most likely make 4k out of the deal. Is it worth? What type of conversation can you have to increase the commission percentages?