@Amy Wunderlich
I just closed two days ago on my first duplex through Maverick's partner in Philadelphia. I would say that what you need to be looking at more than Maverick itself is their individual partner companies. Once you get past the initial getting to know everyone phase, Maverick for the most part hands you off to the partner companies for that deal. Your point of contact for Maverick will still be there throughout the deal, though, which affords you an experienced person to fall back to if you get lost or if mistakes get made. Everyone so far has been very accommodating of my newness and inexperience, and although I'm sure I've caused a few headaches and muttered curses, they've worked with me without much friction.
The big thing: Check out the partner companies and evaluate them thoroughly to make sure they're exactly the guys you want to work with.
For example, Maverick's preferred lender is Bighaus-Chapman, which in turn passes off your loan to SNMC. This is not the cheapest lender by far, I will say that. But on the flip side, they are very willing to work with you on everything *except* the fees (i.e., out of country assets, which saved my butt because I'm forced to deposit my W2 wages into a Saudi account). At the very last minute, some seemingly insurmountable paperwork nonsense came up (some post-9/11 homeland security crap because I work in an Arab country) and Krista with SNMC managed to find us a workaround. And again, a problem came up with my power of attorney, and a workaround was found. So, expensive but they get the job done for people in complicated situations, like me. If you're in a more normal life, I might suggest finding your own preferred lender.
Second example, ABC Capital Investments, Maverick's partners in Philly. There have been some ball-drops in the communications department, but it's been a solid working relationship so far, and up to this point I have been working solely with the owner and his assistant. Upon closing, I was introduced to their management side, and I'm still getting to know those folks (great so far). Everything I've read about the company and all the people I've talked to who have had any experience with them seems to indicate that this is a team that really knows Philly. @Allison Karrels I can wholeheartedly understand if your husband wasn't sold on Philadelphia. As a city, it's a mess. There's gentrification going on in a patchwork fashion, and there's no good, safe district to buy in because one or two streets in any direction will take you from affluent to ghetto. ABC's people seem quite skilled at picking the better areas for investment. You might call the areas C neighborhoods, but from what I can tell from my friend who lives there, these are the B neighborhoods of Philly (either now or in a couple of years as the gentrification catches up).
I could ramble for days, honestly. This was my first deal, and I learned so much. No agent, very little interaction with my mentor, and I kinda learned a lot the hard way but it's still an ongoing process. I should be cashing my first rent check in September, and that's what counts.
Speaking of rent checks. As we calculate investments for cash flow, it behooves us to take into account vacancy, maintenance, and property management to get a sense of the monthly cash flow. ABC in particular, through Maverick at least, offers a lot of promotions on these factors, so you're getting a lot of extra cash flow that first year that you can set aside and use as a cushion later.
