All Forum Posts by: Tim Czarkowski

Ed Poltonowicz I have to agree with Amy Arata that really is unbelievable beautiful home. I love how they were built with such style. I am assuming it was a home originally and then chopped into apartments? If you don't mind asking what type of rents are you getting? Congrats on closing the deal.

I have a handy man that I can count on while I am gone and I travel quite a bit. I actually went to Thailand for three weeks this year, I purchased a Thai sim card and gave my guy the number but I never used it except to talk to family. We actually had a tropical storm that hit during this time and he was able to handle everything including some flooding in two units without getting me involved.

I also trust him to show apartments and get applications. If I need to I will fill out the lease and have him get it signed. He seems to have a knack for selling people to boot. All in all I really recommend finding someone you can trust that knows what they are doing, they are worth their weight in gold. It also costs much less to have this guy when needed but not have to pay a management company. It's the best of both worlds.

The one time I try not to be away is right after the first of the month as I like to make sure I get all my rent on time and post notices if I don't. I have been able to manage that while away also. I think being a landlord provides more freedom to do what you want then almost any other small business. I used to manage restaurants and that was much more of a pain to handle while traveling and any long trips would be out of the question.

It's the same deal though if you have good trust worthy people your business will run itself most times. If you have bad people you'll be pulling out your hair 80 hours a week and still won't have it run properly.

Personally I don't find companies that charge a large monthly fee to be attractive to the agent first starting out. If your already successful and are doing multiple deals a month a company like that where you pay $800 a month and get 100% commission would be great. I also don't think going to a no frills no education type place is good for new agents either. You need someone who is going to provide you with some training and some decent systems. That said I don't know what exactly Re/Max offers and I have only been with Keller Williams.

I used to work for them and have just stuck with it. They offer training everyday and a great paperless transaction system, marketing system, and contact management system. They pay schedule hits about middle of the road. 25$ a month, 70% commission till $18,000 in company dollar and then 100% from then on. The board of realtors offers quite a bit of training also so you may want to check with them.

If you might be interested in talking to the broker pm me. It looks like they have two offices in your area. If you not you should certainly check out "The Millionaire Real Estate Agent" It is written by Gary Keller who is the Keller in Keller Williams. It like a business plan for successful real estate agents. This is just the tip of the iceberg on what they offer in their training including internet courses if you can't make it to the office.

As Joel Owens said, finding what niche your likely to focus on is a great step that most agents never consider.

John Jabson

I used to work at a real estate brokerage and the vast majority of agents made almost nothing and all except one that made good money were full-time. We had around 70 agents, so not a small office.

As others have said this is definitely an area where females dominate. All of our top producers were females but there were some very successful men at other offices. In fact the owner was a man and had several other offices, an incredibly successful real estate sales team, along with a number of other business. His wife was his partner though, lol.

With that said you are in a position where you could have a good network between other teachers and parents. A decent flow of leads is key to make any money. Agents are really in the business of marketing themselves, not selling homes, marketing homes, negotiating, or helping buyers or anything else.

It doesn't take a whole lot to get started so I say go for it. Just go into it with your eyes open. If you have any interest in investing it can be very helpful to have your license.

Great post. Getting my real estate license was well worth it just for access to the MLS not to mention providing another source of income. They are easy to get and not very expensive to maintain. Do one deal a year and it's paid for itself.

I would recommend finding a knowledgeable mortgage broker who works with a lot of different banks and see what they come up with. With what you have said I think there should be something that can accommodate you. I own and occupy a quad and love it, it's a great way to get started. Having your mortgage paid by someone else will give you freedom and the ability to save much more than most people ever could. We save more than 50% of our take home pay to invest in more real estate.

Sean D

I like the bigger pocket blog too lol.

I also subscribe to John T. Reeds newsletter but I am debating on renewing. He has some good material but has lately really been pushing his hyper-inflation theory in a real estate newsletter. I understand that it would certainly have a huge effect on real estate if it happened. However if I wanted hyperinflation theory I'd subscribe to some right wing nut's newsletter and not one about real estate.

I do recommend most of his books though.

I was just reading a post that talked about how great the Norris Group is, unfortunately I don't know of anyone with a reputation like that here in Florida.

I personally thought the online classes were great. Not only could I do them around my work schedule, but I could do them at work ;) I am with a large national broker, Keller Williams, they are fairly investor friendly and offer a little bit of everything for everyone because of their size and the size of their offices. The offices average about 125 agents each. I recommend them but haven't been with anyone else. If you like to hear more PM and I can put you in touch with a broker up there.

P.S. Not sure if it's the same up there but here after two years you can become a broker yourself.

Abdul Rasheed

Just tell them what you do and that you will send them any sellers who want to sell retail. They will be more than happy to provide you comps as long as you send them a solid lead every ow and then.

Sam Leon

In my part of Florida the tenant usually both waters and maintains their own yard in a SFR.

The laying of new sod is a different issue because of the amount of watering required. A friend of mine had the landlord lay new sod and the landlord paid him some agreed upon amount to make sure it got the water it needed. They negotiated this before move in though.

In my opinion your already doing more than necessary by paying a yard service. Generally if a tenant doesn't water or maintain the yard then it is tacked on as rent. I would sit down with him and try to work something out.