Today I’m excited to be joined by one of our lead buyer specialists, Freddy Hernandez, to talk about how to compete and win as a buyer in multiple offer situations.

The reason we wanted to discuss this is that, as many of you may know, our market’s current inventory shortage is creating a highly competitive real estate environment. So, what must a buyer do in order to separate their offer from the others and increase their chances of getting accepted?

According to Freddy, the first step buyers should take is to identify what the seller is looking for. The best offer isn’t always the one that boasts the highest price. Sometimes, a seller may be more interested in having a short, simple escrow period than netting top dollar.

Different sellers are looking for different things. This is where having a great agent by your side comes into play. A Realtor working on your behalf will be able to communicate directly with the listing agent, and will therefore be able to relay important information about the seller back to you. Establishing this line of communication is critical.

Next, working with an agent will also help ensure that your offer gets structured correctly. Writing an offer with the seller’s priorities in mind will greatly improve your chance of success.

The last transaction Freddy worked on, for example, was successful because of this technique. The sellers were sick and wanted a quick close. So, Freddy was able to help his buyer win out against the others by offering the seller what they wanted.

If you have any questions for Freddy, you can reach him by phone at (805) 397-8035.

And, as always, if you have any other questions or would like more information from me, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

How do accountability and commitment work together to play a part in our daily lives?

First, let’s focus on commitment. Grant Cardone recently said at his 10X Growth Conference that people often think about the details of something instead of committing to it first. Whenever we have a great idea, instead of committing to it, we think about why it can’t happen, why it won’t happen, or all the things that can go wrong with that idea.

When I look back on my life, many of the great things that have happened to me happened because I was able to make certain commitments.

When I first signed up for coaching a few years ago, the $1,000-per-month fee that was required represented a good portion of my income. I knew there was value in coaching, though, so I had the choice of either postponing that decision or committing to it and having faith that it would work out.

There’s a popular book you may have heard of called “The Power of Broke,” and I once thought about writing a book called “The Power of Commitment” that would’ve talked about the different things that come when you make big commitments.

For example, whenever I purchase a rental property, it happens because a great opportunity has come to me—the opportunity being a good property at a good price with a good amount of cash flow. I haven’t always had my ducks in a row when purchasing a rental property, but I make those commitments. By doing so, I’ve come across more good opportunities.

Now let’s move onto accountability. When you make a commitment, it’s always good to have people holding you accountable to it.

In my case, there was a time when I wasn’t going to the gym very often. There’s an agent on my team named Freddy Hernandez who’s very consistent with going to the gym every morning, so I decided to make a commitment and tell Freddy that I would pay him $100 for every time I showed up late to the gym or didn’t show up at all. That was a commitment on my end that included accountability. I gave myself a penalty if I didn’t do something I said I would do.

When you make a commitment followed by accountability, it eliminates your options. For me, it eliminated the option of going to the gym a little later or not going at all. If you don’t do what you say you would do, you get penalized. It forces you to keep your word even when you don’t feel like it.

Thus, the best things in my life have happened to me because of making a commitment and having accountability. When I got married to my wife, I made a commitment to her for the rest of my life, and it’s one of the best commitments I ever made.

So remember to make strong commitments in your life and then figure out how they’ll happen.

As always, if you have any questions or you’re thinking of buying or selling a home in Ventura County, give me a call or send me an email and I’d be happy to help you.  I want to be your real estate agent, your family’s real estate agent, and I want to provide anyone I can advice that will help them grow personally and professionally.

If you’re a homebuyer in our Ventura County market, it’s important that you be ready when the right opportunity comes along.

I was recently talking with a couple fellow agents about how many times we hear buyers say things like “The marketplace is too high” or “Prices are too high.” While it’s true that the marketplace is substantially higher than it was a couple years ago, you can still get a great home by being pre-approved and waiting for the right opportunity.

As I told the agents I was speaking with, there are good opportunities in every single marketplace. Whether you’re at the top of the marketplace or the bottom, it’s all a matter of being ready for those opportunities. You can wait for prices to come down, but we don’t know when that will happen or by how much.

