All Forum Posts by: Elenis Camargo

@Daniel Hernandez Great question! The correct way to do it would be to get your license. You can either hang it with a broker and pay MLS fees or you can do what I did and hang it as a referral agent. I found an online broker that allows that and it was $70 a year versus $1000+ for doing it with a traditional broker and getting access to MLS etc. As a referral agent I make 25% of the buyer's agent's commission versus if you do the standard brokerage then you make the full commission after splitting with your broker. Eventually I'll hang ir traditionally but at the moment since I'm out of state it didn't make sense. But this is the only legal way to help investors unless you're doing wholesaling. I hope this made sense! Feel free to send me a message if you have questions.

@Nola Akee Thank you! The investors were buy and hold in these cases. 

@Carey Fortnam @Sabitha Balaraman

Yes definitely please send me a message. And I apologize if it takes me a bit to reply. I am working on it :) 

@Dev Horn Thanks for your questions. I am a licensed agent and hang my license as a referral agent. The deal was off market but after my buyer put the offer in, the seller listed it on the MLS. The day after they listed it our offer was accepted. So the agent I work with, he made the standard commission from the fees the seller pays and I made a piece of that commission from the referral. Hope that helps!

@Jason Horton Bigger Pockets has a section where you can start your own member blog. It’s under the Education tab. I started mine there and I promoted the article by sending it to friends and posting it on my LinkedIn. I am sure that helped them see it was already getting some traction plus it was a success story like this so they featured it. They featured this one too! Very exciting. I’m sure if you start one you can do the same! 

@Jack Albert All of our properties are in Jacksonville FL. 

@Cami Bohn Congratulations on renovating your home and adding that much value! That's amazing!! 

If the buyer is financing the home and it appraises for less than your agreed upon offer price, then either the buyer has to come out of pocket for the difference or you can choose to lower the price. Do you really think it'll appraise that much lower? Sorry I know it's been 9 days since you posted this so did you accept the offer and move forward already?

I use Carrington as my lender. I'm not sure if they work in California but let me know if you're interested and I can send you my contact's info. Most lenders will do investment properties. I advise you to shop around at least a few places to get the best rates and as little fees as possible! We got Carrington's rates and fees to come down because we got a quote from Ally Bank and Carrington beat it. So don't be shy about shopping around.

I have not done a rehab split before but this is what I have done. We partnered with an investor I met on BiggerPockets from Oregon. He wanted to get into real estate but didn't have the time or knowledge of the Jacksonville market. We had the time and knowledge but not as much cash. He came in with a larger % of acquisition costs than we did. We did 70/30. Then for ongoing maintenance issues, cash flow and equity we did 50/50. We found the deal, analyzed it and I manage it for us at no extra cost to the partnership. You can do something similar where your brother in law puts more money down to acquire the property or all the money down if you are paying for the renovations. There are endless things you can do here! Just propose some options and you can all talk about it. Make sure to create an operating agreement, even with family. You can draft one yourself using a template you can find online.

As for the ideal first property, it depends if you want a rental or a flip as you said. I think there is no perfect first deal. You just have to know what you want (rental for cash flow, appreciation, flip, brrr, etc) and find something that matches that goal. Then do your analysis, be confident and jump in! Don't overanalyze and be stuck in "analysis paralysis" as they call it here. But also make sure you're not overpaying for a property. You can start by analyzing properties you see online just as practice and ask yourself if it would be a good investment or not as part of your goals. Then when you are ready, go for it!

Hope this was helpful!

@Allyson Edwards Thanks for saying that! I always try to make my stories as real as possible.

@Abas Ali Thank you! Although I have a background in marketing, I did not do marketing to acquire leads. I am active on BiggerPockets and posted a blog that got featured on their newsletter and homepage. It had over 16,000 views and I made a lot of my contacts that way. But it doesn't mean just because the article was featured that I instantly had all this business. It's all about networking! This is the article in case you'd like to read it  :)  https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

@George E. Thanks for reading!!