All Forum Posts by: Chris Nwoke

I greatly appreciate all of the responses. Right now, I'm still in the learning phase when it comes to the commercial side of real estate. My knowledge of real estate has greatly improved since I started almost a year ago. When it comes to single family homes, it's so much easier to identify what is and isn't a good deal based on the many different factors.

Commercial properties are a completely different game. I definitely wasn't planning on buying a 100 unit apartment today or anything. I just wanted to get some practice in being able to identify what is and isn't a good deal. When I'm ready to get into it, I'll more than likely stick with something between 4-12 units.

And here's the apartment I was referring to.
http://atlanta.craigslist.org/atl/reo/3600489831.html

I've been involved in the SFH game for a while and have had some success with it. But lately, I've had a strong desire to jump into investing in multifamily units. I'm currently reading the book Multi Family Millions and gaining a stronger grasp on how things work.

The biggest thing I learned since getting involved with real estate is that hesitating to take action is the worst thing you can do. After I close my most recent wholesaling deal today, I want to really go in with this. I've even been in contact with a guy who works for a hard money lending company that specializes in commercial properties so finding financing won't be as big of an issue. The main thing now is finding a deal.

So a few days ago, I ran across a craigslist ad for a 100 unit apartment in Atlanta. The owner is out of state in CA and wants to get rid of the property. The asking price is $1.7 million, occupancy is currently 71%, and the cap rate is 10%. The surrounding area is something I wanted to pay attention to. Wal-Mart plans to open a new store nearby. And the North American Porsche headquarters are moving their facilities from Sandy Springs to this area. Both of these things will bring new jobs to the area and possibly more tenants looking for a place to live.

Is there anything else I need to look for to determine if I should make a move on this? Obviously, there are things like repair issues that would be looked at during the due diligence period. But is there enough here to even make this worth looking at? And if so, what's the next step?

I like this idea. It's refreshing to see actual professionals offering help as opposed to the countless gurus pushing programs for the standard $97 and up that is nothing more than 50 pages of the same information available online. I can almost say with complete certainty that these same gurus have only done maybe one or two deals and discovered that it's more profitable to sell courses and take on students willing to split half of their deals while doing all the work (I speak from experience).

I'm someone who's had mild (emphasis on mild) success in wholesaling. But I'm open to learning about all aspects of real estate investing. Rehabbing, rental property ownership, commercial property, etc. If any of you are in the Cobb County/Metro Atlanta area, I'm more than willing and open to learning how to be successful from the ground up.

So I'm at a very weird point in my real estate journey. I officially got my start back in April of 2012. I, like most, got sucked into it by the over-exaggerated guru hype that wholesaling will make you rich overnight and you can make 5-10K easily in the first month. Not quite.

My first deal didn't come until the end of October for 2K. So about 6 and a half months of non-stop work for that deal. That definitely made it worth and taught me that success in real estate is less about gimmicks and more about business savvy and knowledge.

As great as that first deal was, I find myself back at that point where I'm watching things fail to really get going. It would be one thing If I were struggling to find a deal or even find buyers. My problem has been getting things to actually get to the closing. I have had so many deals just fall through at the last minute, and it's mainly been from the buyer side. I either get tire kickers who show a lot of interest initially and never respond again or have buyers just back out at the last minute.

Even right now I have what are good deals. One is a rehab project in a nice little neighborhood. The ARV is 105K, repair estimate is 15-20K, under contract for 7K. Had a buyer who was ready to buy, but backed out because it was originally a duplex and he couldn't get a permit to build it back as a duplex because it was abandoned for over a year and has to be re-zoned to a single family home. I was also contacted by a realtor who said he had a client who wanted it. I even agreed to give him a cut of the assignment fee. He agreed, I sent an assignment contract, and I've yet to hear back from him. I'm now down to one more potential buyer who went to see the house earlier today.

The other property I have is 2bed/2bath home with a garage that has a full studio apartment above it. The house and the apartment are being rented for a total of $1050/month. ARV is 180K, under contract for 70K. Again, I've got so many tire kickers who say they're really interested and then I never hear from them again.

Sorry for the long post, but I'm just getting frustrated. I'm doing what I can to really take this seriously. I realized early that the idea that wholesaling is a quick and easy way to make money is asinine. I definitely take what I do a lot more seriously this time around. I even filed for an LLC last week. I'm just trying my best to figure out what I'm doing wrong cause their has to be something I need to change.

Thanks for the encouragement everyone.

@John: honestly, I'm really one of those "start with nothing" investors. I'm finishing up my bachelors degree right now and i of course have a good amount of student loans. I have a part time job that used to pay well, but new management came in and pretty much killed our pay (commissioned sales). Add to that having to take care of my family and you can understand where the frustration comes in.

Motivation is not something I lack. Never has been. It's just a matter of finally getting that first deal. And i have been close so many times. Seriously, at least 6 instances that came so close yet so far in the past three months. I'm talking 99% complete. I'm looking to do whatever i can to build cash flow. Not just to help my family, but to be able to reallg build a successful REI career.

Not sure where to really begin with this. I got introduced to the world of REI back in April of this year. I was going through some things at the time, but discovering REI seemed like a new beginning and a chance to direct things in a new path.

