All Forum Posts by: Anthony Micklus

Hi Dave, First full disclosure I am a Licensed Realtor (in Vermont) From what I am reading you sound like you can do a lot of what a Full Service Agent can do. If you are on MLS you are getting access to all the agents buyers in your area and Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com pull from MLS so you will be there. My only piece of advice is to make sure your commission award to the buyers agent is competitive with the local market. I never choose what to show my buyers based on the commission spit but there are agents that will. As far as eliminating buyers it depends on your contract with flat fee. Usually the listing agent gets the commission for the buyer if the buyer is unrepresented but I don't know how it works with Flat Fee. I wouldn't worry too much about the thief thing a thief disguised as a buyer can call an agent just as easily however I would suggest that you have the buyers First and Last name, Phone number and Email before you allow them to view the hose.

Welcome to BP Eric. This is a great place to find information and an awesome community. Though there is some expense involved you might want to think about getting your Real Estate License or if nothing else taking the per-licensing course. It is about $500 in my state but I learned more about Real Estate in the 40 hour class than I learned in $30K of money spend learning from the "gurus" even if you don't take the course this site has tons of resources (free) that are valuable. Just stay away from the gurus on late night TV. 

Always good to see a fellow Vermonter on these boards. I am a Real Estate Agent here in Chittenden County and I deal with new landlords all the time. I can tell you it is not a good idea for your first property to be 3000 miles away unless you have someone you trust. It sounds like in addition to the house you have also inherited people that were working with your father (my condolences to you.) and that you have never met. My advice would be to sell the property and use the proceeds to invest locally. For what you can get for that property you can find some very nice cash flowing properties right here in your own backyard. I can tell you for $500K you could buy a duplex, triplex or even 4-plex here in Vermont and collect $900 - $1500 per unit or more. Even if you bought a duplex with rents at $900/month that is still $400 more/month then you are getting now and you are in a place where you can properly check on the people who are working for you. 

I also have a REIA group that meets monthly in South Burlington. I can't give you the details due to forum policies however you are welcome to PM me for details.

Hi Chris,

I would agree with @Richard C. that 2K would be best spent getting your real estate license. If you pick the right broker to team up with they will pay for a lot of your expenses (though usually at the cost of lower commissions.) I just did this myself. My Broker paid for my license, my first 1000 business cards. I have a shared office and access to 15 different offices in my area not to mention free use of the photo copier and color printer for all my marketing copy. But the best part they gave me a mentor and he has been invaluable in showing me how to do this business. 

Ok I have to weigh in on this. Can you get started in real estate with NO money. Absolutely not. That is not to say you need money to buy the houses but you do need money for marketing. 

A very popular way of getting into real estate is wholesale buying. Essentially you go out and find a deal get it under contract and sell that deal to investor for an assignment fee. Assuming it is legal in your state (it is not in mine.) you are still going to need at least some money for marketing and advertising. 

Another way to get into real estate with "little" money down is to find a multi-family property in your area. As long as it is less than 5 units there are 0% down FHA loans out there. The catch is that you need to live in the property.

Lastly if you can find the right seller sometimes the seller will finance your mortgage.

In Real Estate you need Knowledge, Time and Money. Unless you possess at least two of the 3 and can find someone with the 3rd you are probably not going to make it.

Have you listened to the BP podcasts? There are a ton of them from Wholesalers and Flippers alike. I would start with that. BP also has some nice resources under the "Learn" tab including a guide to wholesaling. Once you have more specific questions post to the forums. This community is about as helpful as you can get. Guru classes are also available just about anywhere. Be careful though it is not as easy as they make it sound. 

So you think 9 months and 1 deal is bad? Let me share with you a little bit of my story. I started working in real estate in 2008. I got sucked in to one of these guru presentations that made it sound SOOOO Easy! After spending $31 Thousand!!! Yes THOUSAND dollars on these classes and 7 years with NO successful deals I am still here and I STILL believe real estate is the best thing going!

Have a little patience. Look at what you are doing I bet if you look hard enough and are true to yourself you will find that there are some areas that need improvement in your business plan. As for me I found a mentor in a rather peculiar way. After trying for years to wholesale properties only to find out one of my colleagues was nearly arrested for wholesaling I decided to get my Real Estate License. I picked a brokerage firm that offered a mentor as part of my training. That person has been the best mentor one could ever ask for!

Ideally you want to get a General Warranty Deed, this provides the highest protection for the buyer. A quit claim deed is actually the lowest level of protection as it has no covenants or warranties on the title. The Special Warranty Deed and Bargain and sale deed only guarantees that the grantor (owner) has title and that at the time of the transfer the property was not encumbered but someone could easily lay claim on it at a later date at which time you would have very little legal recourse. I would recommend that if you are getting anything other than a General Warranty deed you should purchase title insurance. 

Congrats on passing your exam. I am going through the same process myself my exam is scheduled for 5/6. I interviewed a couple of Brokers. There really is no right or wrong answer. It is all about what you want. In my case I interviewed at C21 Broker and a Keller-Williams broker. the C21 broker takes a bigger cut of the commissions but doesn't charge office fees and has some pretty nice programs to help get started. KW has lower brokerage fees but they nickel and dime you with the office expenses and they don't seem to have as much help to get started. Choose a brokerage that suits your needs. Remember if it doesn't work out you can always transfer your license to a different brokerage firm.