All Forum Posts by: Frank Nabors

Thank you all again for the help! I will hold off on trying to find an agent to work with until I have a couple properties under my belt and know what I'm looking for exactly. In the meantime, I'll keep reading and attend the meetups I've mentioned a bit earlier. 

I really appreciate all of the responses. I'll avoid "investor friendly" from now on. 

Just as a little bit of background, I've joined on recently with a small family engineering company and am working on growing it. We're starting to have more good months than not so cash is becoming more available and I want to start my investing with buy and hold (with house hacking the first one). Funds permitting, I set a goal for 5 SFR's in the next 3 years and see which direction I'd like to take investing from there on.

My bosses old business partner had an agent who brought him properties. By retirement, he had something like 14 SFR's so that's what I had in mind when I said "investor friendly."

I was avoiding talking to agents until I had the funds in place for the exact reasons stated. I've learned how to run numbers from this website and have some criteria in place. Regardless, it's still nerve-racking getting property #1.

@Brandon Sturgill As an agent/investor yourself, what benefit to you would it be to not invest in a deal yourself and push it on to a client? I know for REO properties, an agent is required to make offers on those properties. I've been listening the BiggerPockets podcasts and have watched a few of the webinars/reading through threads here but I'm still a bit confused on what value a small-time investor can add to an agent who has access to deals?

@David Espinosa I have found a Central Florida group that seems to be quite established who holds meetups. At this stage, it probably is in my best interest find some people who can nudge me in the right direction or, at the very least, keep me from going in the wrong direction. Luckily my parents(engineer/accountant) are very supportive and can be a second and third set of eyes (in addition to this forum) to make sure that, if anything, I don't start off investing in something that is a disaster. 

I'm set on house hacking as a first buy and hold property and have decided on a relative area and general price range I would like to stick in. My question is are investor-friendly real estate agents common? At least from a beginners point of view, I wonder if an agent would be willing to pass through deals (maybe a house that needs some work/house that needs an update in a good neighborhood) for someone who won't be able to make multiple buys from them a month.  

UPDATE: First of all, big shout-out to the moderators. It was a big help having the less-than-genuine posts removed so I didn't get confused. 

So I'm getting closer to the time when I'm seriously looking at properties. From what I've looked at, I am thinking that REO properties in neighborhoods I know will be my best "initial" investment. How do I go about finding an agent familiar with these types of properties and will work with me to make something happen?

@Matt Leber

Thank you for all the information! I ordered the book so I look forward to diving into that. 

@Matt Leber

That's a really great idea I did not think of! It's best to start off now figuring out how to analyze properties. 

Another question, with house hacking the goal is to at least live for free, or even making a profit on it monthly. I wouldn't be buying a place I couldn't afford fully by myself so that $xxxx a month mortgage payment is already carved out of a "just in case" monthly budget. Is it generally better to aggressively pay off the mortgage or start putting that money away for the next investment?

@Gina Stern 

Thank you very much, I will be sure to do that!

@Matt Leber

I am in that boat where I am single and don't live too crazy of a lifestyle. I will be staying around Orlando for a while for sure. The advice about not getting too expensive of a property is great, it's really easy for me to start justifying bigger properties that would not be a good investment decision so I'll need to keep that in check. 

Regarding finding properties, I have done some more research on this site regarding finding properties and the community has a lot of good ideas such as creating a relationship with those heavily involved in real estate at some level if I want to learn how to find properties that I can make a long term investment on, regardless of whether I am living in it or not. Zillow doesn't look to be my friend in this case or any of the other major realty sites most people not in real estate recommend. 

-Do you have any tips on finding residential property in this area? Without knowing where my dad will be buying the building for the business, I don't know the exact area I will need to stay near but I'm guessing anywhere within about 30-40 minutes of the Apopka, Altamonte, Sanford or Winter Garden area. 

Thank you both again!

Hello everyone,

I've been an avid reader and listener of BiggerPockets for probably 8 months now trying to soak in as much information as I can before making the plunge into real estate. I have a couple months of college left and I have about $20k so far I've been able to bank with the intention of investing. I am incredibly lucky to have parents who support my real estate goals (including allowing me to live at home to save as much as possible) but they themselves are not investors. They have, however, always promoted buying property over renting. 

They have started looking at industrial real estate as an investment because, 1) We use a rented shop as part of our business and 2) The monthly rent of this is getting almost to how much a mortgage on a building big enough for paying tenants would be. Personally for myself, I the residential is the way to start building my portfolio.

That being said, I have a few ideas I would love advice on. 

1) I initially was set on a multi-family property and house hacking that

-The biggest problem I see is there doesn't seem to be many of these types for sale in a price range that would allow me to start off at this 

2) Single family house hacking seems like a good option for this area

-Every so often, I see houses in good neighborhoods I am familiar in go for far less than what seems to be the market price. Even in renovation cases, I am confident in my skill-sets and can do any sort of renovations needed short of structural (which I would want to avoid anyway).

3) ????? I have looked at the BRRRR method as well but I still need to do more research into it.

I have found a local REI meetup I am going to attend to get advice for what works locally but I would love to hear what advice can be had.