Dustin Nulf - Real Estate Sale Professional

I have just purchased and renovated a 2 bedroom, 1 bath house in the Forest Hills area of Pittsburgh, PA. If you or anyone you know may be interested in renting it. Please let me know. Send an email stating interest to ddnst4@yahoo.com and I will send a link for pics and a phone number to contact me. Rent is $650/month and includes sewage, water and trash removal.

Also has a 2 bedroom appt, and a 1 bedroom appt. available for $450 and $350 per month respectively.

Thanks,

Dustin D. Nulf

At the age of 25 I came to the conclusion that it would be more beneficial for me to buy my own home and be paying myself rather than dumping my money into the pockets of a landlord who was annoyed by me asking him to turn the heat up in my apartment since it was only 58 degrees in my bedroom. So I went down to my bank and talked with a mortgage representative who ended up pre-approving me for up to $65,000. I had about 2 grand saved up and decided that it was time to start looking for a home, so I called the local office of a large real estate company in my area.

The agent that I talked to seemed very friendly and I told her about what I was interested in (a home in the area between the prices of 40k and 65k). She then sounded very disinterested and sent me an email containing a number of properties priced over 65k. At this point I decided to unsubscribe to her senseless email spam and call someone else.

I ended up calling the small, family-run real estate company that was right down the street from me. I talked with the broker and he quickly referred me to his brother who, he said, would work for me as a buyer's agent. I ended up meeting with his brother that night and signing up with him. He gave me a number of printouts of properties in the area and told me to see if there were any that I wanted to see and that we would head out to begin the search tomorrow.

I had picked out a couple properties to view and we selected more together the next day. We looked at a good bit of houses that day, but I wasn't interested in any of them and we continued searching for another week. I finally found 2 properties within a block of each other that interested me. One was a foreclosure that was in decent shape but needed some work. The other was a run-down property that was vacant and filled with junk. I liked the foreclosure better because it needed less work. The other was bigger though and had more potential. My agent asked if I wanted to make an offer. I said I needed to sleep on it and did so.

The next day I went to work and came home to call my agent. I told him I wanted to put in an offer on the foreclosure and he promptly told me it was sold. (When someone says "time is of the essence" in the Real Estate business, believe them!) I was depressed and was trying to sleep that night but I kept thinking about the other property... it was growing on me. We went to look at the junk-filled property again the next day and I decided to make an offer.

Negotiations seemed to last for a week or so. We low-balled the owners and they got pissed off. They came back high and we came back low again. Finally we met in the middle at 40k. Unfortunately I accepted the house at 40k INCLUDING the junk. My agent helped me through the rest of the process and was there during closing.

I was so impressed with my agent that I decided I would use him for any other purchases and refer him to all of my friends... I lied to him. It ended up that he impressed me so much that I decided I wanted to become an agent myself and help others buy their dream homes just like he did for me. So that's how I got here, and that's that I guess.

Just a late Happy New Year wish from me. I have a good feeling about this year and I hope you do too!

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it! Have a safe and happy Holiday!

As I have mentioned before, I do alot of marketing to expired listings. One thing that I've noticed when getting the information for these properties is the extreme lack of attention given to the multi-list postings by the Seller's Agent. I've recently been talking to a couple who have had their home for sale for a year and it has now expired. The home is priced at around 150k, which is the average sale price around here. The multi-list entry had no picture for the entire year. This normally wouldn't cause too much of a stir in me because it is a common find, but I then realized two things; #1 - this is a common occurance from many companies (especially discount brokers), #2 - this wasn't a discount broker

So to all you sellers out there, I ask you this: Do you really know what your agent will do for you? Did you shop around, ask questions and witness at least 3 listin presentations? Did you ask your potential agents to show you examples of how they would be advertising your home? If you haven't, then be prepared to watch your house sit on the market for a year without a picture of it even being put in the most important location it can be.... the Multi-list.

Thanks for listening to my rant. Take care and have a safe and happy Holiday!