All Forum Posts by: Chingju Hu

Hi, thank you all for all the replies! 

There's typo on my original post about the '8000k' increase. The agent said that the area is very competitive that the final purchase price will be $8k~$15k more than the asking price, so it's $125k -> $133k and therefore my offer is $130k. In reality the property is in the market for 3 month now, it already drops the price from $129k to $125k, so it's not competitive at all... (again, my mistake for not verifying it myself)

"is the agent the sellers agent or your agent"? I think this is a buyer's agent (How to verify???)  How do I get an realtor on my side or unbiased? I will not work with her anymore. I think agents all get paid if I close the property, whether it's seller pay or i pay, so I feel they are always pushing for close.

On a side note: I withdraw the offer yesterday midnight because I don't feel comfortable in this situation and want to slow down. It's not under contract yet, I haven't paid anything yet and luckily they are nice about it. Today I started to talk to many other agents and hope to get exposure on other deals. And I will slow down my process in making offer, do more research on my own, be more professional in the process and I don't want any rejected offer affect my emotion....

Originally posted by @Andrew Ashby:

@Stephen Watt, I'm not one of those people who are only interested in real estate to the extent that it makes them money. In other words, my interest in real estate is not fleeting or temporary. I didn't buy properties and immediately seek to distance myself by hiring property managers. I LOVE REAL ESTATE. I love the subject matter. When I discovered this, it made my day job miserable because I really wanted to be spending my time on real estate. My confidence in quitting my job comes from 1) Knowing my passion and knowledge will make me successful as a real estate agent, 2) I have monthly income from my 4 rental units if needed, and 3) I have substantial savings and a large lump sum payout from my 401k from my former employer. To @Mark Scuderi's point, leaving the "safety" of traditional employment is indeed scary but it was much scarier and daunting to me to continue plodding away at a job that made me miserable. I gave up a six figure salary, excellent healthcare benefits, a company car, and many more perks to pursue my passion in real estate which is an all-cash business for agents. As an agent, you eat nothing but what you kill for yourself. My healthcare insurance, vision, dental, retirement, etc, is all coming out of my own pocket in cash now. It's a bit scary, but oddly freeing at the same time. I will be successful in this business. I will not allow any other outcome. I have too many people depending on me. 

Congratulations!! It's wonderful that you took the classes and got license! I'm really happy for you! it's not easy to give up 6 figure jobs, those are golden handcuff for lots people! I want to not have a job too and have lots passive income. 

How's the duplex? How did you find what you were looking for and what's the number look like to make it a good deal for you?

I'm not under contract yet, I haven't paid anything yet. The house was asking for $129900 and dropped to $125000, it's been in the market for 3 months, but when agent showed me it said new listing so I didn't notice this. Totally my bad...

More details:

1) This house is 1970 built, 3 bed/1.5 bath, 1129 sqft, 1 car garage, rent is around $1200 if no upgrade. If upgrade kitchen and bathroom, maybe it can rent higher. 

2) I think older home in that area are not hot.  My other offers are for newer and more expensive home, they go quickly. 

3) My goal is for rental cash flow.

questions:

1) If I walk away, the agent can be mad and not work with me anymore, I can find another agent to work with me, right?

2) How do you think about I negotiate a lower price after inspection? Is it good to do that?? Can I find lots reasons to reduce the price??? If so, how much should I reduce to make it ethical??

/_\ I really feel bad now...

Thanks!

Hey BiggerPocket, it's a silly situation, it's my fault, I hope you don't laugh at me too much LOL

I made an offer on a house, they accepted it almost instantly, I realize the purchase price is too high, what should I do?

What I did wrong are (don't repeat my mistakes >O<):

1) I had offers rejected instantly or ignored the day before, I felt upset and got carried away

2) I listened to the agent way too much without doing lots research myself, the agent said the house will go up 8000k more on the asking price and will have many offers and I listened >O<.

3) I really didn't think I'll get accepted that quickly LOL

The asking price is 125k, my offer is 130k, zestimate is about 128k but i know it's debatable...

 What do you do in this situation??? I think the house has potential if it's lower price, I shouldn't have put that high

Have you considered creating a brand new checking account from some banks? Some banks have this type of promotion where if you deposit a few thousands and let it sits for three month you get $150 or $250 cash bonus. And after three month you can move that money. If you put $2000 and get $250 in three month it's a good ROI in my opinion. And it's very safe! I think it's great to have emergency funds for more than six months. I have more than three year's spending saved. Ppl says it's too much but I like to know that i will always be fine even if stock market crushes now and last three years. Haha

Wow really nice interior design and external paint!!

Hi BP!

As a solo person buying rental properties (and not a big real estate corporation), I'm wondering how much cash reserve do you typically do for each property??

I like to have cushion in life, and for own living expenses, I always keep at least a full year's expense in my bank so I know I'll be fine no matter the economy, next recession or whatever happens in the world.

And when I'm buying a property, naturally I need some cash reserve for the property, in case, God forbid, something goes wrong. Currently I'd like to keep at least 6 months of expense of the property in bank so that I know i'll be fine for at least 6 months. How do you think, is it too much or too little? 

Are there any formula to calculate the cash reserve?

Originally posted by @Louis Davis:

I am going to provide a tip for you all. In order to get the best multi family units in Las Vegas is to contact the owners directly. It won't be listed for sale and they won't advertise that they are looking to sell on any website or with a realtor. If it get's to that point, than there is probably something really negative about the property. If you live here and you are driving around see a multi-family property that interest you, skip trace it to find the owner. You will see that most of the time, these owners are up there in age and have no problem talking to you about possibly buying there property. Hope this helps. 

Louis

 Thanks for the advice!!!

Originally posted by @Chris Czekaj:

Hi Chingju,

I've been looking for multi-family property (4plex) in Las Vegas are for about 2 months now. From what I have seen in big apartment complexes are very popular here, and smaller multi-family properties tend to be older. I've seen a lot of houses from 1960-1983, the newest I've seen was from 1993 and they tend to be in the rougher neighborhoods. Are you looking for a turn-key property or are you going to do a BRRRR?

I'm looking for buy-and-hold rental properties. Not necessary turnkey.  As for the neighborhood, I'm looking at B/C, low crime rate area blue collar renters. 

Hi, I'm interested in multi-family deals in Las Vegas, NV, and in Portland and Hillsboro, Oregon, right now I'm only in the researching stage. The reason I wanna choose one of the two areas to focus on in my next deal is because they are both close to CA. It'll be easier for me to travel back and forth if needed.  Las Vegas, NV is more affordable in general. Renter will be people like hotel workers, retail workers, and general blue collar workers. 

Portland is more expensive to get into, but not crazy expensive. Renter will be people like white collar and blue collar workers.

I'd like to know if there are investors/brokers/agents/property managers here that's focused in those 2 areas?? Let's connect and chat??

(p.s. if the message is not proper in this forum, sorry and I'll remove it...)