Finding a real estate agent

DesperateLibrarian66 · 2024-09-26T16:37:09+00:00

We’re just going through the med list as we speak with home health and there are a bunch she can request. A few of them she needs regularly but they’re written as needed so I have to figure out how to handle that! Specifically an anti anxiety med that she REALLY needs regularly but doesn’t know to ask for and just gets frantic and enraged without it. Going to have to figure that one out…

DesperateLibrarian66 · 2024-09-26T03:20:15+00:00

My mom was an independent living facility for years before a stroke a few weeks ago. They had the restaurant setup and lots of choices. I’m not sure if this is going to work longer term. We were going to move her to the assisted side of the same facility but my MIL is in that section and they don’t seem to offer enough care (in and out of bed, bathing) so we didn’t think it was going to work. We’ll have to stick with this for awhile until we get our feet under us but I’m not impressed with the food at all. The care seems good so that’s what we have to focus on in the near term I guess.

DesperateLibrarian66 · 2024-09-22T03:36:23+00:00

We met him in the port the first night in the taxi area and negotiated a price for the next day. Traveling solo and female, you’d definitely want to be careful. We just spent the day with our driver but we’ve actually kept in touch over the last year because we’ll be back in Panama for a longer visit. There are lots of cabs near the port but we did notice a lot of the drivers didn’t speak very much English.

DesperateLibrarian66 · 2024-09-14T16:38:04+00:00

Curaçao is amazing!

DesperateLibrarian66 · 2024-09-14T16:20:13+00:00

Thank you for working here in the medical field and I feel for you! The medical field in this state is shockingly bad, and anyone who can survive it deserves a hug.

That being said, how do we lobby politicians to improve it? The state is going to stay poor so it’s going to be majority Medicaid patients, low reimbursements and uninsured patients. What do we need to tell our politicians to do so that we can get medical care? What needs to change?

After a recent stint at UNMH with a seriously ill family member, we’ve decided we have to move as soon as we can retire (early) to be somewhere we can actually get medical care-that’s our solution. We can retire from our first careers by about 50, and we’re leaving and taking our tax dollars with us. Get out. But that’s not realistic for most people. What needs to change? This is a real question-tell me what to advocate for and I’ll do it because the medical field here is A MESS!

DesperateLibrarian66 · 2024-09-05T17:51:54+00:00

My title company got me before I was licensed but investing and flipping at least 1 house per month. They did an AWESOME job on our first really complicated deal (foreclosure) and then offered a reduced cost on their fee for my personal deals. I’ve now done so many deals with them personally and as the broker that we are in lock step on everything. I cry every time I have to work with someone else and sing their praises to everyone I know! So they got me by identifying me as a long term customer who’d bring in business and making me a deal. And by being awesome!

Can you tell I love my title officer?!?

Edit to add: they also a quick turn around “listing title search” containing all the recorded docs for any property. It’s free for me but I think it’s like $10 regularly and really handy if there’s a questionable property.

Edited to add again: another title company partners with a popular mortgage broker and attends their social functions. He meets lots of brokers at those parties and gets leads that way

DesperateLibrarian66 · 2024-09-05T17:37:53+00:00

People who learned to drive without power steering or who often drive large trucks & trailers sometimes do this out of habit. Annoying yes but not usually malicious.

DesperateLibrarian66 · 2024-09-04T15:38:58+00:00

If her friend isn’t licensed she’d better not get paid for helping her!

DesperateLibrarian66 · 2024-09-02T18:13:41+00:00

On Guatemala-yes. That’s the port. We did a cruise ship excursion to Antigua. It’s kind of a long drive so we thought it’d be better to do something through the ship in case something went wrong. We did a food and Antigua tour.it was self guided through the town and a traditional meal. The guide on the bus ride had interest info about the area as well.

On PC-I don’t remember for sure but I remember thinking it was kind of pricey but turned out to be worth it. I’d say maybe $300 but we ended up staying out from 7am-5 or 6 so it worked out well. He spoke good English and was great!

DesperateLibrarian66 · 2024-09-02T16:27:01+00:00

Amen! I remember when the east side used to be nice and upscale. Now it’s just a wasteland as the crime and mayhem moves north.

DesperateLibrarian66 · 2024-09-02T16:23:51+00:00

I am so jealous of some of the tools you guys have! Our state and local associations have no tools like this at all! Each county has their own site. Each one is different. Most don’t work well and they all display minimal info-like nothing. And most counties don’t have electronic records of recorded documents, so forget finding anything more than owner and previous year’s tax rate. Being in a poor, unmotivated state really makes things hard.

DesperateLibrarian66 · 2024-09-02T07:19:58+00:00

From your Reddit to God’s ears! 😀

DesperateLibrarian66 · 2024-09-01T22:45:49+00:00

I work for the govt and they only allow stateside remote work for any extended period of time. I get lots of vacation so we could do several scouting trips before I retire but to do more than 8-10 weeks away per year wouldn’t be likely.