My main interest is wholesaling. I figured it would be the best way to generate capital to eventually get into buy and hold and possibly rehabbing. Admittedly, I was drawn in by some of the big names in wholesaling who made the lifestyle seem great. But I did my best to keep a level head and stay focused.

I tried to get started on my own by contacting FSBO I saw online, but I started to think that maybe I needed a bit more help learning the game. Coincidentally, I met a guy at my current job who was a wholesaler. So I contacted him and asked if I could be a bird dog for him and use the rest of the year to learn from him step by step ad eventually go out on my own. He instead says that it would be better for me to jump right in as a wholesaler and try and make the big bucks. That he could even teach me how to get it done and make 10K in 30 days.

It all sounded great, but here was the problem. I'm currently a college student and work a part time job. My family only really has one source of income now, so what little I have I do what I can to help them. I also have a close friend who's gone through some things this year (eviction, car accident, etc) that I've helped take care of as well. So yeah, 10K in 30 days would've been great.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize that my mentor was more concerned with getting into the guru game at this point. That in and of itself isn't the issue. The issue was that at the time when I contacted him to get help, he had only just completed his 2nd deal ever. He's now done three, yet he's already jumping into the guru field (has an advertising website and a few students already). I honestly wish him the best of luck with that, but I can't say that the experience was so great for me. He was either late with or didn't send out materials he promised to send, was hard to get a hold of at times (had a lot of stuff outside of real estate he was involved with as well). I actually went out and took pictures and video for a house he had under contract while he was out of town. Said he was going to compensate me for it, but he never did. I'm guessing it's cause he didn't find a buyer for it. After my car accident (guy hit my parked car in the parking lot, I wasn't in it), I didn't have a car to use for about a week so he promised to send me 100 leads for yellow letters. Never got one. It's been a month since I've heard from him.

I don't post the sob story to say "woe is me". The exact opposite. I say all of this to show that I have the motivation and the desire to succeed at any cost. I don't need another person to sell me the "dream". That clearly got me nowhere. I'm willing to learn anyway I can. I'm still using what little I have to get bandit signs to put out. I'll be a birddog and scout properties if need be. It might be smaller in comparison, but an extra 1-2K a month is better than what I have now. I just want to make this real. I've got way too many people relying on me to continue to fail cause another guru oversold the easiness and undersold what actually needs to be done to be successful.

Thanks.

I was recently contacted by a person who needs to sell their home very soon due to moving. The house was built a few years ago, is still in really good condition, needs no major repairs, 3bed/2.5bath, and has an ARV or $167K (this was the figure listed o the county's assessor website). After talking with the seller, I can tell that negotiating a low offer is very possible.

Here's the issue: she mentioned that there is a mortgage on the house and that the principle balance is $142,800. Pretty hefty. I know that motivated sellers are supposed to be the key to success for wholesalers. This one is very motivated, I'm just not sure how the mortgage factors into things. Do I make an offer that's enough to pay off the mortgate, or do I just stick with the regular offer formula and leave the remaining for the end-buyer if that's even possible?

I'm in contact with the owner now. I definitely agree with everyone about the expenses. Granted the one good thing is that the place was renovated last year. The owner just sent me a good amount of pics and the place looks really nice. So for my end buyer, they could probably jump right into renting the place without a huge financial investment for repairs. The taxes seem to be a red flag for everyone though.

Found this listed just a few minutes ago. It's a duplex in Atlanta listed for $99K. Here's the rundown on the financials:

"Rent Income:
$1570/month, $18,850.00/year. That include $100 water bill that I collect from 2 tenants.

Expenses:
Yearly Property Tax: $146.76 unbelievable!
Yearly Solid Waste bill: $76.14!
Insurance: $425/year!
Water Bill: Average $80/month, $960/year
Total: $1607.90!
Final Income: $17242.10/year!!!!"

3bd/2bt, newly renovated (the pics look really nice). And it says he's selling due to an emergency. Wasn't specific, but must be somewhat of a motivated seller.

Does this sound like it's worth pursuing? I'm guessing that my best bet would be to see if I can get it a slightly lower price.

Seems like the consensus is that this is a scam or at least too murky to mess with. I had that feeling after reading the ad a couple of times. This is probably not something I should waste my time with.

Since I have everyone here, I figured I'd ask about my other lead rather than make another thread. There's an abandoned house in a nearby neighborhood. I assume it's abandoned cause the grass is super high and the paint's chipped off and the inside looked pretty empty from what I could see.

I checked the county records and was able to locate the name of the owner. The sales records says that the house was sold to him five years ago for $0. Not exactly sure what that means (inheritance maybe?).

So now the key is to get a hold of this guy to get the house under contract. Based on the comps and recent home sales in the area, the ARV is roughly $105K, could be a bit more after repairs. And since it's abandoned and in bad shape, I'm thinking I can get it cheap. Now I need to find out from some experienced people what the best way to track down an owner is. I've heard of a few methods:

1. Mail a letter to the house address expressing interest in purchasing it and hope it gets forwarded to the owner's current address.

2. Ask neighbors if they know who currently owns it and where he may have moved to.