All Forum Posts by: Brandon M.

Darren, 

Seller financing/subject to financing sounds like the way to go. Either you give them a small amount to allow you to take over the loan subject to the existing terms, or you make them an offer where you pay a certain amount down and pay them a monthly payment going forward. If you do seller financing you can have a lawyer draw up a new mortgage/note for a few hundred dollars. 

Keeping it off the market will allow the seller to save themselves the 6% that would be paid to an agent, so you can try to sell them on the idea of seller financing vs listing it with someone. 

If the seller is agreeable to a 10-20% down deal and then financing the rest, this sounds most ideal for all parties. 

Isaac, 

I would say anything is on the table in terms of what you can offer that will appeal to the seller. If they are firm on the price what you offer might not be attractive, but you never know until you ask. Have you spoken with the seller's agent about the likelihood of your offer being in the ballpark? They should be able to give you an idea of how receptive the seller would be. 

Free rent is something that is standard in certain types of real estate deals, I am buying a self storage facility where the current owner is occupying 6 of the units. They have asked for 30 days after the sale to move their stuff so we have put that in the contract. If they stay past the 30 days they owe me rent like any other tenants. 

If you do decide to make the offer including free rent for 3 months make sure to be very specific with that in the offer, as well as stipulating what will happen after 3 months if the seller-turned-tenant has not vacated the property. When in doubt, make sure everything is IN WRITING so there can be no debate. 

Good to know. We are in the process of acquiring a small multi-family which will be vacant. Once acquired there will be some small rehab to get it rentable again and we will likely be getting good qualified tenants in there.

The exit strategy will either be selling the building if we get the right price, while possibly getting the property management contract out of it, or holding long-term and refinancing out the cash we used to purchase/rehab the property.

Question for all of you buy and hold investors: Would you prefer to buy a single/duplex/triplex (not counting apartments) with existing tenants with good profiles (credit, background check, etc), or vacant so you can find your own tenants?

Which would you be willing to pay more for, if either one?

Pavel,

Your issue isn't finding a good realtor in Tampa who works with investors. You will have a hard time finding any realtor who wants to keep submitting 60% of asking price offers on MLS listed properties when the comps support the asking price, while still needing financing.

While properties in FL might be cheaper compared to California properties in general, sellers aren't just giving away properties here for 50-60% of what they are truly worth. Private sellers as well as banks are listing their properties for close to true value and are reluctant to take lowball offers. Especially with properties on the MLS, those are picked over pretty well and are really only good for finding end-user/retail properties.

Good luck finding someone willing to continue to submit lowball offers on MLS-listed properties, tough for anyone to justify their time when they don't receive any compensation until a deal closes.

Best of luck.

Brandon, 

Nice name by the way. You don't need a sponsor to get your license, you will just need someone (a broker) to "park" your license once you have passed the test. That person and you will agree to a split of some kind, 80/20, 90/10, a set fee per transaction, etc, in exchange for parking your license and paying any of the E&O (errors and omissions) insurance. Basically their protection and yours if someone sues you for something while representing them/listing their property, etc.

Once someone parks your license you can join your local realtor organization (google "your county" realtor association) and you will see how to join. By joining the realtor association you get access to MLS. Here in Florida the cost for MLS access/membership is approximately $800-1000 a year. Sounds pretty expensive, but if you plan to be active enough that cost is worth it.

Hope that helps. 

Mark have you spoken with an environmental engineer about doing a Phase 1 on it?

Giles,

A buyer's agent will work on your behalf in finding properties, negotiations, showing you properties and point out things you might not see/know to look for, etc. Going without an agent is risky, as the seller's agent is working on behalf of THEIR client and not on your behalf. They still have to ethically do business, but they are really trying to get every penny out of you for their client as they can.

Keep in mind that you don't have to pay a penny to use an agent to help you buy a property. Typically the seller agrees to pay 6% commission to sell the house, and if the buyer has an agent the buyer's agent and the seller's agent will split the 6%. So the SELLER is paying your agent to work for you.

Also, a buyer's agent has MLS access and can set up an automatic search to send you emails with properties that fit your criteria. The system does the searches for you, you just look through properties based on what you want, and you let the agent know if there is anything you would like to go see in person.

And if you don't end up buying anything, you owe the buyer's agent anything. Granted, they may not be too happy if they drove you around to 50 different houses and you didn't buy anything, and they might be a little more hesitant to help you if you come back a few months later and tell them you do want to buy something now.

If you are new to the home buying experience I would definitely recommend using someone. They can help educate you as well as be your advocate in negotiations and the closing process.

Hope that helps some.

Customer loyalty process I use (also helps facilitate an increase in rent):

Rent was $1000, due on the 1st. New rent $1050 due on the 1st, but if payment received by the 25th of the month the payment required is $1025. This incentivizes the tenant to get the payment to me, not only on time, but EARLY! If done correctly can also show that you are trying to work with them and you appreciate them as a tenant.

Tony,

What no one has mentioned yet is what a GREAT idea it is to start as early as you are. I venture to guess 99.99999% of us on here only WISH we had started this thinking at your age. I kick myself for not having this mindset when I went to college. So congrats on that.

Now to answer your question, I think the answer really depends on the property, the deal you can get, and the rents you can get from such a property. You definitely want something appealing to college students and I think it would be good to find something with multiple bedroom units, as opposed to a duplex that has 2 1/1s. I guess what I am saying is look for a combination of your two options. Can you find a duplex/triplex where you have 2 units of 2/2? Then you could rent one unit out to two individuals, live in one, and rent the other bedroom to a friend.

If you can structure a deal correctly you should be able to clear most if not all of your mortgage a month, so you would be living rent free and other people would be paying down your principal!

I would suggest starting out by searching any properties around the school you will be attending, calculating your mortgage payment, and calculating what you can get in rent. I am a few hours north of you in the TB area but if you need to bounce anything off me, feel free to PM me. I have MLS access so I could help you with some of that information as well.

Best of luck!