6 Tips for Viewing a House (Investors & Agents: Watch Out!)

don't you just love getting out and checking out properties and doing walkthroughs well in this video i'm going to do a walkthrough of a property as both an agent and an investor so you can see the differences of what i look for in both categories so let's go so [Music] welcome to agent versus investor cage match with me anson young i'm both an investor and an agent and have been both of those things for the last 15 years so i have this unique perspective of being an agent and an investor and the unique position between those two you know sometimes they don't get along they don't like each other whatever we're all here to help people and make money right right all right so welcome to on location at a property where we're going to walk through it as an investor we're going to walk through it as an agent and kind of get into the mindset of what each are thinking as they go through a property the number one thing that you'll notice and that is very obvious is that obviously as an agent i'm not the owner i'm coming in and i'm helping the owner to sell the property therefore i don't have a financial responsibility to fix anything and oftentimes clients they just don't have the thirty thousand dollars to fix up the property to top of the market levels like a fix and flipper would so you have to keep a lot of these things in mind as an agent there's just a lot of things that are out of your control and that you can't change if the kitchen is terrible if the bathroom isn't all that great there just sometimes isn't any way to fix it and you just have to price it as is and list it as is and just know that there are going to be inspection issues and there might just be less interest because of the condition of the property and as an investor i'm coming in and all of these things are my problem i'm going to say that probably a lot this episode is everything that i buy and everything that i have to fix is now my problem whether i'm a fix and flipper or i'm a landlord and everything that i'm evaluating as an investor i have to think of it as if i'm a fix and flipper i'm evaluating it will it pass the next inspection or appraisal if it's something like a bad electrical panel it's going to come up on inspection and it is my problem to either negotiate or fix and as a landlord i'm looking at the property you know depending on the neighborhood depending on everything else you know can i rent this as is what do i have to fix up in order to get top of the market for that market rent and that just might be a b or c neighborhood where top of the market is just it's so-so and that's going to be a lot different than an a plus neighborhood where i have to put in granite and i have to put in a lot of amenities to compete with the other top-end properties so there's a lot of mindset things going on here in both categories and i'm hoping to touch on each piece as we go through each part of the property [Music] so as an agent when i start outside i really want to pay attention to the feel of the property the curb appeal as it's called i want to put myself in the eyes of any buyers and agents who are pulling up to the property and have this first impression of what's going on is it something where they immediately notice red flags of the siding is bad or the paint the roof the gutter's falling down the landscaping is bad or it's not kept up or all the grass is dead these are all things that they notice and if it's priced at the top of the market they're going to immediately go this isn't a top of the market property and of course as an investor i have to think of those things as well whether it's a renter pulling up to the property and kind of getting this first gut feel of is this a place that i want to live and that i want to shell out money for rent and of course as a fix and flipper i'm thinking the exact same things as the agent what do i need to do to this property to get it up to the level where i can sell it for top dollar so back to the agent side there's really not much i can do besides the easy things i can ask for them to keep the yard up and watered i can ask them to keep the leaves raked not a lot of homeowners have the money to change out windows or paint the entire house or get the roof fixed but i am looking for outside clutter i'm looking for things that can easily be fixed that the homeowner could do themselves or that i could help out with or my crew could help out with or my team but again there's just not a ton of money in the budget usually for my clients to come in and just put 30 000 into these properties i am paying attention to the lot size and what could be done on the lot what the zoning is and how that could help with marketability now as an investor i have a very detailed list i'm looking at the foundation i'm looking at the sidewalks i'm looking at any walkways or driveways to see if the concrete needs work i'm looking at the windows and the siding the roof the fencing i'm looking for every single thing that i'm going to have to go ahead and be responsible for to fix and having an itemized list of pretty much everything on the outside as i walk around the property are the windows bad is the shed sideways is there a garage obviously as an agent i care if there's a garage as well but do i have to add a garage in order to keep up with the neighborhood i'm seeing if the property's on a busy street or if it sides to a busy street in this case and what that looks like for my comparables and for the resale if it's going to be a deal breaker for a lot of people or if it's not and in a market where there's really low inventory and this is going to be one of the better options on the market for a buyer then those kind of things go further down the list for buyers and i don't worry about them as much as an agent if i'm a landlord i'm looking at the lot size i'm looking at the zoning and i'm saying hey could i put in an adu an accessory dwelling unit in the backyard and get two extra bedrooms and a whole separate unit of rent out of this property [Music] so there's a lot of different things that i look at as an investor that i wouldn't as an agent and vice versa but there is you know a common theme there's going to