All Forum Posts by: Alicia Yoder

Thanks for your input George! I think you are right and I have realized this project is worth some money invested so I have hired a freelancer off UpWork. Part of success is knowing when to sub out your weaknesses lol. Thanks again! 

Hey guys! I am opening my own real estate brokerage here in the next month or so and I could use some creative help! I’m completely analytical brained and I spend way to much time overthinking things. Thought since everyone here loves real estate this might be a fun project for some? I need help picking out a business name. I plan on specializing in investment properties and property management. However, I still want to appeal to the average consumer looking to just buy, sell or lease a property as well. I don’t want something overly stuffy. I’m pretty laid back and my value lies in my passion and knowledge for real estate. I am a broker, an agent, a property manager, interior designer, general contractor, carpenter, painter, drywaller, general handy woman, economics nerd and maybe a bit of a conspiracy theorist ;). I can tell you the costs of a bathroom remodel from a light to a vanity to the tile work. Im not a salesman but a service provider. I’m looking for a name that says I’m a one stop shop for all things real estate related. I say these things simply to help get an overall picture of what value I’m offering with this brokerage. I don’t really plan on hiring a bunch of agents. I will dabble in commercial (my dad is a commercial builder and will primarily sale his properties) but my emphasis will primarily be residential. My favorite names I’ve come up with are “on point realty” and “advocate realty services.” I like them but I’m not really in love with either of them. Anyways from this novel you can see that I’m way to over analytical and detail oriented for this so anyone feeling creative and bored, I would sure appreciate your input!! Thanks y’all! Alicia

@Shayna Queen I just used a LOC for my first flip. Well I thought I was going to flip it. I got to the party late going passed my budgeted time frame and ended up listing in late July. Two months later when my builders risk policy was on the verge of expiring I knew I could not afford to hold it much longer. I was about to start incurring $500 a month addiontal for a vacant dwelling policy. I decided to lease it instead and ended up hitting a home run with a 3 year lease. I took the lease back to my bank and they converted me into a permanent loan. Now I have a house with cash flow for the next three years and an open line of credit to go find me another one. I don’t think there is anything wrong with using a line of credit as long as you have a couple of escape plans. With flips you are obviously adding value so I was able to covert the loan with no money in the game just bc of the value I added to the property which translated to being my 15% down payment. I bought the house at $136k, had $65k in rehab and holding costs and it appraised for $245k. I was paying almost $800 a month in interest on the LOC. Holding costs are serious and as a first time investor (I am a real estate agent with a contractor as a father so I had an abundance of knowledge and had spreadsheets and thought I overly prepared) I don’t think you ever get it exactly right on the first time. Point being, use money anyway you can but just make sure you have various exit strategies. That’s my two cents anyways. Hope it helps!

Hey BP‘ers, I’m looking to start my own real estate brokerage firm. I also plan on house hacking and moving every two years. I do not want to pay for nor do I need a physical workspace. My question is, what should I use for a physical address for my registering my brokerage? It seems like a headache to update legal documents knowing I’m going to move often using my personal address . I also don’t particularly care to have my personal residence as my brokerage business address. My brokerage will be an LLC in Texas. I know you can rent mailboxes but based on research it seems a LLC has to be a physical place they could serve legal docs and a rented mailbox does not qualify. Has anyone used a regIstered agent service? Any advice or thoughts are much appreciated! Regards, Alicia

I think Pex offers a better resale value since it can’t freeze and burst. Pex can freeze but it won’t burst and cause even more damage.

When you say foundation issues what does that entail? Beams need to be replaced? Just needs to be leveled? What caused issues, too much moisture under the house? What did your engineers report say? Settling happens all day every day, forever. It never stops settling I guess is what I am trying to say. Because of this, pier and beam homes typically need to be re-leveled every 10 to 15 years.

Here in East Texas we have clay soil which expands and contracts a lot. During summer months with extended periods of drought, watering around the foundation isn't a bad idea. Settling you can't completely control but I don't think it hurts to try and minimize the cosmetic effects it creates. Pier and beams move more and require re-leveling every 10 to 15 years but it's not a major major expense.

Your feedback is the reason it has not sold. Price cures all objections. Someone will need to feel like they stole it to justify the small yard.

I am an agent in Longview, you might think about putting in Longview MLS as well if you can. Mt Vernon isn't a just super happening area so it may not go super fast. Just my two cents but I don't know that I would flip anything in that area for the exact reason you are having trouble now. In small rural areas like that you have better odds getting it sold at a lower price and letting some handy fella do his own work vs getting it over $100k where you have a smaller pool of qualified buyers. May try to find an agent that works the Mt Pleasant area a lot and at least give them the info so they can keep your property in mind.

I don't know if I would call it a "bubble" per se, but globally we are facing a pretty serious economic crisis. China is a big player in this. They have over speculated 10 fold, they are buying up gold and bitcoins like crazy (they know they are tanking their economy) and censoring what we hear about it. Bert Dohmen's "coming China crisis" and James Rickards "currency wars" will give more insight into this (David stockman and Harry dent are other great contrarians that have some great books out like "the demographic cliff" and "the great deformation" that play into the big picture) But being as China is the second largest country per GDP, i think we would be foolish to not take into account how what they are doing is going to affect everyone else. Especially emerging markets. Hence why Yellen didn't raise rates this week. The global economy is the concern. Personally, my prediction is after the election we will start to see more of this come to light. Especially if trump gets elected. But when your dealing with the government anything is possible, any day lol.