All Forum Posts by: Brian P.

That's good. Just have a heart to heart that you have heard from other investors about some sign hangers that took the money and didn't hang many of the signs or in a few cases any of the signs. Would you feel comfortable waiting for your money until I know the signs have been hung.  Second time, ok I know that I can trust you now, here are the signs and the money and would it be ok with you if I told others that may want to use your services about you.

Carlos 

I never approach them after the sale for the first time because I had already approached them before the sale. Before the sale is the best time to try and do a deal and if you can't do a deal then at least you have had a chance to do something the other bidders at the sale haven't done and that is to inspect the property.

I don't know a darn thing about the Hurricane State. Almost moved there once to do some investing  but when my wife found out about the cockroach problem that idea was quickly put to rest. Does Florida have reinstatement rights? That was a tool I was able to use in other states.

OK, I have done plenty of commercial deals during my lifetime. I considered my office a full service real estate office and that was residential and commercial. When I first got involved with commercial I was a broker but my entrance was through investing and I quickly found out that commercial brokers had the tendency to stand on pedestals and sit on thrones while smirking at residential agents. The truth was they just had some knowledge that hadn't been acquired while learning residential and normal house sales but was not anything that required a PHD and was really just basic business and didn't really require joining some secret club and learning the secret handshake where you then received the secret info.

One of my early deals was brought to me by the seller of a house I had listed. We were having lunch and he said what do I know about the XYZ area, which was industrial. Found out he was the owner of the company I thought he worked for, their lease was coming to an end and the leasing agent was trying to get a large increase and a much longer lease and I said don't you think it's about time to buy and control the properties you need for your business and why extend the lease, you said you need to expand. Long story short, I sold him the property they had been leasing and the one next door. I think the leasing agent was going to go for a listing after the new lease was signed.

And was soon receiving a phone call from the junior god upset that I had wandered into his realm without his permission and had stolen his client. And I said you were representing the landlord weren't you and your only legal duty was just to rent out the property right, and then he declared yes but thanks to you I can't do that now, and don't you know your not qualified to deal with commercial real estate and should stick with houses. I said you know when the title company gave me that great big commission check they didn't ask if I had a license stating commercial real estate broker, they though the one saying real estate broker was just fine. And as for the leasing do you think learning the few extra things or clauses needed in a triple net lease requires a couple extra years of college or something. 

I didn't deal with property, I dealt with people and I found solutions to their problems, if their problem was whatever, my job is to solve it and sometimes I brought in other professionals to assist me in doing that. I once brought in a commercial broker to assist in one deal but it wasn't his expertise I wanted, he thought it was, but it was really his contacts in the city involved and I needed them to smooth out getting the project off the ground. When we were done he said to me hiring me and my expertise really helped you to advance your knowledge of  commercial real estate and you should consider taking advantage of what you learned from me and maybe switch from residential and do commercial real estate, maybe with my company.

And he was sort of right, even though he taught me nothing new and I think he learned something from the deal, wearing both hats is tough and specializing in one is the right way to go but the variety I got from solving peoples problems, whether a home, a multiple family deal, land development, selling a ranch or a farm or a motel, or a truck stop or a high rise office building, all provided  sort of a thrill and satisfaction that just selling single family homes only didn't do, but I loved the satisfaction homes and helping families provided too. To me this is a case of variety is the spice of life. And I miss it, I retired as of January 1st officially so my wife of 55 years and I can spend the day getting through our medical problems together, Golden Years, BS, that term was invented by the medical community to describe the years our gold is transferred to them. 

Well next to your ugly puss I see a very very pretty face, I assume that is your lovely wife and if it is many problems can be answered by her being on board. Plus with today's services and electronics available to everyone many problems are not problems at all. 

Just as your day is scheduled in the military it will be up to you to schedule the entire week. My father in law was a life insurance agent for Met Life for 54 years and he told me he was given the key to success by the many before him. He managed to start his career on the eve of the great depression but still made a living during those times when he was selling a product not many people were interested, in or could afford. What was his secret, well I had heard it from many in sales and other careers for years but it was something most people said yeah that's right but never really followed if at all.

