All Forum Posts by: Geordy Rostad

@Carmine Myers Jr

mls.com is not the MLS. It's an advertising site that was cleverly named.

If you want to search MLS listings and get alerts, use realtor.com, Trulia, Redfin, Zillow, etc. As far as other places to find non-MLS listings, here's a few ideas:

1) Bigger Pockets marketplace

2) Craigslist

3) Zillow (make me move listings)

There's lots more out there but that should get you started.

@Samuel Luebbe

This is a perfect place to use a multiple choice offer. Give the owner several different options such as:

1) We will pay you $95k if you provide seller financing for 10% down at 5% interest with a 5 year balloon payment.

2) We will pay you $90k for a sale where we go and get our own financing.

3) ???

Adjust the numbers and terms to your liking but you get the idea. If he'll do a low down owner financed deal where you don't have to pay loan points and stuff, that's the deal I'd want anyhow.

@Tahiv Grantham 

The neighbor's house is vacant too?

@Andrei Asorocean

I see a couple small things. Overall, the deal looks decent for a traditional buy and hold. (vs a BRRRR).

1) you have no capex or maintenance expense. Even though it's a condo, you'll still have inside things to do as well as the risk of a dreaded special assessment.

2) You're planning to self manage?

3) Your loan is interesting. 4.75% on a 20 year am. Have you talked to a bank to confirm these numbers? 

4) Needs no repairs up front?

5) you have no vacancy factor. You should probably have 5% in there as a default if you don't know what is common in the area.

There are some things to make sure of when investing in a condo

1) Are rentals allowed.

2) read the reserve study carefully.

3) read the bylaws to make sure there's nothing weird in there.

Main thing though is that the health of the HOA has a MASSIVE impact on the value of the property. Make sure the reserve study says things you like. Otherwise, it's almost guaranteed that your dues will go up which could severely harm your cashflow.

@Alyssa Gonzalez

There's a book I like that is not about real estate but it's still extremely useful IMO:

Financial Freedom by Grant Sabatier

Lot's of great ideas in there on how to hack your life to maximize savings (which you'll need for your seed capital).

After that, there's some great real estate books to read. Some are in the Bigger Pockets book store. Even if they don't immediately look useful by the title, these books all have excellent info in them. 

https://www.biggerpockets.com/store/real-estate-note-investing-ultimate

https://www.biggerpockets.com/store/finding-and-funding-great-deals-ultimate

https://www.biggerpockets.com/store/long-distance-real-estate-investing-ultimate

https://www.biggerpockets.com/store/raising-private-capital-ultimate

On top of that. Go meet some people at a local real estate investor club. At this point, that's going to be WAY more useful than any online school you could attend. Check meetup.com and the Bigger Pockets events section (under networking).

Good luck!

@Justin Cortez

I would suggest attending some local investor meetups. Try meetup.com or the Bigger Pockets Events section (under networking). 

I'm a believer in "mentorship" but in my experience, it's not what anyone thinks. I firmly do NOT believe in paid mentorship like those offered by "gurus". To me, a mentor is someone you can call up and chat about deals you're working on and bounce ideas off them. They have more experience than you so you they are able to give you some guidance here and there. They aren't going to hold your hand through every step of the way and if you want to attract this person to you, you have to have something to offer them as well. Maybe it's your charming personality? Or specific knowledge of some area they are interested in? Or are you handy? etc etc.

You won't find this person by asking. You'll find this person (or people) organically through the course of trying to get involved with the scene, talking about deals, and exchanging knowledge. Think about the strengths you already bring to the table and start learning how to sell those. Then get on down to your local meetup and you'll find lots of useful contacts. One of them may end up being a mentor someday.

@Dameon Dixon

If you've got the nerve to work that approach, that is probably the best approach. You also should have asked the owner if she happened to know if anyone else close by might be looking to sell soon.

Remember, she's not a seller until you're in contract :-)

Seriously, good job! If you keep at it, the numbers will work in your favor. Set yourself a goal maybe of some amount of door knocks or some (way higher) amount of phone calls or maybe some (REALLY REALLY high) amount of letters to do every single day. Take a day off every week so you don't totally burn out on it.

@Devin Schmelter

Read the book Financial Freedom by Grant Sabatier. There are a LOT of great ideas in there for how to reduce your expenses and get ahead. If your situation is bad enough, a bankruptcy might be a reasonable option but ultimately, you need to reduce your expenses to less than your earnings or earn more. If you want it bad enough, that book has some really extreme ideas for getting way ahead.

Here's some generic ideas off the top of my head, you might hate them but think about them seriously:

1) Sell anything worth over $100 that hasn't been used in over a year. Put the money towards the bad loan.

2) Sell the house and rent for a bit, then go buy a 4 plex and move into a unit after your credit is fixed.

3) Rent out an extra bedroom in your existing house.

4) Clean out your garage entirely and rent that out like a storage unit. (or wall off half and do that)

5) Round up cash from a friend or family and try to negotiate the bad loan you have. Often lenders will take a deep discount if they think you are a huge default risk anyhow.

6) Take on some side work in the gig economy: grubhub, uber, lyft, amazon, etc, etc.

7) Start a side hustle (some interesting ideas in Grant's book)

8) Cancel the cable TV, carefully examine ALL of your bills and make sure you're not overpaying for something. Can you downsize your garbage? Are you paying for full coverage insurance on a $5000 car? Do you have a $100 deductable? Raise it to $500.

9) Use a tool like mint.com to track spending carefully. 

10) airBnB a room in your house. Or the whole house if you can go stay elsewhere sometimes.

11) Do you have an old IRA or 401k you can cash to pay off the debt? This might be a better use of the money at this moment in time.

12) Start looking for a w2 job that can pay more.

13) do some side work on fiverr or upwork.

14) Sell the toys (dirt bike, jetski, ATV, quads, etc)

@Tahiv Grantham

One of the strategies I like best is to go knock on the neighbor's door and tell them you're interested in buying their neighbor's house. A lot of times if a neighbor thinks you'll solve their problem, they'll be glad to give you a bunch of information on the situation and how to get ahold of the owners.

@LaTeisha Hervey

Have you looked on meetup.com or right here at Bigger Pockets? There's an "events" section under the Networking tab.