Multi-Family 101 With Buyer John - CG Real Estate

While the showing did not result in a sale, nonetheless I thanked John for the hour he spent with me.? I had been watching and following and asking questions as he, flashlight in hand, painstakingly scrutinized every cranny in the 120-year-old multi-family house that had once been a majestic home for an industrial-revolution-era manager.? This had been the fifth time I had whiled an afternoon with John, and I came to call these showings Multi-Family 101 with Buyer John.? Although I cannot be assured of a commission on a sale, I can be assured that my knowledge and understanding of home construction is vastly improved, and all learning is good learning.

??????????? As a relative novice in the realty business, I take advantage of seminars, meetings, classes, and networking opportunities as a way to improve my knowledge base.? However, I have observed that most real estate classes focus on the business of realty as opposed to the practical nature of home construction (and re-construction, such as the common practice in my community of converting large single-family homes into multi-family dwellings).? I have owned one home in my life, so my personal experience is lacking.? In addition, I am drawn to do-it-yourself projects as much as (famously noted by William Shakespeare) ?a schoolboy to his books.?? With this lack of practical knowledge, I became painfully and even embarrassingly aware of the many questions I could not answer about structures.

??????????? Enter buyer John.? We met at a listing in which he revealed that he does not work with a buyer agent, but prefers to work with the listing agent (which of course could be a boon to that agent).? As we have talked off and on for a year and a half, we have both benefited from our increasing connections.? John has sharpened his focus on what he really wants in an investment property, and I have learned about building codes (and violations), insurance regulations, sills and ceilings, zoned heating, radiant heat and steam heat, oil boilers and gas lines, and a host of other details.? Multi-Family 101 with Buyer John has always proved to be productive, if not yet profitable.

??????????? One tangential benefit to the time spent with Buyer John:? We are very close to a buyer representation contract (though I know that close in realty means nothing without that signed contract!).? I ask him and he agrees to sign a buyer representation contract for each individual property I show.? A genuine and good-hearted person, John once apologized for the time he takes with me as he looks at and rejects each property.? At this point, I finally mustered the courage and asked him to reconsider his notion of working with the listing agent on a sale; I proposed that he could sign a buyer representation contract and therefore I could profit from a sale.

That proposal remains on the table for now.? No matter which way it goes, I have gained an important education in attending many ?classes? with Buyer John and Multi-Family 101.? As Siddhartha in Hermann Hesse?s novel of the same name noted, many benefits can be gained from business dealings, and they don?t all have to involve an exchange of money.? Knowledge gained is as valuable in the long-term.

Source: http://www.cgrealestate.net/uncategorized/multi-family-101-with-buyer-john

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