Beginner Investor!

[Samantha Arentzen]

Hello! I joined the bp community well over a year ago but have only been reading the message boards and blog. I realized I have yet to introduce my self!

My name is Samantha! My husband Marco and I are from Tacoma, WA. We are new investors and almost had a 4plex about 6 months ago but ended up backing out because it turned out to be a bad deal once we went through inspections. $$$$

Then I had my first child and stopped working so we have been on hold with the searching... for now! Unfortunately since I am not working and my husband had recently switched jobs, we found out the banks dont like that, so we have to wait!

In a few months we will have another green light and will be off to start again! 

Our goal is to have 40 doors by 40 (we are 23 & 25). We are interested in buying to  rehab and then holding. My Husband is a framer and I grew up in a house building/DIY family. We cant wait to work on a place!

This time we begin to search we are going to find a new realtor since the last two we used had zero clue about multifamilys, let alone investing! And since we are young I believe they didn't take us seriously! The first one we were in contact with went on vacation for a month right after we hired him and were advised to use his assistant and missed about 5 deals with her. Then the next one was so slow at doing paperwork and responding to emails the deal took 2 1/2 MONTHS before we could even get the ok for an inspection! By then I was about a week away from having my son so we called it quits!

I hope to connect with someone on here who can point me to an investing savvy realtor in the Tacoma area! Or is one themselves!

[Ryland Taniguchi]

In a buyer's market, having good realtors can be an asset as there are deals that pencil through short sales, HUD homes, etc. In a seller's market today with limited inventory, the market is so efficient that it is nearly impossible to find deals on the MLS that pencil through a real estate agent.

I do find lots of deals on the MLS but they are 100% land development deals.

And I have lots of experience with this as an agent myself since 2005 and having a team of 30 agents at Keller Williams. If I know at least 800 agents out there and am not getting deals that pencil from realtors, I am doubtful that you would get better luck.

Better to network a lot with wholesalers and if you have time get good at marketing for deals yourself. 

When I started investing in 2000, all the mistakes that I made were from bad advice from agents. For example, stay away from condos. There are 1% rule deals in Pierce county and be self-disciplined to only finding properties that cash flow under the 1% rule. Appreciation in King County properties is great but I would do that only after having a solid portfolio of at least 20 1% rule cash flow rentals. In addition, the time to buy for appreciation in King county is after the market crashes.

I watched 80% of the investors get wiped out in 2008. Very few of us survived. Don't do what everyone else does or you will get the results that everyone seems to get and exposing themselves to market crashes.

Stick to cash flow and the 1% rule. And my advice to you is that you won't be able to rely on agents to find solid 1% rule deals. This is an area that you will have to get proactive in yourself.