be a lot of a lot of blending of those two categories [Music] all right so we made it inside and we're in the living room and as an agent i am still looking for that first feel of how the house looks and in this case the actual living room itself is in really good condition the flooring is newer the walls are painted and the front window is a newer vinyl window so i'm not too worried about that but when you walk in the door it actually looks right in on the dining room in the kitchen which are severely dated and so kind of that first impression falls quite a few notches but as for the room itself i am looking at the lighting to see if it's outdated i'm looking just for anything that might be a hiccup on inspection or appraisal and overall in this room i'm not worried about too much now as an investor i'm counting outlets i'm seeing if the outlets are older or newer if they're two prong three-prong if they you know this might be a case that the electrical is outdated i'm looking at the lighting fixtures and seeing if it you know if it is already painted if it's something that i can just keep and use or if it's something that i'm gonna have to redo because the color is wacky in this case obviously the walls are pure white i'm not gonna have to do much the window is newer i'm not gonna have to do anything with that the flooring is new and the front door is even new so it's kind of a bonus like all of those things included in the price of the house i'm also looking at the flooring registers to see if they match and in this case they don't really is it something that i'm gonna have to worry about too much as a landlord probably not but if i'm fixing flipping the house i want the house to look 100 that the homeowner doesn't have to worry about like oh if that's outdated i wonder what else is outdated that kind of stuff and honestly there's not too much going on in this living room that i would have to worry about as an investor you know i'm looking looking at the ceilings to see if there's any cracking i'm looking at everything just to see what's going to become my responsibility seems to be a common theme right all right let's move on [Music] all right we made it to one of the bedrooms in this house and honestly the list is pretty short here as well so as an agent i'm just seeing if the bedroom is functional if it's actually a conforming bedroom which means it has a closet and a means of egress so it has a window if it's in a basement it has an egress window those kind of things that could affect the end price again i'm looking at the paint light fixtures i'm looking at the floorboards i'm looking at everything that could come up on inspection or could give a bad first impression of this property you know there's things in here like this is a conversion from a garage and so uh you know does it have a heating register is it legally a bedroom and in this case the windows are wooden they're older they're discolored and there's no baseboards and then there is this weird trap door that goes down into the crawl space and as an agent these aren't things that i can really do too much about unless the homeowner wants to install baseboard or paint or fix up the windows you know there's not much i can do there's also no closet in this room so it's technically not really a bedroom and so a lot of homeowners they'll put in like an ikea wardrobe or something like that it doesn't legally count as a closet but you know the next owners can come in and see oh okay well there is a place to put clothes and usually those things are left because they're usually pretty big and the other weird thing about this room is that it does have an exit out to the back because it was a garage at one point so is that going to be a deal killer is this something that my homeowner is going to fix no as an investor the list for the bedroom is pretty similar to the list for the living room it's going to be the paint the floorboards the flooring the ceiling the light fixtures the windows all of that stuff i know i'm gonna have to put down some baseboard i'm likely going to have to replace these windows if i'm fixing flipping it if i'm a landlord i'm looking at the windows to see if they're functional if they're good enough and that i could still get the rent that i want out of the property by leaving the windows obviously the light fixture is going to have to get changed and some sort of closet is going to have to either be built or again a wardrobe put in and there's not a whole lot i can do about the back door as long as it's not obtrusive or it's not ruining the functionality of the room this should be just fine as a bedroom for either a renter or the next owner if i'm flipping it and these other bedrooms are actually even more clean cut as an agent i have no worries about these bedrooms the windows are newer the light fixtures are newer there's new paint new baseboards new doors everything in here it looks like the owner did a little bit to try and fix this up before selling it and as an investor honestly like i would change out maybe the mismatched registers and that's about it honestly so this is kind of a best case scenario for not really having to touch two out of the three bedrooms in this house [Music] all right so this kitchen is where things change drastically so the flooring hasn't been touched the counters the cabinets the backsplash the flooring and the lighting haven't been touched at all and honestly the layout of the kitchen is pretty wonky with this refrigerator blocking this window behind it and i'm actually also standing in the dining room and it's not a ton of room for dining and so it's just you know again something i have to live with my clients not gonna you know come in here and fix it the only really good thing going for this kitchen is that the appliances that are here are newer and so that's a little bit of a bonus but every single other thing is very outdated and it needs help i'm just gonna have to price it accordingly i'm also looking for anything that would trigger inspection problems like not having a gfci outlet near the sink i know that that's gonna get called on inspection it's gonna become my seller's problem and so is it something that we could fix easily you know is it