Closing on our FIRST property! DONE!

[Rhonda Burlison]

Well I had to create a account for my wife, due to not being able to verify my email adddress. I hit the button to verify....but I never receive the email!! I’ve looked through all my folders and can not find it ...if anyone can help, let me know! ANYHOW....closed on our first property, a 4 unit and got a bit of a education! Lol! Received the final statement from the lender several days ago and after reviewing, was a little schooled on how much I had to bring to close. Fortunately I had pulled a little extra out of my 401K!!! Note to anyone as GREEN as I was!! Lenders do not finance closing fees!!! Also you have to pay one year of insurance for the property upfront at close!! Also the seller did NOT pay any commission to the buyers(us) realtor. Our realtor only charged us 1 per cent....but I had signed the contract with the realtor with out really understanding the seller was NOT paying the commission!! We were! I know I should have been aware, but the whole process was a bit overwhelming! So fortunately I got a credit for real estate taxes and have a great credit union for short term credit, till I pull a little more cash! Also, one tenant did not have a deposit with the landlord. They had got into a financial bind and the landlord refunded it to them. Our attorney advised us that we couldn’t force the landlord to produce it at close...so we have no deposit for one apartment! It was all documented on there lease for the refund! So outside of them few obstacles 😂😂😂😂😂 it went real smooth! Realtor did buy us a gift card for Texas Roadhouse. So we drowned our “experience”  in food....tomorrow I get to venture out into Chicago’s polar vortex and blow my tenants snow! Cheers! 

[Marcus Auerbach]

Congrats on your first deal @Rhonda Burlison! 

I am sorry you had to dicover some of these issues along the way and by yourself! It's nice you got a steak dinner out of it, but in my opinion, it did not have to go this way. 

The very first thing I do with a new client is sit down and cover the whole process step by step and make sure all questions are answered. We also look at whats going on with the local market and lay out or refine the strategy. Investor clients are usually very keen on learning and happy to do that; which is what I enjoy. What's killing me are new residential clients, who would rather go look at houses instead of "wasting time" in my office. So I usually insist and ask for a 30 minute meeting, but secretly block two hours in my calendar, because it takes on average an hour and a half - the deeper we go, the more new questions they have! And it is very important that as a buyer you are educated and you know what you are doing. It's your agents job to provide that information and to be your tour guide along the way.

I am glad it worked out though! Look for some good local landlord training. We have free classes here and you can download a pdf with state law.