How many times have you heard that before? I would hazard a guess and say that pretty much everyone who reads this blog has heard that phrase at some point in their lives. Do you believe it? For me, it depends on the situation.
For example, several years ago there was a craze over little bean bags shaped like animals. Does anyone remember that? That's right, the Beanie Baby craze. At the height of this madness, people were willing to pay literally thousands of dollars for these little bean bags that cost their manufacturer mere cents to make. Today, those people must be living in self loathing that I can not even begin to fathom. These same Beanies can now be purchased by the box full at garage sales for less than one dollar.
So let me ask you. Did these people get what they paid for? I wouldn't say so. Those little critters are still the same bags of beans that they were before, but suddenly, they are now worth a tiny fraction of what they once were. We have all heard of someone being upside down on a home, a car, or other investments, but a bean bag?? Come on.
Now let's take a peak at another situation. Let's say that I can either buy a home made car from my cousin, or I can buy a BMW. Obviously, there would be no comparison. The additional cost that I would incur to acquire the BMW would be money well spent. My cousin has no idea how to build a car. BMW has been doing it successfully for many years. It is that kind of knowledge and success that causes people to spend their money at BMW instead of my cousins house! I could bring all the parts of a BMW to my cousin and ask him to put it together for me. Would that be money well spent? NO! The monstrosity that would result from that little experiment would be lucky to function, much less emulate the BMW that it could have been.
So how does this apply to Real Estate? Basically, whether you are a property management company or a Realtor, you should be the BMW. People should be coming to you because the money that they spend on you and your services is money well spent. Here in the Antelope Valley, there are a lot of people who do business like my cousin builds cars. They have the same materials to work with, but they have no idea what they are doing. As a result, their homes don't sell and their rentals stay vacant.
We recently took over management for an owner who had a home here in Palmdale. They were using a different company that placed a tenant without doing their homework. The company eventually went out of business, leaving the owner to deal with the mess they left behind. The tenant ended up living in the home for about four months without paying any rent before we took over (a total loss of over $5,000 for the owner). Did they get what they paid for? No.
For those of you who may be reading this blog, please take the time to find out about the person or company that you are relying on for your home's well being. You should not make your decision based solely on the initial cost to you. In the end, the wrong Realtor or property management guy could cost you infinitely more than you can imagine.
For more ways to get what you pay for, or for more solutions to today's rental market, please check out our website by clicking on the Classic logo to the right!
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