All Forum Posts by: Allan Glass

Just noticed @Eyal B. gave you the same cap rate example in his post. Sorry to be redundant.

this is a great question @Account Closed and is bothersome to most seasoned investors in LA. As an investment broker myself I find it sometimes embarrassing that agents don't understand rent control laws / limitations. For that matter some don't even understand cap rates or GRM's.

That said @Eyal B.

@Joshua McGinnis it's important to note the rent control restrictions you've mentioned only apply to the city of Los Angeles and only to certain properties that fall under rent control provisions. Note that Santa Monica and West Hollywood in particular have very different rules. Some areas of Los Angeles County, although described as Los Angeles in the address may not actually fall under rent control, these areas can include San Pedro and Altadena.

@Annunciata R. let me know if you have anything you'd pass on, or would like to wholesale in 90049, it's my home market. Always interested.

@Joshua McGinnis i've got 10hrs under my belt Cessna 172, perhaps if we can all get our license @Ali Boone can arrange a real estate investor fly in...

Hi Kelly,

sorry to hear things didn't work out for you in Los Angeles. Good luck in Texas, let us know if you decide to make it back to the West Coast

-A

@Swat Khan you'll have better luck with commercial than residential. few banks will break residential portfolios down small enough for most investors. they also tend to be spread across outlying areas.

The exceptions are often, as @Mike S. . pointed out, the regional and local banks. Most of the lending they tend to do is commercial hence the stronger likelihood of commercial properties. However there are a select few out there with small residential pools.

These asset managers have many brokers/agents calling them each day for lists and listings. Most won't take your call. It's best to approach relationships you have at the banks or come to them with a substantiated offer to buy assets they hold.

Welcome to LA @Erica R. seems like your interior design craving would be a great fit for flipping. Best of Luck!

@Joshua McGinnis those are our primary markets as we'll. we should talk and compare notes. We're always looking for deals

great question. I haven't seen this done in the city of LA. Your first call should be to DWP. First to see if they allow it and second to see if they provide or require that they do the work.

Please post follow ups to this thread as you learn more. I'd appreciate hearing more

Does anyone have thoughts on how the new JOBS act which went into effect yesterday, will affect raising capital in syndications?

Hi Everyone,

I'm joining the conversation late but my experience is very positive using bird dogs or "wholesalers."

I own a brokerage firm in addition to investing and syndicating and I use bird dogs regularly.

There are several regulars who have brought me good deals over the past years on a continual basis and many others who bring me a few worthless leads before disappearing.

If everyone's comments are the norm (excepting Max's REI friend) I seem to be dramatically overpaying. Regardless, my thought is that they are worth every cent if they bring me a deal I wouldn't otherwise have seen. In other words, I'll gladly pay someone $1 to make $2 or $3.

My rules for bird dogs are simple. Don't bring me anything listed on the MLS and you only get paid if I close a deal.

I'm in Los Angeles and invest all over LA and Orange County so our deal size usually falls between $250,000 on the low end to $1 million on the high end. We pay our bird dogs $5k per closed deal.

Our guys know what we look for in terms of a return on our investment so our regulars are pretty good at bringing us more hits than misses.

I hate to generalize, but after doing this for 19+ years my experience has taught me that most people who wholesale have very limited/inaccurate impressions of market value. As always there are exceptions (eg. most of my regulars) however it's imperative as the one putting capital at risk that you do all of your own due diligence before buying anything brought to you.

Having said that, I'd be interested to hear more about Sam's experience trying to do this from overseas...

Best of luck to everyone!

-Allan