Find a Real Estate Agent

Having a good real estate agent who you are comfortable with can save you thousands of dollars on your real estate transactions. Whether you are buying or selling a home, there are many websites that will refer you to real estate agents in your neighborhood. You simply fill out a short on-line form and these sites will give your contact information to real estate agents in your area. These agents will contact you by e-mail or by phone. You will then be able to interview them, and if you like, you can arrange face-to-face interviews. Real estate agents are competing for your business.

There are many things to learn about a real estate agent before you choose one to represent you!

It is important to find out if the agent works full-time or part-time and how many other customers he/she is representing at the moment. Find out how much of the work the prospective agent will do himself, and if he has sales associates and administrative assistants as well. Find out how many years of education and experience the agent has and whether or not the broker is a Realtor®. (Brokers have more stringent licensing requirements and responsibilities. Realtors are voluntary members of the National Association of Realtors, a trade group.)

Find out how many homes the prospective agent has sold in your neighborhood. Ask if he/she can provide you with names and phone numbers of past clients who have agreed to be references. Find out how much you will have to pay, not only for the agent’s services, but for the other costs involved in your real estate transaction.

Local agents are usually most familiar with recent sales activity and will be able to recommend a good market price for your home. Ask if the agent can provide you with comparative market analysis of recent sales in your neighborhood. This should contain listing and sales prices for recently sold homes, listing prices, listing dates of homes currently for sale, detailed property descriptions (such as square footage and numbers of bedrooms and baths), suggested asking prices, information on the local housing market, advertising plans, a discussion of various listing agreements, and an analysis of sale proceeds at various price points and commission levels.

Once you have narrowed your choices down to a few agents, you should check the agent’s certifications with your state's Department of Real Estate, and make sure their licenses are in good standing. Listing agreements usually last 60 to 90 days and most consumer experts agree that a three-month listing period, or less, is best. You can renew or extend the listing agreement at anytime.

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Determine the Real Estate Financial Statistics for a Property

Before you buy an investment property it is critical that you create your own projection of the property's profitability. Real-Estate-Proforma.com has a quick-proforma with which you can calculate real estate financial statistics such as Internal Rate of Return, Capitalization Rate, Cash-on-Cash, Debt Multiplier, Loan-to -Value Ratio, Debt Coverage Ratio, and Mortgage Payments. You can use this JavaScript proforma to project the profitability of a real estate project. By becoming a member you will receive access to a number of Excel real estate proformas. membership | services

If you are analyzing another person's proforma, or you are examining a prospectus for a real estate deal, it is very important that you read the document carefully and determine how the values of the financial statistics above are being calculated. For instance, values such as the Cap Rate may be determined from overly optimistic projections of the future rental income of a property.

You can "reverse engineer" the financial projections you receive from a prospectus and/or request the Excel (or other type of) spreadsheet a developer used to create their proforma. A very useful Excel or Visual Basic macro used to check Excel formulas is available in the spreadsheet below for download. Download Mortgage Formula Excel Spreadsheet

The due-diligence you do on a potential investment may uncover a number of potential problems with a real estate deal and we suggest you research each real estate investment very carefully. There are a variety of real estate financial consultants who can help with this, but if you are like many Real-Estate-Proforma.com members, you can or are learning to do your own due-diligence.

We hope you become a more successful real estate investor by using this site! membership | services