All Forum Posts by: Chris H.

Hi Mikel,

I hope you take my advice with a grain of salt, but I hope it also helps.

1) Real Estate Agents & Broker's are held to a higher standard in the court of law, so when in doubt DISCLOSE. If you are helping out a home buyer by putting their distressed property under contract (allowing them to get out) and hope to in turn flip the property, I believe you should disclose that you are a licensed broker in the State of California, but you wish to purchase or put the property under contract yourself as an investor for profit. If they fully understand your intentions, there shouldn't be any perceived (in the courts eye) foul play involved. Make sure you get it in writing though!

2) It would be best to discuss your situation for a lawyer to know your needs and get good advice. I am unsure if that is the correct business structure you want to operate under however. In California, there is an $800 fee for an LLC (or a company operating here) per year, plus filing fees but could be worth it. I think that if you want a layer of protection however, I recommend operating under a business license (as well as other benefits).

3) Check out my answer to #1. I think when in doubt, DISCLOSE. I don't know if you are brokering the deal however. I also don't know which contracts would be best, but the CAR contracts are tried and true (they have been through and defined by the legal system, so there is no ambiguity) and WILL hold up in court.

4) I don't know of any, sorry :/

I read from a user here [that i can't remember and give credit for :( ] that wholesales, as well as being a licensed agent. When they get a call from a seller, they try to see if the numbers work, but if not, they offer listing the house for them. This could be an ideal situation solving your issues?

Again, I am absolutely no expert so please take all this with a grain of salt. I hope that it helped somewhat though!

Hello Greg,

I think this is an excellent question you posed. I am unsure if you need to stage all rooms, or just one to two to get the feel of it.

I can think of a few options that might be of some assistance to you though.

I. You could always try craigslist, estate sales, or the dump to find a mattress and boxsprings, since having a used/dirty one really wouldn't matter. You could possibly get a huge discount for looking here first.

The reason I recommend CL is because mattresses and boxsprings for this purpose don't have to be functional, only to convey the look, right? If you purchased a nice bedding comforter, pillow casings and a skirt, I think that could hide any and all dirt/damage.

II. You could possibly get a deal by buying in bulk all of the beds at once in a mattress store.

Storing these beds and all the other projects you will undertake might be an issue, but if you have consecutive deals it shouldn't be, or dirty/used/old mattresses you got for cheap, I don't think you'd feel bad for tossing them out.

Hi Mike and welcome to the board! I'm sorry to hear about your restaurant, but I wish you the best of luck and success in the future. What exactly do you wish to invest in?

I did a quick google search, and found someone by the name of 'Jack' Bosch who does land investing. Is this who you are talking about?

I don't know much about buying up tax delinquent properties, or buying land, in fact I don't know much about real estate investing aside from a conceptual grasp of it (especially compared to some of the definite EXPERTS here, even if they don't call themselves that) but I can tell you without a doubt that this forum has a wealth of knowledge. If you know what you want to invest in, or if you want to figure out a few different ways of investing, I highly recommend taking a look at some of the forum topics and reading the posts. If you haven't already, go and say hi in the new member forum too! I guarantee that soon you will recognize the experts in their field, and will scour their previous posts (well, that's what I did anyway).

I haven't purchased any systems, but I have read a few books on what I wish to focus on.

This is just my opinion based on the 'gurus' I have seen, but I believe that if someone has created a course on the way they invest; either that investment is dead, they never invested in it, or they will make more money selling a 'get rich quick' scheme. Granted, there are probably a few good souls out there who hope to help people by teaching anyone willing to listen their knowledge, I however haven't looked for them and haven't seen any yet.

Hope that helps, again welcome to the community, and good luck!

Hey James,

Just sent you a PM. Yep I passed! I'm still pretty excited about it all. If you pass they don't tell you the percentage you got right, but if you do not, they will let you know your percentage and what areas need improvement. You need a 75% or 150 out of 200 questions right.

Took about 4 business days to find out; Wednesday- took the exam, Monday-saw results online. Although I was up in Sacramento so I am unsure if it is the usual time frame.

When is your exam? Good luck and update us on your progress!

Just wanted to give the thread a quick update. I took the California Broker's Exam up in Sacramento on Thursday, November 17th, 2010 and found out today, Monday, November 22nd, 2010 that I PASSED!!!!

