Six Months in America

 I arrived here in August having only ever worked with turnkey providers here and so was starting from scratch in terms of finding my own deals for clients.

What have I learned so far, (subjective comments of course).

NEGATIVES

1.  A lot of professionals make real estate transactions difficult instead of facilitating them. You have to do a lot more work here to find a competent and honest conveyancing attorney, insurance company, property manager etc. than in NZ.

2.  The industry is packed with scammers and dishonest players. 90% of ads on craigslist and FSBO signs are not genuine. 

3.  Nearly all realtors seem to know nothing about real estate and neither answer their phone nor reply to emails.

4.  Contractors are often unreliable, poor quality and unable to solve simple problems.

POSITIVES

1.  Deals are everywhere, just lying around.  It is easy to find a flip a day even part time.

2.  Transactions can be done so quickly, you can find one day and be closed out in 48 hours.

3.  Rehab costs are ridiculously low so making deals work is easy, even on trashed houses.

4.  Real Estate is about a thousand times easier here than back home.  Even though there are more people there is less competition because most investors and bird doggers all chase the same lead channels, so once you get outside the box you are pretty much alone, (in a good way).

SUMMARY

Anybody who follows the multitude of advice and help offered on Bigger Pockets should be able to make a decent living out of real estate. Apply the learning well and you can make a great deal of money.

(And if you can't make money here in the USA don't come to New Zealand or Australia, you will get creamed :-)

Dean