All Forum Posts by: Brandon Foken

Thanks Arthur Garcia, that's great advice. I'll be spending the rest of my time today rounding up different channels I can market to. Awesome news that your mailer is already turning up good results!

I've been reading J Scott's books and the BP forums and almost everyone recommends finding a real estate agent early in your investing career that can help you out by pulling comps, finding listings, etc. My question is: is it worth doing this in a crazy market like the San Francisco Bay Area? By crazy I mean extremely low inventory, houses going 10 - 25% over list, lots of cash buyers, etc.

Real Quick - a little about my strategy. I'm currently doing direct mail campaigns trying to find motivated sellers directly. I've sent out over 2,500 letters without a deal yet, but I'm confident in my system. My primary exit strategy is either to wholesale (if its a major rehab or outside my desired farm area) or flix and flip (I have friends and family that would be potential investors based upon the deal). Furthermore, I'm currently enrolled in a community college to get the education requirements done for my RE license. I anticipate taking the test in the July/August time-frame.

I've been doing these mailings since mid-January and I'm trying to find ways to shorten the time to my first deal. The first thought was to work with an agent to find available properties, but then I got to thinking about how crazy the listing are out here. So now I come to BP Nation with open arms asking for advice. What would you do in my situation?

A) Continue trying to find "off-market" opportunities
B) Call and interview agents that can help me find a house on the MLS.

Listsource has been screwing up for the last week or two for me. It randomly deletes my criteria and the lead count won't update. Pretty frustrating to try and build a list for an hour and have it not take half my criteria. Hopefully they can fix this soon.

Always great to see another Bay Area investor on here. Welcome Jimmy!

From time-to-time I get leads on my website that are outside my farm area. This is one such lead. I have a lady who inherited a house in Savannah, GA. Details:

Beds: 3
Baths 1
Sq. Feet: ~1,295
Single Family Home
Location: According to Zillow, it's in the Baldwin Park/Midtown neighborhoods.

If you are interested, please respond below or via a PM. I'd like $1,000 as a referral fee if a deal is consummated.

As the kids say these days, "Shut up and take my money"! Just ordered the eBook...looking forward to reading it. BiggerPockets has been growing like crazy since I found this site back in October. Keep up the great work!!

Welcome, Andy O.. Former Oregonian (went to school in Eugene) saying hello from sunny California. Are you buying in the city limits of Portland or some of the suburbs? Go Ducks!!

Where in my reply do I come off as holier than thou? I gave my opinion and stated the way I prefer to do business.

People like to do things differently than me? Great! I then ask for details and clarify any misunderstandings. Then I look at my business model and my own ethics and make a determination if that is how I want to act/proceed/do business. There is no judgement or acting holier than anyone else. I'm just a simple aspiring real estate investor who is looking to do business the way I find most appropriate and to learn from each and every person I come across - you included.

Look, I'm happy that bandit signs are working out for you and I wish you success. Just because I don't think they are the proper way of conducting business doesn't mean I'm better than you. It's called an opinion and mine just happens to be different than yours. Can't be the first time it's happened and I'm sure it won't be the last.

An update was promised so here it goes.

Met with the sellers earlier today and we were unable to come to an agreement. The crux of the issue was the seller called an agent to see what her duplex could be listed for and she was told about $200k. Agent didn't go to the property nor do anything else besides look at comps. So, the seller thinks she will be walking away with $200k in cash. Well, we started breaking things down so they could see the reality.

ARV: $190k - $200k
Repairs: $82,000
Past Due Taxes: $1,600
Fixed Costs: ~$20,000
Profit: $25,000 (seller gave me this number as a reasonable amount to deal with their headaches)
Offer: $62,000 all-cash or $70,000 with a down payment and 2 years of interest only payments and a balloon in 2 years.

We left with the agreement they'd think my offer over and give me a call back in a day or two. In the meantime I'm writing up a contract and emailing it over in hopes that seeing that number on paper will sway/change their thinking. There is a ton of details I'm leaving out so if anyone has any questions, ask away.

Woke up this morning with the plan to finish the separation between my blog site and my lead generation site only to find 2 VMs waiting for me. Well, one of those VMs was a phone call from my first truly motivated seller!! She inherited 3 parcels about 2 years ago and now is facing eviction from her apartment. She needs money to keep her and her kids off the street. I'll be going out on Monday to get this one under contract! I think the most exciting part about this business for me so far is you never know what your day will bring. I've never been more excited for a Monday in my life.