All Forum Posts by: Blake Alexander

@Cami Paul 3 months is nothing — keep grinding and slowly build your reputation around town. It might take at least 6 mo to a year to sell your first house. There are some great sources of cheap/free leads out there, I'd say number one is open houses. Find someone in your office who has a listing in an area where you want to work and hold it open. Do at least one open a week (i've heard of new agents holding opens 7 days a week). 

Zillow and Facebook are great too, you just have to know how to advertise on FB properly. And like everyone said, network. 

You'll get there! 

Hey Lee, We just held an open house in Highland Park and it was an interesting experience. It's definitely an up-and-coming area with a lot of potential. There seems to be a lot of anti-gentrification and anti-development sentiment which concerns me a little. I also think that, as with other hot areas, the neighborhood can get ahead of itself sometimes in terms of pricing. There will be growing pains, but overall there's tons of potential on the eastside.

Craigslist. @Amy Wunderlich that's how I became manager of a 47 unit building in WeHo. I did it for the same reasons, to get experience before I buy my own multifamily out of state. 

Distressed sellers or distressed properties usually. Those categories are very fluid and multifaceted, and like everyone else said, there is no one answer. But I think in general you're going to get a deal if you can find someone willing to offload property below mkt value for some reason (be it financial, health, or frustration with distance or tenants). 

I'm seeing good multi-family deals in C and D areas where landlords don't want to deal with the caliber tenants that they are getting. 

@LaTiera Williams Welcome to BP!!

Originally posted by @Ashley St. Gelais:

@Jason Eyerly

Hey Jason!

WORD OF MOUTH is the best and cheapest form of advertising.

1) So use your relationships with friends and family.  Tell them what you are up to and why you made this career change.

2) Build new relationships with people in the industry - lenders, attorneys - etc.  Find people you truly enjoy being around and working with and ask how you might be able to help them out.

3) Ask for testimonials from the people you are working with so far.

4) ABOVE ALL OFFER EXCELLENT SERVICE so that people you serve have an amazing experience they can rave about.

5) Do little special things for your clients - if they love house plants get them a house plant at closing.  Or you could even put together a house warming party for them that you are at and can meet all their friends and family and neighbors.

Hope that helps!

A

 Fantastic response! This is exactly the way to go for a new agent i'd say. 

Find a place where you can take practice tests and just go over them consistently. I was taking one practice test every day for about a month and a half — although the information on the test itself really had nothing to do with what I was studying. 

You'll do great, just keep studying. I would recommend learning the underlying ideas, not just memorizing terms. I was told that what I was studying was taken straight from past tests, and come test time, maybe 2 questions were actually similar. 

@Account Closed Like everyone else said, I would go with a smaller shop. I have someone I use — send me a message if you would like his contact information. 

@Aziza Sackett I have a professional in mind who might be right for you. Send me a private message if you're interested. 

Originally posted by @Joshua McGinnis:

This just isn't true based on the numbers.

Will we face a macroeconomic shift which might change pace for a period of time? Absolutely. But over the long haul, until we ramp up production, we're going to be dealing with short supply and the high prices that follow.

This is a fantastic answer. New construction isn't even keeping up pace with household creation so it seems that hyper-supply is not on the horizon.