Instead, try being an active participant in the marketplace. Shop for real estate every single day and be financially ready. By this, I mean speak with a mortgage professional and have them pre-approve you. Good opportunities don’t last very long. They’re on the market typically for just a few days at most. They sell quickly and usually attract a lot of competition.

As soon as the right opportunity arises, pull the trigger, act fast, and don’t second-guess yourself by not giving the seller what they want and possibly prolonging the negotiation process. By trying to save $5,000, you leave the door open for another buyer to swoop in and steal the property from under you.

They don’t come every single day, but there are good opportunities in the marketplace, so be ready for them.

If you have any questions about our market or you’re looking to buy a home, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’re here to help.

One of my agents is in a transaction and the property is in foreclosure. His buyer is trying to close on the property before it gets foreclosed on. He asked, “What happens if the property gets foreclosed on while we’re still in escrow?”

They are scheduled to close on the house on Monday, but on Monday at noon, the house is scheduled to be foreclosed on.

If the bank forecloses on the property before you are able to record the closing on the property, then you will lose the house to foreclosure.

One of the things that some sellers have done to freeze the property is file for bankruptcy. I am not suggesting that you file for bankruptcy, but if you are in a situation like this, talk to a bankruptcy attorney and see if this is an option for you. I have seen other sellers do this if they have a foreclosure.

Since this property is scheduled to close on Monday, we just need a couple extra days. If the bank is not willing to allow them that extension to close, they could file for bankruptcy. When you file for bankruptcy, all of your assets are frozen, which means that even if the bank wanted to, they could not foreclose on your property.

Talk to a bankruptcy attorney to see if this option would work for you.

If you are facing foreclosure and are interested in selling your property or want to know what your property is worth, I can definitely provide you with a market analysis. A lot of people in foreclosure don’t realize how much their property has gone up. They don’t think they have enough equity to sell when they actually do.

If you have any questions, just give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

We recently had a property that was a complete fixer-upper. This property had about five or six cash offers, and a couple of people who were owner-occupied that wanted to buy it.

This property needed so much work. There were broken windows, graffiti, holes in the wall, and a number of other problems. Under normal circumstances, this kind of property would only be available to cash buyers.

However, there is a great loan product called the FHA 203(k) loan, which is basically a renovation loan that allows a first-time homebuyer to make an offer on a fixer-upper property. They finance all of the renovations so that you can fix the property according to your taste. You get to pick the contractor.

In this case, the first-time buyer used the FHA 203(k) loan and offered the seller more money than the highest cash offer. Let’s say that the highest cash offer was $200,000; the first-time homebuyer ended up offering $10,000 or $15,000 more, which caused the seller to accept their offer.

This was a great opportunity for the buyer. Now the buyer has a property they were able to purchase at a low market value, and they get to fix up the property to their own tastes. The lender lets them borrow $40,000 to renovate the property, and the buyer gets to pick all of their upgrades.

Even after the buyer paid a bit more and invested $40,000 to fix it up, they will still have equity in the property.

If you or someone you know is interested in buying a fixer-upper property, make sure you ask your loan officer about the FHA 203(k) loan. If you have any other questions about buying a home, just give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

I recently met with a For Sale By Owner client, and as I spoke to him and learned more about his story, I realized that his mental state revolved around fear.

One thing in particular struck a chord with me during our conversation. He told me, “I almost wish I didn’t know what would happen in the future.” While I can’t speak as to whether he was correct about the things he believed would come to pass, I do believe that his beliefs and his fears were the core pillar of his life. This client had chosen to live in a world of fear.

Perhaps he’s surrounding himself with the wrong influences. When it comes to our environment and the things that influence us, we have a choice. Whether it’s the media or the people we surround ourselves with, we all have a choice in what we expose ourselves to. You can focus on taking in the negative or you can focus on taking in the positive.

I have people within my own family who are held back from achieving bigger and better things because they let fear drive their lives.

