All Forum Posts by: Jeff Montanya

@Robert Plumpe thanks for sharing your thoughts. I wanted to see if anyone else has had similar experiences. Hopefully these types of post will help keep newbies like myself from getting ripped off. 

Bigger Pockets

I met with a gentleman last Friday who approached me online through a group that Im a member of. He identifed himself as a "deal architect." I didn't really understand what it was he was trying to get me to buy into.  He just promised that he could get me 12% returns.  He did have a website, but it was very vague and didnt offer much info. He also said that he didnt give out references because it would jeopardize his business model. I felt like he was trying to scam me out of money even though I cant really prove it. Below is the exact email that he sent following up our conversation. I've removed any identifying information. Does anyone have story that they can share that elaborates on this?

Openings to investors like yourself allows for real world learning and great double digit returns.

I find opportunities in distressed real estate situations and can engage in subto's, options, assignments, deed sharing, trust beneficiary positions, mortgage wraps, Lease Options, Earnest money collaborations and more.

A Wyoming organized entity with a local mailing address whose phone number is xxxxxxx
Company details:

A proposal to enter into a $5,000 Promissory Note at 12% APR with a 12 month renewable term and the agreement for you to set aside another $5,000 held in your bank account to be used in a real estate transaction until called upon to use the (escrowed) $5,000 until a deal is presented. If you chose to use the escrowed amount in a deal of your own then you wold be released from using the escrowed funds into my deal but if you needed coaching through your deal then I would charge $1,250 if requested to do so.

Summary:

Here is a summary of our discussion and a bit more information about XXXXXX.

Morning.Friday Nice meeting with you

Thanks everyone for your comments!

@Mike Buchheit that is truly inspiring! @Greg Scott Can you send me a DM to talk a little bit more about Lifestyles Unlimited?  The classes must be really good to fly in from Michigan!

Does it ever make sense to purchase a Buy & Hold property using hard money? If so how do you eventually get the hard money lender paid back if you're simply renting out the property and not flipping it.  Would you at some point just  refinance the property into a conventional loan? How could you do this if there wasn't a lot of equity, but the property was cash flowing over $300 a month? I've been running the numbers on houses as rentals and I have found some very good prospects, but I don't have the money to purchase the homes outright or the 20% down payment for conventional lending. Want kind of incentives could I offer to private money lenders to help me acquire rental properties? What would the structure of these deals look like? Thanks!

@Ray Lai Thanks! Right now I would say time is my biggest bottleneck. I haven't heard of listsource.com I will have to check that out. What is the best method to identify unique properties? I've seen a few while driving around, found the owners name through the tax records but was unable to find phone numbers. 

I'm wanting to set up a marketing campaign to target distressed property owners. At this point I've been combing the county records for pre-foreclosures and putting this info into spreadsheets. This has been extremely inefficient and time consuming. Searching pre-foreclosures only gives me part of the data I'm looking to acquire. I'm also interested in bankruptcy, absentee owners, divorce, owners looking to sell off their rentals, probate etc. Is there a service that sells a list of this data? If so how you do you know their list contains legit info? What are the most important questions to always ask any property owner who calls back? Any suggestion on good language to include in the marketing letters or postcards is also appreciated.

You should consider looking in other counties that adjoin Dallas or Collin. Some other areas are still relatively cheap. For example Forney has some very affordable housing and is growing tremendously. If you're looking for rentals this might be an area to look. I can recommend a really good agent if you you would like. Just send me a PM. Good luck and let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

@seankirham Thank you! I will take you up on that offer.

Howdy Ya'll

I'm from Forney, Texas which is a 20 miles east of Dallas.

I'm in the Land Surveying Business, I've been involved in surveying for about 15 years. I have a degree in GIS. I want to use GIS to help analyze trends in real estate for real estate investors.

My "Why" is pretty simple and probably very similiar to most. I want to make decisions for myself that will help my family prosper. I want the the ability to give something back to the world. I'm not materialistc nor do I need equisite things. I just want more time for my family, friends and relationships. Time is flying by and my children are growing up. I feel like I've missed out on so much.  One day I would like to be able to travel and not be constrained by the corporate work schedule. 

My main interest is in Buy and Hold properties and I'm currently exploring options to get my first rental. I've been devouring every real estate book I can find, as well as attending webinars, seminars and listening to all the podcasts.

Hoping to find a local meet up in the Dallas, Area.

I'm looking to meet local investors, real estate professionals, and lenders to learn from and share ideas. If I can help bring value to your table with my experience in land surveying and mapping I would love to hear from you. I'm also very good a researching public records.

Looking forward to getting to know everyone!

Is this group still meeting? I work in Richardson and would like to meet some like minded real estate folks to talk shop with. Please let me know who I should contact. Thanks