All Forum Posts by: Brandon Vukelich

I disagree with leaving all 3 units vacant.  Speaking from the sales side, it is best to have at least one unit available for potential owner-occupied buyers.  I work with many house-hacking investor-types that want a small MF.  Ideally you would fill the other two units at max market rents to show the "potential" rents for the property, assuming all units are same size, floorplan.  Lenders in the group can correct me if I'm wrong but a buyer can use up to 75% of the current rents on <4 unit properties to help qualify for financing.  If you fill all units with tenants, you reduce your potential buyer pool to investors (non owner occ) only.  Definitely would not leave all three units vacant.  Best wishes on your success!

Ditto to @Paul De Luca and @Bruce Lynn. Many investor-buyers want to time the bottom of the market or hope to wait for a huge correction and go on a shopping spree for deals.  I share with them with a variety of popular statements...

"Time in the market is better than timing the market."  

"Buy real estate and wait (hold) don't wait to buy real estate."

"Many long term investors hold 10+ years and you rarely hear them say they regret buying 10 years ago."

On the flip side, sellers are having a tough time accepting the fact they missed the peak by 3-4 months.  I've seen many canceled listings.  I see those sellers currently going through the first 2 stages of the 5 stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance.  I read that these stages are an individual's attempts to process change and protect themselves while adapting to a new reality.  I try my best to share market data and shed light on the buyers' mindset as well.  Many are not willing to accept the new market.

It does depend on the type of leads you are looking to attract.  I only focus on investors but some of these help for buyers/sellers.

1. Spend money networking with your sphere: coffee, lunch, happy hours, baseball games, etc.

2. Create content for YouTube, tiktoc, instagram, etc.

3. Attend investor meetups.

4. Depending on where you live (and availability) become a sponsored agent on BP.

I don't spend ANY money on zillow, realtor, opcity, kvcore, bold leads or do mailings, etc.  Best wishes on growing your business!

Invest in RE by doing BRRRRs, traditional LTRs, STRs, find deals to wholesale or even flip if you have skills, time, resources.  Opportunities abound!

I'm an investor and also an agent/broker + I'm friendly. :)  Just lovin' life serving awesome clients throughout Western Washington state.

Yes, (personally speaking) I won't get too serious about helping clients until they can provide me with a pre-approval or better yet, pre-qualification letter.  Unfortunately, we can't take a buyer's word for it on what they say is their budget.  You get a PA letter for single family or 2-4 unit properties.  As the lenders mentioned in this thread, it provides agents and sellers with confirmation you can potentially afford $500k if you're shopping <$500k.  It's not property specific, although we typically ask the lending partner to put the property address on the letter when we submit it along with any offers.  I prefer to have one no older than 30 days when attaching to an offer.  Best wishes in your real estate journey!

Hi @Brit Bear, I work the Tacoma area and own property in WA as well as a PM firm.  Answers to your questions below:

Questions. 

Are there any investors in Washington State in this community I can talk with? - Yes, I'm happy to chat or connect you with other investors in my sphere.

Does anyone have strong real-estate agent with an investment background and experience with VA loans? - Yes, I'm a broker/agent and investor.  I've served VA clients and have great lenders to refer, if needed.

Ace property managers? - Yes, my firm offers PM or I can refer you to others to consider too.

Any landmines to avoid with the Washington State? - ABSOLUTELY! Covid has significantly affected our local LT laws.  Best to follow (or become a member of) the Rental Housing Association of WA.  Fantastic organization.

Best wishes on your real estate journey!

Hey @Bill Schrimpf - hopefully someone at BP will see your post and possible comment or reach out to address your issues.  I've been in the program for about 3 years, before they charged for leads.  I'd say the quality of leads vs other online sources has been and still is pretty good.  The initial bundle fee that was in place for about two years was reasonable.  This summer they increased the fee 50% which was disappointing.  I'm sticking with the program for the time being.  My brother is an agent in Hawaii and signed up a few months ago.  He hasn't been impressed with lead flow & quality.  

IMO, BP is definitely experiencing some growing pains.  There has been a lot of turnover in the featured agent program and I agree, the lack of responsiveness to us (the paying customers) and inability to reach an account rep directly, could use some serious improvement. 

Hi Sagar, I'd suggest you find properties that have sold (zillow, etc) that meet your investing goals and reach out to the agents involved.  For example, if you're interested in duplexes, research recent duplex (or triplex, fourplex) sales in that area of preference.  Contact the listing agent and the buyer's agent, either one could be a good fit.  Ask other investors within networking circles for referrrals for agents to connect with...or if you share with me the city/locations you're interested in, I may already know an agent to refer to you.  Here are some general questions to ask prospective agent-partners:

1. Are you an investor yourself?  If so, what do you own or have owned and where?

2. How long have you been licensed and working the area I'm interested in?

3. How familiar are you with local Landlord-Tenant laws?

You should always feel free to ask plenty more but those are rather important questions you should start with when vetting agents.  Hope that helps.  Best wishes in your journey!

Hi Steven, my 2 cents...we actually don't use GRM much for 2-4 unit properties and I'm fairly certain the listing agent didn't factor GRM. SF and 2-4 MF are considered residential and typically based on comps, they will be appraised that way as well. Ideally, you should find similar comps of quads with 2/1, about the same sq footage, sold in the last 90 days (if possible). Maybe triplexes if you don't have enough quad inventory but not single families. The market in our area (any maybe yours) has shifted so much since May that comps prior to that can skew the data. You should also see comps in a price range of per unit, such as $135k-158k per unit. All that aside, take your actual gross rent less expenses and proposed mortgage payment based on $520k purchase (if you're not paying all cash) and figure out your NOI. If it cash flows minimum or better based on your criteria, make an offer. Otherwise submit an offer lower than asking and share your financial analysis with the seller so they can see your numbers firsthand and won't think you're just a lowballer looking for a deal. At $520k, if you believe the rents can get to $1400, just based on that and not knowing anything else, it sounds worth pursuing.

When looking at <4 unit properties, try not to overthink it using GRM, CAP, etc. Depending on the market, they should be rather straightforward. Gross Rents - (Expenses & Mortgage Pmt) = NOI. Whether or not the NOI is good enough is up to the individual investor. Best wishes on your process!