a ten dollar fix yes do we want to do it beforehand well that's up to the seller now as an investor i'm looking at this very differently where this flooring is going to have to be changed out at the very minimum a renter could probably live with the cabinets in the counter and the backsplash and the appliances that would be okay if i'm not trying to go for top dollar rent in an a plus neighborhood i think i could get away with it but as a fix and flipper this is going to be probably where the majority of my money goes into this property with brand new cabinets counters backsplash and probably install a dishwasher there's no dishwasher at this property maybe change the layout a little bit so that the fridge has a better place to hang out if i'm flipping the property i also want to show this space as something that's functional and i'd probably put a table here to show that yes this is indeed the dining room and that this is what it would kind of look like um for the new owner you know and as an investor i'm also going to see if these cabinets couldn't possibly be salvaged by keeping the bases if the bases are in good shape and replacing the doors with something that's much more modern so that you're basically doing kind of a facelift to the cabinet and saving a bunch of money there so that's something that i would just note as i'm going through is a room for a dishwasher can i salvage what's here does that make sense or do i have to install you know brand new everything and obviously that'll affect the price [Music] as an agent i'm going to walk through kind of the utilities and any kind of laundry room and just kind of make notes if the hot water heater is past its usable life there's not a whole lot i could do as an agent unless they want to put in the you know thousand dollars to replace it or whatever but i will make a note of it so that it's on the property disclosures and just know that it's gonna probably be an issue for the next buyer and obviously as an investor i'm making sure that there is laundry that it is functional and if there are laundry units left if i can just keep those or if i have to replace them or just sell it without laundry units happens all the time i've probably given away you know 50 pairs of laundry units in in my career just because they're just too old or or just don't match the aesthetic of what i'm looking for and for utilities kind of part of the big four of things that are big ticket items you know i'm going to look at the hot water heater i'm going to look at the furnace i'm going to see if those are my problem or if they can just be cleaned and serviced and certified and if the next owner is comfortable with that obviously if they don't work they're gonna have to be replaced and if they're working but they're older you know if they're clean they've been serviced regularly most buyers are okay with that unless it's in a price range where it's crazy high and they expect you know brand new working things and the price supports that so as an agent you know hot water heaters say our friend here hot water heaters don't matter as much but as an investor i'm definitely looking at all of the signs if this needs to be replaced on my dime or if i'm passing the buck to the next buyer and as a landlord obviously is this something that's going to become an issue in the next few years or if i replace it now if it's going to just lower my deferred maintenance in the future [Music] now this bathroom is just like the kitchen it has actual new flooring which is has that going for it which is nice but everything else in here is going to have to be replaced in order to get top dollar for this property now as an agent again there's not much i can do about that i am going to check for functionality i'm going to check to see if the outlets are regulation for a bathroom if that's going to come up on inspection again but there's not much else i can do about that i can try and creatively take pictures so that uh you know it looks the best that it can but you know this is what we this is what we got now as an investor uh everything in here is gonna have to be pretty much touched whether i'm a landlord or a fix and flipper you know the tile is obviously extremely outdated but you know in order to get top dollar from a rental or a fix and flip obviously the toilet the vanity the mirror the lighting the tub all the tile on the surround is all going to have to be taken out and replaced the tub itself might be salvageable just might see if we need to glaze it and call it good or if it's beyond repair and actually has to be taken out of here so kitchens and bathrooms really sell the property and as a fix and flipper that's where a lot of my time and energy is going to be spent so there you have it those are kind of all of the highlights of a walk through through the eyes of an investor through the eyes of an agent and how they kind of differ and there are a lot of overlapping similarities and if you're both an agent and an investor you find yourself just kind of blurred into these two things if i'm doing a walk through with a client i'm taking mental note of what all of these things will cost whether it's going to be called on inspection or just giving them an idea of hey if you wanted to maybe get a little bit more for the property you know five thousand dollars in the bathroom is going to go a long way so again i'm anson young you want to hear more from me please find me on bigger pockets follow me on instagram or find me on youtube and until next time you know happy walkthroughs all right we'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: BiggerPockets

Views: 28,374

Keywords: viewing a house, tips for viewing a house, viewing a home, property walkthrough, investment property walkthrough, final walkthrough, what to look for in a home, what to look for in a house, property inspection, property viewing checklist, property viewing advice, real estate investor, real estate agent, new real estate agent, real estate agent tips, tips for real estate investors, real estate investing for beginners, how to invest in real estate, realtor advice, biggerpockets

Id: GWZfw7dPCjc

Length: 21min 44sec (1304 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 03 2022