How to start my real estate career in NYC/Long Island

Question

Hey everyone, my name is Jeff. I’m new to Bigger Pockets and real estate. I just purchased my first co-op in Hewlett NY and I am looking to rehab, live and flip to start my career. I am interested in advice and partnerships. I am very much at the beginning and would love to hear your experience in this market. How do I analyze deals? How do I find investors? Money to start? How to find great contractors? How to refinance? How to find an exit strategy? Rent or sell? Thank you very much. Enjoy your day

John Webster · Answer

As far as contractors etc there are several ways to find them. One way your local realestate group. Meetup.com shows where the groups are at. I see one in long island on the 14th. Money part is very easy, finding deals i see is what gets people, why people say deals are dried up. Number one thing I do is I have boots on the ground..plenty of deals in every market. More people looking the more ground you can cover. I showed a few people next time I met them they had over 100 deals each on a list . I use people that have to be out anyway. Landscaper's, uber driver's, trash people, newspaper carriers etc. they spread the word to people they know to help before you know it you have tons of deals coming your way. I have software that analyzes deals for me since I get so many, I just add the "fudge factor", unknowns, there is a calculation for that most just throw out numbers lol. Feel free to pm me, also , you came to right place there are awesome people on here. Enjoy your day

John Webster · Answer

Mainly the same stuff everyone does. One thing I added is I look for large 2 bedroom homes. In certain markets . some markets the price for a 2/2 is fairly lower than a 3/2. Dnt cost much at all to convert. People say location location location..yeah that is important ,however, you can get great buyers In a rough area too. Some colleges in rough areas. For example, one school I went to was Duke university. Middle of the hood lol. I had buyers before rehab was done. People rented our each bedroom to Duke students. Instead of getting 700 to 900 rents they were getting double. Properties weren't much, great roi for them. One Key is to have your deals sold before rehab is even started. As many as you can. Like I did with the deals by Duke. They were sold before finished. Some investors dnt want to deal with rehabs, want already done. I am going to post at a later time how to have your deals sold before rehab done or started..I had to think outside the box. Why my business degree helps big time. I can think of things most dnt think about .

Jeff Morys · Answer

@John Webster Awesome! Thanks John. You seem to have found a smart way to do business. What are you looking for when you look at deals?!

John Webster · Answer

As far refinancing, I havent done buy n holds or rentals. So the time frame you mentioned I never had to go anywhere near that. Fix n flip side you should be able to pay back fast if know how to buy low etc. It never took me longer than 4 months to get my money or payback investors . most of time faster. i did it differently than most, i would tell people where to get good deals etc, that way i got paid back as fast as possible. Granted you price deal right . I will add to this when looking at comps look at the days on the market. Seems common sense but most deals sit forever because of that . they bank on certain comp but dom could be forever lol.I price mines on a worse case scenario, same with investors, worst case and best etc. I even tell them how much my "fudge factor" will be. Unknowns, technical term. if you buy right to begin with can do that and still make a great profit. For example, I bought a deal for 685k that had an arv of 1.5 to 1.6 million. Less than 100k of rehab. I was able to sell low side of comps , sold very fast. Many do things so wrong they have to sell for top dollar to make any money..sometime deals wnt go fast investors sitting In the wing waiting, they dnt like that. Me I pay back very fast they call me about the next deal and send emails. I never had experience with multiple people funding a deal. I would go to people and they would have several people investing. They setup a biz account,entity, therefore, all would be on first lien. As far as me loaning money it depended sometimes I would charge just 6% if very quick deal, some deals were a few days of rehabbing then a few days on the market. Example, bedford texas was 4 days on the market avg, i got my money back in fairly fast time,6% usually was 12%. When I looked at my rate of return. Borrowing vs funding I was getting over 1000% borrowing . therefore, I stopped lending .

Jeff Morys · Answer

@John Webster Thank you very much John. When investing with private money. How do you set this up? Should I open a business bankings account to show the money? If multiple people want to give me money, will they all get a lean on the property or how do you set up the business desk? What interest do you offer them and what time table? Many are trying to then refinance the property after 6 or 12 months to free up the money and pay the investors back. Is that the way to go?

John Webster · Answer

As far as investors. Family and friends are good way to start..some people it dnt work for cause of their friends being broke. I started with my doctor and attorney etc..they have money not gaining good returns, they would love to invest in realestate,no time, good joint venture opportunity. They know doctors etc too. Next what I did was to post at the library etc info sessions on how to invest etc using their retirement accounts etc, Those with 401k, many invest in 401k and all they know is the company matches. I show the video of the boa execs having great money and losing alot cause it is tied to stocks, stocks fluctuate for most part. We started off with one library before we knew it had several, times several people . ready to fund. Another way to find contractors is by going to your local hardware store early in the morning. If I do a deal out of my state I ask my agent to let agent know in that area I am coming or need somebody they hook me up with good ones. Some just sub contract to people they know etc, hand off to contractors they know not as busy, some figure out a way to squeeze you in. Being new you want to use the credibility of your power team.

Jeff Morys · Answer

@John Webster thank you John! I appreciate that. I am just getting started and all these tips are great for me! Hope all is well. Where do you handle most of your business?!