Expert and Professional Are not Synonymous, Experts Work Cheep
I advise my readers and students that "experts" work cheap! Meaning that for relatively little cost you can get some specialized attorney or CPA to assume the liability for the same answer you'd have given. It's also much more affective with your clients when the information comes from a third party "expert" even when you might be far more experienced and/or knowledgeable.
I do add a major caveat. Never ask a third party expert an open ended question or one you don't already know the answer too! Never, never, never, never!"
A friend responded: "cheap? Nah..." Well I'm redundant, I love redundancy, when I was writing "One House At A Time / Finding And Buying Single Family Rentals" I included similar advice. My brother Jack (I'm the oldest of 5. Jack was 10 months younger.) Read the manuscript he suggested I recommend "experts that work for reasonable fees." I asked "What's reasonable?"
Jack and my friend, like most people confuse gross dollars with being expensive, and believe cheep means few dollars!
I teach investment real estate, real estate, and mortgages in that context gross dollars or the lack there of, have very little to do with weather something is cheap, inexpensive or outrageously expensive.
"Experts" are cheep when you can profit from their advice.
An "expert" charging only $50.00 an hour is very expensive, if you can't profit from their advice, it’s worth nothing at any price. An expert charging $500.00 or even $1,000.00 an hour is cheap if you can profit from their advice!
I believe it was Dale Carnegie that was brought to New York by the Colgate Company for advice on how to sell more tooth paste, how to make more money with out raising the price! It is said that Carnegie ask for $10,000.00 when they agreed he, with out blinking an eye he said "make the hole bigger!" $10,000.00 was allot of money in the 1930's, but it was well spent! Think about it! Double the size of the whole, lever everything else the same, sell twice the toothpaste. That was cheep advice.
"Experts" are only expensive when that title exceeds their knowledge and experience, or when you employ them foolishly.
What's foolish? Asking frivols and/or open ended questions!
In real estate including mortgage lending, if you want to be an professional it is not necessary to replace your attorney, CPA, an so on. To be a professional in real estate it is only necessary to learn the questions!
The most important person in any real estate transaction is not the individual "experts" but the professional that sees all the reverent and necessary questions are ask and answered!
For example, most of my AR readers are selling or financing single family homes. During a walk through you see a small crack, it's not necessary for you to know wether its structural or simply cosmetic, it's extremely important to know you'd better get the question answered.
It's extremely foolish for a real estate professional to do more than question the crack. Cosmetic crakes are common and inexpensive to repair, but structural cracks can cost as much or even more that the house! A home inspector may seem expensive, but they can save both you and your client. The examples could go on and on but hopefully you get the point.
Despite you're personal knowledge you have no protection when operating out side of your licencing and/or your E & O insurance! Just being right is no defense!
Expert and Professional Are not Synonymous, Experts Work Cheep/action/blogs_
I advise my readers and students that "experts" work cheap! Meaning that for relatively little cost you can get some specialized attorney or CPA to assume the liability for the same answer you'd have given. It's also much more affective with your clients when the information comes from a third party "expert" even when you might be far more experienced and/or knowledgeable.
I do add a major caveat. Never ask a third party expert an open ended question or one you don't already know the answer too! Never, never, never, never!"
A friend responded: "cheap? Nah..." Well I'm redundant, I love redundancy, when I was writing "One House At A Time / Finding And Buying Single Family Rentals" I included similar advice. My brother Jack (I'm the oldest of 5. Jack was 10 months younger.) Read the manuscript he suggested I recommend "experts that work for reasonable fees." I asked "What's reasonable?"
Jack and my friend, like most people confuse gross dollars with being expensive, and believe cheep means few dollars!
I teach investment real estate, real estate, and mortgages in that context gross dollars or the lack there of, have very little to do with weather something is cheap, inexpensive or outrageously expensive.
"Experts" are cheep when you can profit from their advice. An "expert" charging only $50.00 an hour is very expensive, if you can't profit from their advice, it’s worth nothing at any price. An expert charging $500.00 or even $1,000.00 an hour is cheap if you can profit from their advice!
I believe it was Dale Carnegie that was brought to New York by the Colgate Company for advice on how to sell more tooth paste, how to make more money with out raising the price! It is said that Carnegie ask for $10,000.00 when they agreed he, with out blinking an eye he said "make the hole bigger!" $10,000.00 was allot of money in the 1930's, but it was well spent! Think about it! Double the size of the whole, lever everything else the same, sell twice the toothpaste. That was cheep advice.
"Experts" are only expensive when that title exceeds their knowledge and experience, or when you employ them foolishly.
What's foolish? Asking frivols and/or open ended questions!
In real estate including mortgage lending, if you want to be an professional it is not necessary to replace your attorney, CPA, an so on. To be a professional in real estate it is only necessary to learn the questions!
The most important person in any real estate transaction is not the individual "experts" but the professional that sees all the reverent and necessary questions are ask and answered!
For example, most of my AR readers are selling or financing single family homes. During a walk through you see a small crack, it's not necessary for you to know wether its structural or simply cosmetic, it's extremely important to know you'd better get the question answered.
It's extremely foolish for a real estate professional to do more than question the crack. Cosmetic crakes are common and inexpensive to repair, but structural cracks can cost as much or even more that the house! A home inspector may seem expensive, but they can save both you and your client. The examples could go on and on but hopefully you get the point.
Despite you're personal knowledge you have no protection when operating out side of your licencing and/or your E & O insurance! Just being right is no defense!
The job of a real estate professional is to heard the "experts" to closing.
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