All Forum Posts by: Brad Jacobson

You do have to work with a broker until you become a broker yourself.  In your situation, it's probably not worth becoming a broker anyways.

Look for a simple brokerage when you're licensed.  The bigger and more expensive names (like KW, Coldwell, Berkshire, Remax, etc.) probably won't fit your needs as well as a small brokerage with smaller splits (like Equity, Real, or small local operations).

When you're about 75% of the way through the licensing course, start interviewing brokers.  Once you've passed the test and received your license, go to the broker of your choosing and hang your license there.

Good luck!

If I'm not mistaken, frost protection usually refers to the depth of a foundation.  If the block isn't deep enough, it's more susceptible to frost and fracturing.  

You can't make a foundation deeper after it's been finished so the only solution I'm aware of is adding a heavy amount of insulation wherever possible to keep the weather away from the concrete.  

Talk to to local foundation-friendly engineer and get their two cents ASAP while you're still in your due diligence phase.

Good luck!

Personally, my interest in real estate investing began as simply wanting to get out of the W2 work that I didn't enjoy.  

Now that I'm a full time agent an investor, I'm way happier than I ever was in prior careers.  I think this scenario is pretty standard for most people starting out - they desire more freedom, less corporate pressure, and more control over their income.  

Now that I have a lot of career satisfaction, it's much harder to determine the end goal.  Honestly, when I'm happy working, the income is good, and I'm investing heavily, I'm totally content to ride this train until I feel like I want or need another change of pace.   

I think the biggest tool that helped me early on as a full time agent was staying consistent on social media.  Ditto to what @Jeff Schemmel said about staying consistent.  That's key.  

You have to let everyone and their dog know you're an agent and the easiest way to do that is through social media.  Don't post every day about real estate but be posting and engaging with people all the time.  A few ideas that have served me well:

- Go above and beyond when wishing all friends a happy birthday on Facebook, try to get conversations out of it

- Try to solve people's problems like helping them find a car, rental unit, handyman, or whatever they post about

- Post everyday but limit real estate focused posts to just once or twice per week

- Make fun survey questions and engage with other people's survey questions a lot

- Join local community groups and post about the service, projects, and cool things you're doing with the free time you now have as an agent

People typically only have the mental capacity to think of one or two people when you say the word "Realtor."  Try to get to that #1 or #2 spot for the majority of people you're connected with on social media.

Good luck!

Being a numbers and econ geek, I love talking about these things and trying to predict the direction of the market. However, I've learned to love what comes no matter what because I love working in real estate.

Shifts are common and when approached with the right problem solving attitude, shifts are always good.  

Yes, these spikes are going to bring prices down and continue to create a lot of fear in the market.  However, us professionals set the tone and my tone is positive.  I'm simply spending more time exploring creative financing and ensuring that clients who are selling, still net well (I mean look at how much equity they've built these past three years), and those who are buying take advantage of the fear in the market as much as possible to get the best deal they can.

I'm glad I work in real estate!

Yes.  Cash for keys is one of my favorite land-lording strategies.  

A eviction usually costs $2,000 or more so I begin by offering about half of that.  Last time I did cash for keys, I offered $800 and it worked.  

I recommend being pretty firm.  With the properties I manage, I'm usually a fairly chill landlord (my goal is kind but firm on rules) but with cash for keys, you have to really harp on the fact they can walk with this money or they will be greeted by an officer next week who will be much less kind.  

Good luck!

There are a lot of little IRS complexities (like everything with tax) when it comes to 1031 exchanges.  Like a CPA or a cost segregation specialist, there are companies that specialize in 1031s.  I would strongly recommend you hire a 1031 pro to ensure successfully execute the 1031.

Good luck!

Scott Trench's Set For Life was a game changer for me early on in my career.  Read that book five times so you build a good little war chest to invest with.

House-hacking will by far make the biggest impact on your savings so laser-focus your efforts on making your first purchase an excellent hack.

Good luck!

@Kaylyn Geiger, the wisest investors are investing in properties with multiple exit strategies. I think it's plenty safe to invest in STR right now but I would be cautious if the property is more of a high-flying property that only works as STR. Aim more for something that could also sustain itself (even if not with a huge amount of cashflow) as a traditional rental to be safe.

Good luck!

I love @Scott Trench's take on it being a great time to be an owner of real estate.  I can't think of a more obvious truth right now.  Anyone who's owned any real estate for over 12 months now is in a wonderful equity position with a great rate.

However, as an agent here in Utah, I'm tempted to argue that now is a good time to be a buyer.  Our inventory has doubled, almost tripled in the past two months and now my buyer clients suddenly feel like the tables have turned.  We're successfully getting properties for $20-40k less than we could a few months ago by taking advantage of the anxiety sellers are feeling right now!  One of the properties I toured last night dropped their price $50,000 after only being on market for 11 days. It feels much more healthy than the bidding wars we've been in the past three years.  

It's also been popular to take at least $10,000 of the price decrease as a mortgage interest concession which is dropping our monthly payments by about the same $200/month that @Owen Igori noted.  Getting the same house you could have bought two months ago for $20,000 less and a $10,000 interest concession has me more excited to assist buyers than I've been in a few years.