All Forum Posts by: Mark Mynhier

If you go to http://www.city-data.com/city/Inglewood-California... you can get a lot of the demographics to see what the neighborhood will support. Just like anywhere in LA, there will be great pockets within an area. I agree with @Joshua McGinnis that The Avenues seems to be coming up. People make good money in all areas if they position themselves correctly. Just make sure that you don't overdevelop in these areas. I've seen rehabs in Compton and Inglewood that didn't sell because they were overbuilt.

Do the research and you will be fine.

Mark

I personally like Club in Action in Burbank. They play CashFlow the second Wednesday of the month and have their meetings on the third Wednesday. (http://www.meetup.com/Real-Estate-Club-In-Action-B...)

Any FIBI is great...if you are near Pasadena, it is particularly good. Third Thursday of the month, typically. (http://www.meetup.com/FIBI-Real-Estate-Pasadena).

Non-Real Estate, but awesome business meetup is Casey Eberhart's Business Marketing Bootcamp (http://www.meetup.com/LA-Business-Marketing-Boot-C...) on the second Tuesday of the month. 

Like @Paul Timmins said, the InvestClub for Women (and the men who love them) is always good.

Plenty of us who just want to meet for coffee and talk business on a one-on-one basis, too. Connect with some BPer's out there...grow rich together!

Mark

Welcome to BP. Small world, but I know another Agent who used to be at the KW/Beverly Hills. He always had good leads for rehabbers. Put me on your buyers list if you ever get good properties to rehab. I'm always in the market.

Dig in, network and learn as much as you can...this is a business of continual education.

Mark Mynhier

Nate, call Chris Brown at Avatar Construction (http://avatargreen.net/). Avatar does great work at reasonable prices. I'm using them for my rehabs and couldn't be happier. Never built a home from the ground up, but when I build one for me, it will be with them.

A pocket deal is a deal that an Agent or Broker has that has not hit the MLS yet. They are (figuratively) holding it in their pocket to sell it before they put it on the MLS.

From Wikipedia: "A pocket listing is a real estate industry term used in United States which denotes a property where a broker holds a signed listing agreement (or contract) with the seller, whether that be an "Exclusive Right to Sell" or "Exclusive Agency" agreement or contract, but where it is never advertised nor entered into a multiple listing system (MLS), or where advertising is limited for an agreed-upon period of time. In Canada, this is referred to as an "Exclusive Listing"."

These are the gold mines in our industry.

Mark

@Rosalina Brenda Berk don't sell yourself short. In the LA Market you can make $35K in a single flip without much sweat (just some solid strategies). You should network and find investors with capitol and help them make a good return on their money. As an Agent, you should be able to get pocket deals which will allow you to be on people's short list of Agents to call. 

If you only average $20K per flip and do one a quarter, you are making $80K year. The margins here in the area CAN be great. You just need to partner up with some people who are experienced and learn the local market. Find some good REI clubs and network (FIBI is great, InvestClub for Women, Club in Action, etc). You will get both business partners as well as clients. Your network = your net worth.

Doing flips to fund the buy-and-holds is a great idea. Don't just look around here (where the CAP rates are 5%-8%), look in other emerging markets where you can get a much better return for your investment.

Good luck and drop me a line when you get your license...I'm always looking for another good Agent.

I've done 6 deals (7th in the rehab stage) here in LA, as well. Like Richard did, without any of my own money. The properties went from $125K - $1.4M purchase price. I put together deals that had the right spread in them, the investors believed were secure, and had the right team behind them to accomplish them on time and on budget. I brought my expertise to the table - finding the deals and doing the project management. It takes putting together the right team and selling the team to the investor, not just yourself.

Everything was structured through a JV agreement and the profit splits were 50/50 in most cases.

Kate,

Welcome to the LA market. It is a blast! I'm an investor in LA. Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions about this area. There are a few GREAT meetings that go on in the area. Tonight, there is the FIBI (For Investors By Investors) - http://www.meetup.com/forinvestorsbyinvestors/ - Holiday Party where you can meet a LOT of awesome people who work the SoCal area. It is for all of the local FIBIs, so don't worry that it is in Long Beach.

This is a town of networking, so jump in and join in. Download all of the stuff on here to soak up as much as you can and don't be afraid of asking questions...that is what this is all about.

Mark

I listened to Bruce Norris talk about this a couple of months ago. This isn't new. Bruce (if I may be so bold as to give his opinion) said that this occurrence happened and that it didn't necessarily mean that things were bad. He said that this was unprecedented and that the experts couldn't agree to what it means.

No matter what the economy or the trends are doing, there are always ways of making money in real estate, you just have to study the market and be aware of what is happening and be knowledgeable and flexible enough to go with it.

@Annette Torsarkissian , I would discuss office policies with your Broker before wholesaling the properties. I'm no longer a licensed Agent, but when I was there was no legal issues (times may have changed). The person who has the Broker's license may have an issue with it or may not, that is a conversation that you need to have, though.

Take the list, start sending out some hand written letters (you can probably find some templates on here) and just start trying to get some properties under contract. Work on creating a buyer's list (some people on here would be grateful to buy from you if the numbers are right) and things will fall into place.