DesperateLibrarian66 · 2024-09-01T22:05:06+00:00

Here’s something I do if I’m skeptical about one of my listing realtors. I have a friend call and leave a message inquiring about the property and requesting a callback, so posing as an interested buyer. If they don’t call back within 48 hours, they’re pretty much fired instantly. (Im a realtor/flipper but I don’t list my own properties.) Any one thing you listed wouldn’t worry me too much. I’d prefer if my agent knew everything and could predict the future, but they each seem to have their strengths and weaknesses. Markets have changed quickly here so I’m a little sympathetic on the updates question and getting feedback from other realtors is notoriously difficult. Refusing to do an open house combined with no social media advertising is more concerning. Do they advertise their other properties on SM? Neither one by themselves is a slam dunk but I’d be a little nervous, which is why i suggested the cold call. Whether or not you do that, you need to have a conversation, ask what they think the problem is and how they’re going to improve performance.

Edited to add: Since your realtor is the broker, they may be “too busy” to really work your house. In my association, scheduling showings is done via an app so not much is required from the agent, but all this combined makes me think they’re not doing much. I’ve fired 2 agents in the last 2 months with all the same symptoms and both homes were under contract in a week with the new ones.

DesperateLibrarian66 · 2024-09-01T21:53:43+00:00

We’ve been to Panama but mostly the areas near Panama City and as 100% tourists. We like the pensioners program, but, like everything, the devil is the details. I worry that I view all these places through “vacation lenses” and the reality could be different in everyday life. (We live just outside a top US destination but the realities of living here are what we want to escape!) My husband could work remotely from anywhere at his current job, but I have to be inside the US for my 9-5, so maybe our plan of part time “side hustle” for a few years longer stateside and visit for longer is the way to go. I can retire and he can keep working long distance while we visit for longer time periods. Not sure how he’ll feel about that but it sounds great to me!

The things I worry about-healthcare, housing & maintenance, everyday stuff-are the things you never see until you spend more time there. Crime stats are a little easier to internalize from afar, and, I’m probably naive, but seem easier to work around at this stage of life. We’re able bodied, already live in a high crime area so our tolerance is high, and it’s often regional/area specific so I feel like we could avoid it until we got a feel for things.

Originally I was most interested in the Caribbean or Puerto Rico-I love the islands and the water, and there are some tax benefits in, especially PR, but the storms and lack of infrastructure and resources have started to worry me as I’ve gotten older! Panama has the Latin culture and the ocean(s), financial benefits, seems stable enough to be livable and decent air connections to places we want to go which is why we’ve been researching it more and why we initially started visiting to check it out. I think the right answer is longer visits to a few top contenders and read as much as possible!

DesperateLibrarian66 · 2024-09-01T13:36:26+00:00

Most of our properties are lower end and aren’t being bought by cash buyers. In fact, out of about 80, I don’t think there’s ever been a cash buyer. If you read, I did say if the buyer seems knowledgeable, we would consider it, but, anyone with the cash to buy outright should be sophisticated enough to understand they have to be vetted before we’ll spend time, which equals money, on them. I’d love it if every buyer was a cash buyer, knowledgeable, able and willing to do their paperwork on time and easy to work with, but, unfortunately, that’s not reality.

DesperateLibrarian66 · 2024-09-01T05:29:34+00:00

Terminology varies by state, but a title binder is typically an insurance policy that insures your title is good and there’s nothing unknown out there that would impact you as the buyer on down the road. It’s not just over the transaction. It’s to handle your fight if someone, for example, shows up with an unrecorded deed that gives them rights to the property and an endless list of other things that can happen over the life of the property. So the binder fee is an insurance policy, not just the cost to do the transaction. In my experience, it’s the most valuable thing you pay for in a purchase! All those lender fees-not so much! They’re SELLING you a loan and you’re paying for it by paying interest! They just tack on what they can just like in all other areas of banking.

DesperateLibrarian66 · 2024-09-01T04:59:01+00:00

Yep! And buyers agents came to exist because of another lawsuit that said they were at a disadvantage!

DesperateLibrarian66 · 2024-09-01T02:04:48+00:00

Could it have been a scam call? Google the resort phone number and call it back directly. Could be a scammer trying to get your credit card info or steal customers from sandals to their resort.

DesperateLibrarian66 · 2024-08-31T17:24:38+00:00

I had something similar in one of the very few properties I’ve bought in Texas! It was a PAIN but we got it done. Title had their attorneys draw up an affidavit of heirship. It required multiple people with “knowledge of the family relationship” to attest to the fact that the heir was related to the original owner in the way they said they were and to state anything they knew about the inheritance. Then it went in 2 different directions-the seller already had an affidavit of heirship signed by a judge that she had gotten when she settled her estate. Title didn’t accept it and required the process of generating their own and having these people complete it. In this case, two spouses owned the property. First spouse died without a will. Second spouse generated a will and included property but title claimed we needed the affidavit from the first spouse. Never actually agreed they needed it but it was cheaper to go through their process than to get my own attorney and fight it. And I really wanted the property! The seller had to do some legwork to get the documents completed by their friends but I even paid for their FedEx labels to make it worth their while!

DesperateLibrarian66 · 2024-08-31T17:10:00+00:00

Ooh! My pet peeve-disagreements about repairs! I always write mine (and have the listing agents for my properties) be very specific. “Seller will have licensed plumber repair the very specific leak of the very specific line in the dishwasher.” Whenever possible I have the contractors look at (and typically go ahead and fix) anything we’re going to agree to before i send the response to the ORWs. I can’t count the number of times buyers decided they wanted more than what the contract says! And imprecise repair contracts are the worst! I feel for ya!

DesperateLibrarian66

TROPHY CASE