All Forum Posts by: Eric Thomson

Maurice Cox - Why are you not interested in HomePath Foreclosures? Or are you only interested in multifamily? Don't confuse HomePath for your typical foreclosure. I bought one as a primary residence and it had brand new carpet, freshly painted, move-in ready and I was under contract day 6 on the market with substantial upfront equity that will come in handy this summer when I hit the 2 year occupancy point. (As far as I know I can still avoid capital gains...)

Brandon Turner, the MLS listed it as assumable, but upon further investigation (thanks a lot to yours and David Beard's responses) this is a negative cash flowing property even with the downpayment they require.

I'm going to start ignoring the details because they always kill the best deals!

I have the app. Maybe I just need to get used to it. It does seem to be missing a lot of search filters that tempo and fusion have. Ibrahim, I need to look into the Adobe. Iknew you could get a free reader but I didn't know you could fill out and sign the docs with a free app.

Since it is Windows just about any printer should work via USB. It would obviously be best over wifi. If you are going to use a mobile hotspot, rather than the connection built into the tablet, then this should be easy to do. And the printer will not use any of your data plan. I'm not sure what Adobe has out yet that is touchscreen for Win 8, but you can bet it's several hundred dollars. There will probably be other great options through the Windows App Store.

Having your property on MLS is important. You can check around for an agent/broker that will charge a flat fee to put your listing on MLS and you handle the listing. You would still likely be paying 3% to the buyer's agent.

Ibrahim, I love my iPad (on it right now) but I find it to be pretty restrictive for my real estate needs. Actually, I find the sites I typically use are restrictive. For instance, my MLS back end only works on Internet Explorer. And it's not some po-dunk MLS, this is Houston! They have a new one in Beta but even it does not work on the iPad. I am not familiar with Windows 8 yet but i do know you can open 2 screens at once. Printing comes standard and is not a luxury only if you have the right printer (not sure how the ipad or even an Android would do with your mobile printing. The printer and tablet would both have to be connected to wifi, and i dont know of any android tablets that have usb. Windows 8 tablet would give you option to do usb or wifi. I know there are plenty of apps on iPad that allow you to upload a contract and can be filled out and signed right on the iPad. I'm sure something will be available for windows 8. As far as the two versions, you would probably only need the RT version vs the Pro version. RT is more for a tablet and Pro more like a laptop. This is my plan anyway. Keep us posted on what you choose and how it works out because I'm very interested in figuring it out for myself too.

Hi John! I discovered Homepath a couple of years ago and I strongly recommend them to anybody I talk to. We were looking for our primary residence in 2011 and we were looking at Homepath almost exclusively. Each offer I made on numerous Homepath properties received a response the next business day, pretty much every time. Sometimes even on the weekend. Most of the houses we went for were multiple offer situations and we lost out to higher offers. One we were $13,000 above asking and we were not the highest offer. The asking prices are usually already great, but some will stay on the market a little longer so you could easily make them a lower offer and you will not be waiting forever for a response. I am not sure if they have a structured amount they will accept off of list price like HUD properties or if they have a price drop schedule. Our earnest money was $1,000. I think this year they have changed the rules where you can do more than 1 Homepath at a time. For being able to put 10% down as an investor I think Homepath is great!

I'd say go for it if you have the extra money to spend on licensing requirements/classes. If you sold your friends and family a couple of houses over the next couple/few years it would probably at least come close to paying off your expenses. Then if you could sell 1 every year or two you can keep up with the yearly costs until things started picking up. Trust me, it's not hard, and you probably have a better area of influence than I do. Also, if you want to invest more in real estate then you've got an automatic 3% on the front end (when you buy) and 3-6% on the back end (when you sell), minus broker fees. I would look for a 100% commission broker in your area (preferably one that provides some sort of training for new agents). I wouldn't pay 30% commission to a broker unless they were providing you with leads. Get your license and then tell everybody you know and everybody you meet here on out that you are a real estate agent.

I have leased SFH's for the past few years and I am now looking at moving up into purchasing my first apartment and I am a little intimidated by the amount of information I need to gather before moving forward. I have found a 10-unit property I am interested in but do not know where to start and wanted to get some pointers before I approached the listing agent. I have tried searching the site and cannot find what I am looking for exactly. It will probably be seller financed or a loan assumption, so I am not worried about financing just yet. Mostly looking at what info/docs/records I need/entitle to from the seller. Can anybody either refer a forum/blog post, website, or share a list of information I need to gather (including how to go about walking/inspecting the property with near 100% occupancy)?

As far as market value, what is the best way to determine the right cap rate to use in determining sales price? Does CAD value have any bearing on the price I offer? (CAD is quite a bit lower than asking price).

I have not setup an LLC in the past, but I assume it would be recommended for a property like this? For future reference (and this may be a separate post altogether) would I want to setup a separate LLC for each MFH?

John, are you wanting to be solely a real estate agent or are you interested in investing also?

I work full time in IT and also part time in Real Estate. I work as an agent and also for my own investment purposes. I don't have the luxury of 12 weeks off in the summer, but I do have the luxury of being able to answer my phone whenever it rings throughout the day. I assume you wouldn't have that luxury.

I would recommend finding a broker that does not charge you $100/month in fees on top of 30% or more of your commission. I am with a broker that charges less than $200/yr in fees and only a fraction of each commission check. I feel that is the best setup for a part timer.

I would talk to one of these brokers and get an idea of what all of your fees are (including local, state, and national real estate associations, mls access, broker fees, etc) and figure out how many houses you would have to sell in a year to break even and find out from the broker the likelihood of you doing it. I would guess, depending on the broker fees, selling 1 house a year will be pretty close to your break even point. Or you can consider how many houses you have to buy (if you are an investor) because that is an automatic 3% back for closing costs, renovations, etc that would be going to somebody else if you did not have a license (this was the primary reason I even got my license, so any of the deals I have closed representing others have all been a bonus).

My brother is a pilot and I am recommending he get his license to take advantage of his down time. Of course, it really depends on your market. The Houston area market has been pretty good for me. Being a teacher I think your network will be a huge asset, and they will all understand your time restrictions up front.

But yes, you can draft contracts, schedule showings, run comps, etc after the kids have gone to bed, but be prepared to lose many evenings and weekends to showings.

As far as earnings potential I believe NAR reports that agents make, on average, about $30,000/yr. I think it depends on your ultimate goal. Mine is focused on my own investments and the rest is just a bonus (or at least covers my expenses).