All Forum Posts by: Brendon K.

Lots of "it depends" here. I've been looking at getting mine too but have decided that it's not the right time for me. Factors:

1. Do you really want to be a salesperson? 
2. Would being an agent be an increase for your income? (This is one reason I decided not to)
3. Can you get your investing needs done through working with other people? Can realtors get you the same kind of information? (Check out the long distance real estate investing book)
4. Do you have any need to be a broker? Most states effectively require you to be an agent for several years. There are ways to do it differently but being an agent is always the easiest.
5. Do you require the boost in networking ability? Or can you network in other ways just as effectively?
6. Are you okay with going out into zombieland in the age of corona?
7. Is your local region even good for being an agent in? Most agents will say that most of their work is local.

As of learning the terminology, we have just about everything we need at our fingertips. Learn through going through the forums and participating while getting good at the biggerpockets books and maybe a few other resources that are available. Take it step by step. The biggest thing you can do is to start investing actively and you'll start learning the terminology as you go. 

David brings up an interesting point in his BRRRR book. He prefers to buy properties with cash straight up so he doesn't have a beginning mortgage. He mentions numerous advantages of paying with cash.

When you pay for a property and its repairs in cash, and then when you're ready to "refinance" though, what kind of loan are you going to get? This loan would use Loan-To-Value against the newly renovated appraisal ARV and then you get most/all of the money you invested back to spend on the next project. David goes through the different types of loans but doesn't exactly say what kind he gets when he initially pays with cash. Is it a "home equity loan" instead of a conventional loan?

Just learning for now, I'll reach out to some banks to figure this stuff out better later once my head is more on straight.

Banks generally release that information too.

I like a realtor who can find deals that aren't on the MLS and won't BS with me. Anyone can do MLS. A good realtor who has enough networking to find that diamond in the rough is worth his weight in gold and will probably get him or herself the buying and selling commission from me. I could care less about your pulls from the MLS, I can do that in my sleep and every single realtor does it too. It spams my inbox and is worthless, I don't read that stuff. All I want is that one good deal from you and you should be bringing it yourself without all of the automation. This is one of the things that David brings up in his Long Distance Investing book.

 Couple of other things. Don't assume I'm like one of your other clients. I'm not just some guy that is trying to find a house for his family. I'm trying to build an empire. Don't treat me like a newb or I'm already out. There's a good amount of respect that has to be shown.

After that, do your research and disagree with me when I'm wrong. I've had agents approach me with totally wrong numbers in their comps and then I question them on it and they don't have an answer. It's one thing to disagree and stand by your numbers with actual analytics, I love that kind of conversation because we both learn from it. It's another thing to pull something out of thin air and then not substantiate. I would rather have a realtor who surprises me with science than one who strings me along and assumes I'm not going to do due diligence. 

Credit cards modify your debt to income ratio. If you go past 40 percent you will significantly limit your financing options. Pay those things off. 

My end goal is to become a broker. One of the ways you can be a broker in Michigan is through getting your real estate agent license and working for a company for 3 years in a 40 hour a month job before going through the rest of the education. In this time you're supposed to have 5 sales per year. 

Problem is, I don't want to be tied down entirely from this pursuit. I have certain investment activities and personal commitments that I can't really get away from. Additionally, covid has made our family really uncomfortable when close to other people. We do it when necessary but we'd really like to avoid contact. I know it isn't realistic to most people to expect fully distanced but it would be nice to find something that's a bit more on the online side.

How can I satisfy this 40 hour commitment without this new job dramatically interfering with my existing commitments? Do you know of a company that operates in Michigan that would suit these needs well?

Depending on which region, you're probably going to have appraisers that look at dollars per square feet averages and then adjusting numbers based on red flags that are far outside the norm for the area you're coming in. Pricing out comps is way less of a science than you might expect. However, appraisal courses are generally worth their weight in gold. There are a couple of different ways to do it and even if it's not really a science, those ways are really what you want to focus on. I know you can get all the appraisal classes you'd ever need for like 1400 in my area.

We're selling our flip and it didn't get the attention we needed it to on the first week. Hundreds of views on the real estate sites, exactly one visit.

We know that purchasing happens the strongest in the first few weeks of being posted and that we're on a strict schedule. We are considering telling the agent that he needs to hold an open house, then dropping the price, but then also increasing the buyer's commission from 3 to 4 percent. We need this house to sell now and a few thousand spent to ensure that buyers have a bit more pressure from their agents to get in there and see the thing seems like a really good idea. 

Our current agent agrees that dropping the price is good but disagrees with changing the buyer's commission percentage, instead keeping it at the default 3%.

Has anyone had experience with increasing the buyer commission and could share their perspective, please?

Brandon Turner has said a few times in the podcasts that getting legal help outside of in an actual legal battle is relatively inexpensive so I'd like to see what kind of help I can find.

I need someone who can help me establish an LLC structure that will keep my family as legally immune as possible as we're starting an Airbnb empire. We're looking to do everything right but we're also aware that there are lawsuit crazies out there that want to sue you into oblivion every chance they can get. This person would need to be well versed in researching laws in the rest of the states too because we'll be investing in places like Lake Tahoe and we'll need a guide as well as someone to look over contracts we might go into (especially contractor terms).

I see a few posts that are old as dirt on this topic and I'd like to see if there are more recent opinions. Thank you!

Very interesting points. I'm closing out my first single family flip and will have a bit more money to invest. My credit's pretty spectacular and I'll have zero mortgages active after this is sold. Sounds like you know your stuff, what would you recommend my next step be?