All Forum Posts by: Eddie Egelston

Hi @Nicole Stramaglia, I closed on a house with this company a few years ago. I don't think they have changed, nor do I think it is any different in the FLA market. You can definitely you your own agent. The process is transparent, and mostly all explained on their website.

Either you or your agent can contact the company to answer specific questions. Once you select a house it is a very straight forward and easy deal from the agent's perspective. Just knowing the company's policies and contract terms are a bit of a learning curve.

"Wholesaled it to myself" -that's a new one for me! 2 points for that, but minus 1 point for painting over the brick & stone!  :(

Hi @Sarah Robinson you definitely can be an agent part time. Many agents are to a varying degree. As you said, most companies have a model of "splitting" the commission checks with their agents. You get training and support in exchange for that split.

@Melissa Kirchhoff good post, thanks for getting it going! As I read over your numbers it seems you are approaching this as a rental instead of a Bed n Breakfast. The difference? As the owner you need to be providing cable TV, wifi, not to mention a house full of furniture and household goods. Plates, napkins sheets, spare sheets, etc. Your competition will have these too, as they are often owner-occupied homes.

I have done research on this possibility as well; it sounds like you are farther than me if you have identified a property. My thought process was that there are a lack of houses around O-Hare airport. However as I dig and dig into it I see the properties that have the highest occupancy are the small apartments that are not much different than a hotel room. And there are very few similar properties to what I was picturing. Either I'm the smartest person in Chicago, or there just isn't a market demand.

If it's month to month, you should close after the "month" is over. You should take possession of the property vacant. Tell the owner to buy the tenants out of a week or 2 of rent if needed. Not worth the risk IMO; take possession vacant!

As far as needed.

Skyscraper? Try no to go outside the building.

Dense urban area? Try not to go off the block.

Subdivision? Try not to go outside the subdivision.

Rural? Try to stay in the same town and school boundary.

Distance is only one piece of the puzzle. Keeping same town, HS boundary, size, age, condition, access to transportation etc is all as important as distance. Go 2 miles away if you can keep all of the above the same.

The real estate agents, like myself are asking about you working with a Realtor because of procuring cause. The agents don't want to run out and show you the house, only so that you can submit an offer through your agent. From the listing agent's perspective, if they are going to show you the house, they want to be sure they get paid the buy-side commission and not your agent.

If you are comfortable with values and contracts, then there is no true need for a buyer's agent. I read a blog from an experienced wholesaler who bought off the MLS. One of his tips was to submit the offers through the listing agent. His rationale was the the listing agent already had the seller's trust, and if the listing agent was facing getting all 6% of the sale, instead of their 3% that the list agent would be more motivated personally to convince the seller to take a low-ball offer.

It doesn't mean you can't get a crazy good deal off of MLS using your own agent, but your odds might increase going directly through the list agent. Of course that can go both ways, if you don't have your own agent, the list agent may be looking out for themselves or the seller, and you might be a distant 3rd on that list.

Comps are always your best friend.

Conservatively you should figure a property backing to a busy road will lose 10% of it's value versus the same house far away from the road or other objectionable view.

There are nuances to this though. If you are in a much more urban environment, things like busy roads are more "par for the course" and may not impact value as much. In your case perhaps 4 college kids wouldn't give a sh#t about a busy road, but if you tried to rent that same unit to 1 family, they would care more. 

Perhaps comps would show sales price decreases by 10% but rental prices only decrease 5%. Why? If your plunking down big money to buy, you want a castle, but if you're just renting, meh who cares about the road, you don't own the place.

More recently I realized all busy road locations are not created equally. Is the heavy traffic constant or does it have lulls? What's the speed limit? -I've seen houses that were on the "busy" road in the area, but the speed limit was 25 mph which made it like any other residential street. Is the house located near an intersection where there might be horns honking and A55holes peeling out, or is the house near an area where the traffic flows evenly?

Lastly your exit strategy should be considered. I won't fret trying to sell in the low-inventory seller's market of today. But will you need or want to sell years from now when things may be different? Good luck selling a former rental that is on a busy street. I hope you have a lot of equity by then, you will need it!

Generally speaking I would say a private lender will want to work with someone experienced. The larger / national "private" lenders will work with newbies. (I don't know if you are one or not)

If you have to pay for the application it sounds a bit fishy. There should be some basic info available regarding where their terms range.

Pretty much any private or HML will lend with 100% financing if the deal is good enough. For example you have something under contract worth $100k, but you're buying it for $50k. It needs $50k in rehab and it will be worth $200k once complete. Yeah they'll give you 100% financing on that.

I don't think a video chat is a prerequisite for honest dealings; but that's just me. I'm old haha

My Chicago MLS would be one place where we don't need a closet to call it a bedroom. All the confusion comes from the fact that there are so many different parties that have a say, as to what is a "bedroom". Appraisers, assessors, buyers, sellers, Realtors can all have different definitions.