The big secret, plan your work and work your plan. I heard it at 15 and used it starting on my 16th birthday to begin real estate investing, go to high school, work a part time job of 20 hours a week and maintain a full time girlfriend, in the same 168 hours a week you have available to you. Just do it. I have listened to top real estate agents making over a million dollars and more a year, and that is the true foundation for their success. Run into a problem, find a solution, trouble most unsuccessful people think the solution is to quit and go try some new toy because something must be wrong with the old toy, after all it isn't doing what you want it to do and they aren't smart enough to figure out it just needs for them to wind it up and then it will go. 

OK, my wife told me to knock it off, that you are a good looking guy, I'm going to have to check over my should more often, can't have any fun at all.

Jason

Two things, I never ever had a problem with a banker saying to me you have these cash flowing properties in good areas and that might cause a problem and yes I know the banking industry has produced many, many idiots the last few decades but the only thing that started to show up for me during the pretend banker period was the number of loans that you had, no matter how good your asset sheet was. 

I ran into an idiot lender that if they looked at my holdings they would have found if you spread the loans out the average loan was for 40% of the value of the property and I was asking for a 70% LTV, in a desirable area for the new loan. I happened to be friends with one of the co-owners of the bank and gave him a call and I quickly got a return call from the underwriter telling me he had pulled strings and got my loan arranged. I told him thank you for using your influence and getting that done. He wasn't bright enough to add 2 and 2 and ask why he just got his *** chewed out. I really do miss the days when you could just deal directly with one of the officers of the local branch. Of course they still had jerks then too but you had a decent shot at going up one level and getting what you wanted.

The second thing is where the properties are located. Are they in Beverly Hills, or Compton.  I would rather go to a banker and show 3 properties in BH then 15 in Compton.

The real good that comes from wholesaling is that it can give you the solid foundation for a real estate investing career no matter which way you go later on.

I wouldn't even ask, he would really need to be in trouble of some kind not visible at the moment. He might just get his satisfaction from being able to tell people he owns a rental condo. even if it isn't the best investment at the moment.

I ran into one of these guys once and he had already been under the water once and was gasping for air and was going down for the second time but he refused the life preservers being thrown to him. Finally he was going down for the third time and a family friend offered to take everything over and give him a total out and a few thousand just to make him feel it wasn't a total loss. Her turned her down in front of me, ( I had sold her primary residence a few weeks earlier and she was in escrow) he said we were trying to take advantage of him somehow, after all he said he owned many properties and was very knowledgeable, got into his car and drove off for who knows where. I just said to myself thank god he didn't accept her offer and maybe he really did have enough class not to mess her life up by accepting her offer.

Go to you tube, I know there are a few sites that cater to real estate agents or those wanting to become real estate agents and a few that I looked at had some good real estate math coverage.

I was lucky and had a few good teachers during my school years that taught me well, which was quite a trick because I showed up for class but my brain was usually some where else, especially if it was a math or english class. And thanks to those teachers when I applied for my real estate salesman's license (yes ladies that what it was called) I thought I would have months to study for the exam but the very next week I received  a testing date for the following week. Panic time and all I could do was to read the state law book the DRE put out every spare minute, and somehow I passed. 

From your post I am assuming there are no other liens on the property, if that is the case and the property is sale-able, eg good chance of getting that $120k ARV within a decent amount of time, then go for it.

Plus the worst case is if there are only property taxes due and you don't pay them and you let it go to sale the chances are there will be overbids and as the last property owner you will be entitled to them. Not sure of your state but I have done this in other states, though in about 19 out of 20 cases I found a buyer before the tax sale.

OK Nick

So your real question is to those of us that have our license out here how have we used it. Not give me some good reasons why I should bother getting one, that has been covered many many times here.

I only have one suggestion to make, actually use the license to try and make a living. The efforts of one activity (agent)lead to business for the other activity(investor) and vice versa. Everything I made as a Real estate broker went into one pile, and everything I made by investing in real estate went into another pile, not to be touched unless it would cause the pile to become bigger.