All Forum Posts by: Christian Ehlers

I think the most important thing here when starting bigger is to have somebody experienced you can bounce ideas off of, ask questions, and can take a look to see if there's any major issues with your deal.

That could be an experienced multifamily agent, a friend of yours who has done this before etc. 

I also don't believe that you have to start small with a 2-4 unit, plenty have started in the range you are looking for and that may make it easier in some ways as at least these units are designed for cashflow so you don't have to compete with emotional home buyers when looking for a deal. There's a great BP podcast interview with Cody Davis talking about how he bought a 12 unit at 21years old and has scaled from there, Titled: 81 rentals units at 21 by doing what 99% of investors won't

 Great! Sounds like you've got things headed in the right direction. Working with tenants is never easy but hopefully they are respectful given the additional notice as I believe 30 days in most areas is all that is required. Good luck!

 Awesome! Then yes I would stick with what I said earlier. Shouldn't take very long to find a few agents listing a lot of new construction that know the nuances and can help you out. Many will try to convince you that you don't need a true buyers agent and to just go straight to them or the builder, but that's up to your personal preference

If it's for a refinance I'd just talk to your lender that got you the loan to purchase and tell them you'd like to be notified when rates drop to X% so that you can refinance when it makes sense. If they don't do that then I'd talk to a new lender that wants the business

Caroline is correct here from my understanding you can't directly hire an appraiser for a loan, refinance, etc because they want to ensure the appraiser stays a dis-interested 3rd party. 

However you could always go to an appraiser that you've built a relationship with and see if in their opinion you'll have a good chance of getting the value you need for the refinance. This will of course be an opinion but can be helpful. I've had this done before and being willing to pay them for their time or even a full appraisal will make it far more likely they take the time to help with this

Depends on your goals and your experience level. 

For beginners I'd recoomend:

Real Estate Rookie 90 days to your first investment, the small but mighty real estate investor, the book on rental property investing, the househacking strategy, and set for life, all by bigger pockets, not necessarily in that order. 

If you want to flip, wholesale etc then there's others I'd recommend too. 

Definitely house hack to start and add on other strategies from there. It's one of the lowest risk ways to get started where you get to own property since you would normally have to pay rent to live somewhere else anyways. 

You'll also seem far more credible to those that are ahead of you and could be potential mentors, agents, partners etc if you can say you own a multifamily property while you're in college. 

Keep your personal financials in check and keep learning as much as you can!

Like others have said find a mentor, continue to educate yourself where you can with bigger pockets, and when you got to become an agent join a team, whether you are going full time or part time, as you'll need extra support as a younger agent (i know I did). 

is this for an investment or for a primary residence? If it's for an investment I'd keep looking on bigger pockets, the agent finder, the forums etc and just keep searching.

If it's for a primary residence I would go on zillow or whatever you use and search for New Construction listings only, and dig in to see who is listing each development, individual house etc, you'll start to see some names coming up consistently and I'd reach out to them. If they are listing large amounts of New construction they Should (most likely) know how to work the buy side of these transactions as well. 

I was at KW for 4 years and the in person training was great but the most important factor based on my experience would be joining a great team when starting out and you can go solo once you have some momentum.

I had a decent team but it was very fragmented so I was basically learning everything myself and generating all my own business. If I had picked some of the bigger teams and taken a cut on commission I would've gained way more experience, had less stress and shortened the learning curve drastically, not to mention probably made more money in the long run. 

Now I'm at EXP and love the experience so far and being able to partner with agents anywhere without taking a cut of their commissions, but at the end of the day its always on YOU to make yourself successful.