All Forum Posts by: Peter Chan

@Alick Patrick 

Is that "extra $10,000" a typo or do you really have an extra $10,000 free cashflow to put towards your real estate investments? 

You can do A LOT with $10,000 net free cashflow... I would almost say you can do anything you want to-do with that. 

On the lender front, just keep calling around. Those foreclosures are going to be on your credit history for a few more years, so the trick will be to find a lender who will not care. Every lender has slightly different underwriting requirements.

@Karen Margrave 

Keep me in the loop and I will be there!

I see so many vacant lots in the middle of developed areas, and often wonder how I can turn those vacant lots into something. 

Home Depot is a great resource. 

They have free classes almost every Saturday/Sunday morning that will give you hands-on experience on with the techniques/tools that you'll need for any DIY project. 

Watch the Youtube videos, read the books, but eventually you will need to turn some screws because all trade skills require hands-on experience to do-well. 

@Ron Drake :

The best comparison would be to contact some Las Vegas users here in BP to get an idea what they pay. 

Personally, I believe it is part of the Property Manager's job to find and vet new tenants, but then again it is so regionally variable that "normal" practice in one place may not be so "normal" somewhere else. 

For example in San Diego, the rental market is competitive enough that you can put up a good Craigslist Ad in 20-30 minutes and have prospects contacting you in the same day! 

Who is the greater fool? The Dude who misleads someone (intentional or not) or those who blindly listen to that guy? 

My answer is that it doesn't matter who the greater fool is, because the consequences will almost always impact the blind-followers, especially in dealing with wholesalers and fixers. 

Great example is the Donner Party and their dealings with various advisers along their route who sold them secret maps, told them about shortcuts, and gave them all kinds of advice from far away. We all know what happened to the Donner Party. 

That being said, I look at these "remote wholesalers" just like any other source of deals... I appreciate the notification of an interesting project, but I'm going to run my own numbers just the same. In the end, they're selling you something - buyer beware... always.

What you're seeing is called a "Locator Service", where they (brokers, agents, whomever) find a tenant, vet them (if your Agreement stipulates) and then steps out of the interaction. The actual lease is still managed by you or your PM Company just like any regular lease. 

Fee schedules in Locator Agreements are regionally variable, sometimes calculated as a percentage of the 1st month's rent, sometimes a fixed fee. They almost always have a Term; like "Prospective Tenant must execute lease agreement within 90 days". 

The percentage and fixed "fee" usually increases as the lease term increases. 

For example:

• 3-6 Month Lease = 10% of first month's rent
• 6-12 Month Lease = 15% of first month's rent
• 12+ Month Lease = 20% of the first month's rent

The nice thing about these Locator Agreements is they only cost money if the Brokers/Agents/etc find you a suitable tenant who signs a lease. If they don't find a good tenant, you owe them nothing. Think of it as a fixed cost for new tenant acquisition. 

Where is your Out-Of-State Property? Location will be the strongest determinant of whether $500 is "market rate" for Locator Services. 

I use Google Maps - it's amazing (and somewhat creepy) what they can do these-days. 

As you zoom in, the map updates to become very granular, to where you can see where (at least according to the census data) one side of the street has greater household income than the other side of the street.

2010 US Census Data - Household Income

Beautiful and inspirational work!
Thanks for sharing!

Hi @Eric Robert ,

To avoid the Capital Gains Tax on "your side" of the duplex, you must also have lived in the property as your primary residence for 2 of the past 5 years. 

Hi @Aris Dizon !

Welcome to BP. 

If you have already taken all the pre-requisite classes, assuming you passed these classes, you already have all the knowledge needed to pass the RE Exam. 

Not to tout my own accomplishments, but I literally took 2 or 3 Real Estate classes at Palomar College and then sat for the Exam. Passed on the first try. If I can do it, anyone can do it. 

Definitely take the exam as soon as you satisfy the prerequisites. 

Regarding the prep/cram courses, the value from these classes is the "How to take tests" knowledge. For example: answer all the ones you know, skip the questions that you're not sure about and come back to those "problem" questions later. You can find this test-taking knowledge online also. 

For specific test questions, you can find practice tests/questions online and some of those were almost word-for-word what showed up on my exam. I recommend downloading some of the online practice exams. 

Good Luck!