All Forum Posts by: Dave Bond

Find a deal that cash flows now.  If you're investing for equity, which many do in so cal, you may have a tougher time outpacing the market considering current appreciation.  If you're looking for something to buy and hold long term, it shouldn't be as much of a risk.  Many of the people who lost their shirt were buying for equity in the short term to flip and double down.  I would say if you are willing to put the time in to try and find an off market deal, you'll have a better chance at getting a deal.  As long as it cash flows now with whatever financing you get, you should be ok, considering the rental market is always pretty stable.  Just be sure to look out for rent control or even areas where there is talk of local government instituting rent control.  Rents are getting pretty dang high and cities may try and attempt to mitigate the evil gentrification by trying to stifle rapidly increasing rents.  

Is there a reason why you're wanting Culver City?  Often times, with our investors in California, we aren't looking for the neighborhoods where the cost of buying is higher than what the rental market will bear.  Good luck!!!

Yea I think @Anthony Lee is right.  A doctors note may not warrant it being a service dog.

Find a good lender that can help advise you on qualifying for an FHA loan. He/She will sit down with you and go through your debt to income ratio to determine if you qualify and for how much so you can start looking. Then you can decide if you're just going to look for a listing on the MLS or try and market directly to property owners. My suggestion is that you focus on MLS listings considering your time schedule. You can try some free options like driving for dollars and calling for rent signs on small multi-res properties and posting ads on craigslist to try and drum up potential sellers. In regards to deciding whether to focus on paying off school loans, I would get your mortgage brokers advice. Personally (and take this with a grain of salt) I always like to choose to invest my money into a potential investment over giving it away to creditors, though I'm sure many on here would advise otherwise. My reasoning for this, especially considering the interest on your student loans won't be outrageously high (in relation to the usual high interest nordstrom card). My whole theory is if I can leverage my capital and use the income from that to pay a loan, once the loan is paid off, I'll still have the income. For example, if I want a new boat, I can spend that money on the boat or I can find an investment that provides me the monthly residual income and then finance the boat and use the income to make the payment. Again, this is just one strategy and many play a more conservative game. You're thinking along the right lines though! There's always a deal, go find one!!!

Yea. I've finally decided to get my license here in NM. As far as approaching agents for pocket listings that's pretty much been my main focus. I started calling agents offering the opportunity to represent me on both sides, and even giving them a short period to self market the acquisition once it was remodeled. On my second flip I gave the agent the opportunity to sit open house before we put it in the MLS (I signed a document giving the agent the right to do this according to local realtor board rules) and he sold it the first day for asking price. So he doubled ended the acquisition side and the resale end as well. My intention in offering this opportunity to agents was to create a larger incentive considering lower property values and, therefor, lower commissions. I turned an $800 commission into $5,600 commission. With all this said, I've finally decided to get more serious and increase my volume through marketing down multiple avenues as well as marketing directly to sellers.

@Brian Gibbons.  The "Cooperative Rehab Model" is an awesome approach.  Being in a new area for only about a year when I went full time flipping, I've definitely learned to tailor my pitch (to RE agents) with acknowledging that I don't expect to be first on the call list when a deal comes their way.  This is exactly what I was thinking to approach attorneys.  I'm definitely looking for buy and hold and buy and flip properties.  Not so much interested in wholesaling so I know that is a bit of a plus and I'm well aware of making sure I acknowledge the attorney (and potentially the courts') responsibility to acquire properties close to market value, especially if a judge has requested a BPO.  

I know the biggest thing is trying to get his/her attention and hopefully get a call back from an email.  I was thinking something like:

"Hi Mr. Johnson,

I'm a real estate investor local here in Las Cruces and I'm looking to expand my business in partnering with estate heirs in cooperative rehabs.  I work directly with property owners to help maximize equity and quickly sell property for top dollar.  I'd love to take a quick 5 minutes to explain our process and hopefully help bring value to your firm by providing another option to your clients by quickly and profitably liquidating assets, should that be their need.

Best Regards,

Dave Bond

DBhomes

Thoughts?  You think that would get a call?  At least that would give me an opportunity to follow up and confirm they received my email. 

Ok, I'm sitting here completely drawing a blank on coming up with a basic script to approach probate and divorce attorneys.  I can't remember which podcast but I remember one of the interviewees had a good basic script.  Anybody have idea's to help me get the creative juices flowing on creating an environment where I can get attorneys receptive to helping me by finding a way to articulate helping them?