All Forum Posts by: Eric M.

My experience is the opposite. Hardly a unicorn situation. There are many many qualified RE attorneys and CPA's who will give you forward looking advice. I can't say I have ever talked with one who didn't do this, though I am sure plenty of idiots exist out there. Maybe it is possible you are searching for someone who will give you this during a "free consultation"? That may be why they are evasive. You do need to pay them. They give the best advice to paying clients, not random people digging for freebies.

Several knowledgeable ones post regularly here on BP. (for free) Read a bit. Search yelp. There are racks of books on RE tax law. Heck, there are many great videos on you tube that cover this.

Unless you are talking about a very complex or unusual transaction or situation, not only would I expect virtually any RE attorney and CPS to do this, you should be able to learn enough to cover 95% of all transactions yourself very easily. It isn't that difficult.

doesn't seem complicated to me.

70K purchase - Put 14k down and borrow 56K

Borrow the 70K rehab for a loan of $126K.

With an ARV of 180K this should be no problem.

I have always bought title insurance but I have not done something as short as 8 weeks.

I did read about something called an insurance "binder" that seems to be a sort of temporary title insurance specifically for this short term ownership situation. The implication is that it is much much cheaper. But I have never used it and don't know the ins and outs.

https://spruce.co/blog/how-do-...

No better advice has ever been given on BP.  Although I would say never "jump to conclusions" about it. It might be a trustworthy stat, but it likely is not relevant to the question or you need much more information to know if it is relevant.

Sooooo few people have a clue how to interpret statistics. They draw ridiculous conclusions. This is half the problem with the election craziness. There are even PHd's out there who are misusing statistics badly. (maybe on purpose)

Analyzing cities for RE investments solely on one single crime statistics is super dumb.

You fundamentally have no clue how hospitals work if you think that the amount of violent crime is the key factor in whether they are busy.

Good luck. If you are just looking for contractors now, you are not starting mid-Dec. On a good sized job, you won't even have a price by mid December. You might get demo done by early January. Prepare for some high quotes. Contractors are realizing they have good pricing power right now. They hit you with a big price, take it or leave it, they have plenty of work. 

It is disingenuous for you to call yourself a wholesaler in the context of this thread. You aren't. You are an investor...a flipper. You would not be effected my these wholesaler licensing laws so it is apples and oranges.

"I can see where some people get a bad vibe, but you have to look at where they are good."

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But that is not how the law works and not what this thread is about. Telling a story about a good wholesaler is irrelevant. Getting a bad vibe is irrelevant. The problem is some wholesalers take advantage of vulnerable sellers, and the question is what laws could be effective to prevent that?

This thread is not a discussion about whether ALL wholesalers are bad or whether they can be of benefit. Of course they can, but that is not what legislators are concerned with. They are concerned with the ones who are bad and want to take advantage of the seller. Doesn't matter if it is 50% of the deals or 5% of the deals. The government needs to look into regulations that will eliminate the scams. This is what the thread is about. Laws which will help eliminate those scam deals.

And no these laws are not the "death of the wholesaler". They just need to get licensed and be legit....then they can wholesale all they want.  Good wholesalers should welcome this regulation because it helps get rid of the fly by night competition. Anyone complaining about having to be licensed makes me wonder why don't they want the scrutiny? What are they hiding from?

Hopefully, this could be the death of the scam wholesaler. Probably not, but that is the idea....and a good one.

 

You misunderstand the intention of the laws. It is not to cap compensation. It is to help ensure the seller doesn't get ripped off. It is not about caring how much money a wholesaler makes, it about caring whether someone's Grandma gets scammed. Do you care about that?

Just like many laws, these are written for the small minority of people who are vulnerable. They are elderly or low educated and do not understand how the RE process works or where to get help. It is not always because they are stupid. Some people don't understand how things work for any number of reasons. Very often these are situation like.... Grandpa dies and grandma never dealt with business stuff before and she is struggling to care for her older house. She doesn't want to burden her busy kids or has no living kids and a nice man sends her a letter saying he will buy her house. But the man is not that nice and he is a CAPITALIST who sees a great opportunity to maximize his profits. It doesn't end well for her. This is all too common and I hope you can find some compassion for these people.

Capitalism chews these people up and spits them out, which is not great for them or the society as a whole. We don't have pure capitalism here and IMO we don't want it, because sometimes people need some help and some protections. Whether these laws will actually succeed in protecting them is up for debate. But this has proven to be a big enough problem that it needs to be addressed.

This is the whole problem. Many of the people who are taken advantage of by these deals don't even know they can call a realtor and ask. They are not educated or don't communicate that well and they simply don't know their options. They are elderly and often very confused by the process. They don't know what you know.

If they do try to call a realtor they would often get the brush off. They don't know how to adequately explain their situation. Realtors often don't want to deal with the home in poor condition and they don't really know how to value it either. 95% of Realtors want a pretty house that looks good in pictures and gets retail price. They literally don't know what to do with other types and don't want the hassle. So simply calling an agent often doesn't work.

The whole point of these laws is to force them out into the light of day where the seller is more likely to get better information rather than back room deals where they only hear from one person. If the buyers are licensed and they know the transaction is "visible" they are more likely to act ethically.