Personally, I choose not live in fear. I chose not to contaminate my mind with negative thoughts and influences. Why fill my brain with fear of things I can’t control?

If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Welcome back to the Jose Luiz Morales Show. Today for our eighth episode, I’m joined by guest speaker Luis Chit from Farmers Insurance to talk about the recent fires we’ve seen here in the state of California. It’s important to always be prepared for the unexpected. That’s why we covered a number of questions today.

Here’s a list of the items we went over and where you can find them in our video:

1:21: What are the first steps a person should take from an insurance perspective after their home has sustained fire damage?

2:34: Where can people find insurance company information?

3:38: The importance of understanding your coverage.

6:18: Which policies include fire insurance?

7:24: What is included in more advanced fire insurance policies?

10:04: How long does it take to receive compensation when you file a claim?

11:51: Explaining “loss of use.”

13:20: What’s a typical deductible?

14:07: Is coverage the same for investment properties?

16:22: What happens if you are uninsured when a fire occurs?

17:55: How to prepare for a fire and fire safety tips.

19:28: Advice for comparing insurance products.

If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

My mentor and I have talked about how committed you are to whatever it is you are doing for a long time. When it comes to commitment, there are three levels of action you can take.

The first level is retreating. You are moving backward, not forward. Instead of improving the quality of your life, you are adopting certain habits or taking certain actions that cause you to move back.

The next level of action is simply the average level of action. This is the level most people operate at. You are simply doing what everyone else is doing. If the average real estate agent comes in at 10 o’clock, leaves at five o’clock, and closes four or five deals a year, that is all you are doing. You are not doing anything more than what is asked of you.

Napoleon Hill always said that the way to increase your pay is to always offer more than what you are currently being paid for. You are not going to make any more money operating at the average level of action.

If you want to earn more money, what are you doing to add more value to your current job? When you start adding responsibilities and services, then you are going to increase your self-worth in the company and move up.

The final and rarest level of action is also the most rewarding—the extreme or massive level of action. In this level, you are doing whatever it takes to move forward and get the job done. You are not complaining; you are focused on the end goal. That is the most powerful level of action.  

As a real estate agent, operating on this level of action means you are the first person on the phones each morning and the last one to leave at night. If a client has not answered your calls, you are going to their door and introducing yourself.

Whether you are a business owner, an employee, or a volunteer, what can you do to add more value and operate at the massive level of action?

Are you willing to do whatever it takes to get your career and your life to the next level?

I hope these questions help you evaluate what you are doing to improve your life and your career. If you have any real estate questions, please don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

A few months ago, one of my new agents asked me a great question. He said, “What’s the number one reason that agents fail?” I thought about it and replied, “Because they give up. They don’t take the time to go through the struggle that it takes to become successful.”

This agent chose to embrace the struggle. He’s been coming in and working hard every single day and doing everything that he needs. After grinding hard for the last three months,  I’m proud to say that he has just opened up his first escrow. His first deal is with an all-cash buyer with no contingencies. That deal is going to close in about 10 days.

If he would have listened to that little voice in his head that doubted him, he would have never stuck around long enough to reap the benefits of what he’s been doing. Now he has more confidence, understands the process better, and he’ll continue to have even more successful transactions in the future.

When the going gets tough, don’t quit. Work harder, because nothing can replace that. If you have any questions for me in the meantime, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.

Recently I’ve been listening the audiobook version of Grant Cardone’s "Be Obsessed or Be Average" and even after just 20 minutes I can already tell that this book is going to rank within my top three favorite books of all time.

There’s one line in particular I want you guys to hear, which is: “Always over-promise and over-deliver.” Most people will tell you to under-promise and over-deliver, but this isn’t what Grant Cardone recommends.

This subtle shift in mindset can make such a big difference. According to Grant Cardone, the concept of under-promising and over-delivering is deceptive and a weak way of thinking.

If you haven’t listened to this book, you absolutely need to. I highly recommend it.

If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.