All Forum Posts by: Ethan Atkinson

How did Smarter Contact work out for you in the long term?  I have call scheduled call with them because they cold reached out to me. I am an agent and investor.  Do you even still use this service to do outreach? 

@Christin Nguyen

I’m an investor and agent. Since this sounds like one of your first times purchasing then just state that. Tell them you are not used to any standard procedure and it’s not always common for an agent to talk about “standard” negotiating procedure before locking up a deal. Ignorance or being a rookie is a good enough excuse to ask. You can’t get what you want if you don’t ask. It’s going to be a low chance of getting that request to have seller contribute more because you don’t have much basis to ask for the additional contribution since the inspection turned out good and I’m sure the seller knows they have a good/solid property also. Now you know for next time.

@Josh Bowser congrats on the move. I’m

Actually starting my YouTube channels. One focused on cash flow investments and the other about why it’s great to live in Georgia. Do yourself a favor in this crazy market and also get a good agent if you haven’t done that yet or those first few leads don’t pan out. I vote you move to Roswell/Alpharetta, or better yet Smyrna/Atl near The Battery. I actually helped a recent college grad that worked with me doing real estate deals just buy a 4 BR home, he finished a kitchen in the basement and one more bedroom, which added lots more rental income. I’m pretty sure at $700 per person he is making around $200+ after paying every utility and the Mortgage. Also question for you - were those first leads from Facebook already homes listed for sale? If those were off market you should monetize those leads!!

@Stefan D. You are still above water. You didn’t lose any money on this deal. You didn’t hit your original budget or goal but that’s what happens in real estate. That’s the risky part. Not a nightmare by any means. Hold on to this property for a few years and you will look smart. The cash flow on this is better than what most investors are paying for properties. Maybe in a few years you can make some good returns selling it. On the bright side the interest rate if you have a mortgage is probably stellar.

@Bob Lachance

I have a VA already in place that can do this for me. Are you willing to

Share with me what messages are working best for generating good responses and or leads? I’m willing to pay for that.

Since making this post deals are coming out of the woodworks, also because I made a good post on a few facebook investor groups.  Just found a property close to a guy that I will partner with and they are asking $200k, cashflowing $3000 per month with some easy value add. Five mobiles, one stick built home, and either more room to add more mobiles, or hold land and flip to an industrial buyer because it's in a heavy industrial area. 

@Alex Olson  I am right there with you on buying the good property and holding out until next year while I make some good cash flow. The problem is, in my close area there are so few rental properties available that are good and even close to a good price.  I have heard that many more new investors plus the parents of students around the Univ of Georgia have created quite a tough and super competitive market.  But a mortgage for $100-$150k is not that bad. 

@Paul Moore Thanks for the info. You and I actually sat down and spoke briefly about self storage at the Deal Maker Live of 2019. I actually haven't heard about the DST so now am intrigued to dive into all the details and more. I will reach out soon.

Should pay taxes or too much for a property? I have 2 weeks left to ID a property for 1031. The taxes owed would be around $15,000. Stuck myself in a situation without doing any prior marketing for deals because I was spending all my time working as a real estate agent and a flip project that turned into my personal family house. I was actually under the impression, because I was also told this, that I could not 1031 because I wasn't going to be using the same LLC going forward. I am a Realtor and have been looking deals on the MLS is the worst so now anything that may work is not a 1% deal or it's pretty far outside my radius, maybe 1.5 hrs or more drive, but also not very attractive anywhere I have looked. Two weeks is not much time, so here are the few ideas I would love the BP community to weigh in on.

1. This is the "worst" case scenario, and it's not that bad: Go ahead and identify 3 properties and maybe I get none of them and just use the cash to buy something else next year. I could invest in a flip, BRRRR, Gold, silver, Bitcoin even another type of business.

2. Buy something at retail and do some improvements, barely achieve the 1% rule, but hope to sell it in a year after I do much more marketing, and in the meantime make a bit of cash flow. Maybe this could be a BRRR property deal?

3. Try and find a syndicator of sorts who may need about $100k and hope to get 6% "guaranteed" and sit on a MF or Storage deal for the next few years. (least favorite idea -- Unless you know of a really good performing property that I should invest in)

4. Some idea I haven't thought of or don't know about. 

Places in the Appalachian mountain areas are pretty amazing.  Many of the areas are growing and growing. Asheville, NC, Chattanooga, TN, Gatlinburg, TN,  Clayton, GA, Blue Ridge, GA, Cashiers, NC, to just name a few. I would say most of North Georgia, Lots of Tennessee, NC are the areas I know best and property prices keep going up, but you can always find that diamond for cheap or even one that's already been established for a great price by using some the techniques found here on BP.  I have recenlty seen plenty of good land only properties that could include acreage up to 10 acres for way under $100k.   Many of the smaller towns, are now becoming pretty self sufficient or just getting bigger but still pretty small compared to any normal "city."  This area runs all the way up into Virginia, WV, and keeps going into Maine!!  If you want to be real close to some of the actual bigger cities, like within an hour or two then North GA, Tenn, and NC are where it's at. You are also still only 3-4 hours from the beach! Can you really beat that?  Check out the no income tax states  -- Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. New Hampshire and Tennessee.

@Gary Wallace - yes the big box stores are backed up for any ovens and stoves or appliances that are “on sale” or in a promotional time. It takes this long for me every time for the last 2-3 years. They keep so little inventory. Easy quick solution for the friends is to be logical — there are portable countertop stoves/burners that are electric, induction which are awesome and gas type which are great too. It sucks and the landlord should be a better person and go get a $100-200 used oven for a few weeks, but sound like they are penny pinchers.