I am really excited to "hit the ground running" as it is said, and will continue to update all of BP on my progress. Woohoo!

Hello James,

I am still waiting on the results of the exam I took last Thursday, 11/17/2010. That test was honestly one of the more harder tests I took. In fact, I was there with a lawyer who mentioned that it was harder than passing the BAR!

The questions are really tricky, and a lot don't have full answers. You have to really read the question SLOWLY and ACCURATELY, since there are double negatives and little words like "not", "except", etc that can change the whole meaning of the question.

They give you pencils and a calculator, and divide the test into 100 question blocks where you have 2.5 hours per section. There is no going back!

I used an 'exam cram' booklet and instructional DVD and DO NOT recommend it. I think the way that you have went about studying is superior with the booklet of questions. You are already familiar with the minutia that is involved.

I do recommend initially skipping all math questions, and the questions you don't know right away. Do all the one's you know for sure. When you go back through the test, then you can do the math and look over the difficult ones. Sometimes rereading it makes that difficult question very easy!

Best of luck, but be prepared because that was one of the most difficult tests of my life. Keep us updated!

Hey Sage,

What is your long term plan? Do you wish to go into Property Management, Commercial, Residential, or Mortgage Brokering?

Depending on the path you wish to take, there are several certifications you could obtain. For example, as Bryan said, the CCIM designation is pretty prestigious as only 5% of commercial brokers have this designation. However, you would have to have a substantial portfolio prior to being accepted into the courses, and then you must complete these and pay a yearly fee to obtain and keep your designation.

Also, with the CRE certifications (again, kudos Bryan) you are asked to join their ranks. You cannot go and pay a few hundred and pass a class to get it.

Now if you wish to get into foreclosures, there is the SFR (short sale and foreclosure resource) designation which you could get for around $300.

In all, I think it depends on where you would like to go, and what your clients or other agents perceive what those credentials mean. I am not an agent/broker (yet), so take what I have said with a grain of salt.. I just usually ask a lot of questions with the professionals I meet. Best of luck getting your license, I look forward to hearing where you would like to take it.

Hello again Ashley,

Congrats on working towards your license! I took my last 3 classes online as well, and I found myself to be in the same situation as you in regards to staying focused.

There are several ways you can tackle the course material. You could continue the way you are, read the bare minimum to try to pass the exam, or you could try the way I undertook it.

For me, and most classes, a lot of the information is filler. I am sure some people and subjects would disagree (math/engineering/sciences), however with real estate I found it so. What I would do is create a general outline of the chapter or course in a word document, and would fill in the necessary information which I found relevant. Each chapter is broken up by subheadings and other markings (such as roman numerals), and they usually have the definitions bolded. I would read, and try to summarize each subheading, and define each vocab word I came across. You can usually skim (or speed read) most of the filler, like when they tell stories, and then slow down and/or reread the important information. At the end of the book/course, you have your condensed study guide ready to take to the final/practice before the real estate exam.

I usually spent maybe 30 minutes a day, or 3-5 hours a week. It all adds up, and isn't too much of a hassle or commitment to hold onto. This of course depends on how quickly you wish to achieve your goal, but I worked 12 hours a day, and still had to workout and have leisure time, so 30 minutes was perfect for me.

Hope this helps, and best of luck!

Hello Ashley, and welcome to the boards!

I'm not an expert in this field (in fact, I'm a complete newbie), but I have heard of this scenario known as "pocket deals". However, in my mind it questions the moral, ethical, and legal aspects surrounding this scenario. If perhaps, the sellers know the situation prior to acting upon it, I don't see much of an issue. However, as an agent, you are trying to get them the highest and best price, so selling it on the MLS and open market would be in their best interest, not selling it to investors who want to get the most for their money.

This of course is my 2 cents. Best of luck on getting your license, and I hope the more seasoned RE investors/agents can reply with their thoughts.

Tom,

Thank you again for your reply. I may be shooting a little too high up, but I will not be disappointed if I do not reach my numbers. They are merely there as a target for me to try and reach. One motto I've heard is, I'd rather shoot for the moon and miss, instead of aiming for the gutter and hitting it. Once I am active, and have some experience, I can then change my targets to something that I feel are realistic.