All Forum Posts by: Grace Ng

Well done! How did you manage the repairs from CA? Do you plan on getting a property manager?

@Tarl Yarber Great work - loved seeing your before and after photos.  As the saying goes, "The early bird catches the worm" and you did - a $73K one! Congratulations!

@Jean Bolger I like your profile picture very much!  I studied music from ages 6 to 17 but don't touch my piano so much now. Thank you so much for your kind words and great tips. I like the part about food, I might get some yummy caramel or chocolates...there is something about food that makes people linger, open up so I will definitely implement that! 

Good point about the table cloths too, everyone gets the same one, a dark red velvet one. I think there will be 100 of us or a bit more so they want to make sure everyone abides by space restrictions and that not one is over powering the other. I can't put up my broker's logo  and the display has to be all about me. I am not complaining about that though! :)

When I help people buy properties, I still do it with my investment cap on so I definitely will be relying on what I know so far to address some questions people might have. Good advice there, thank you so much.

Wow, thank you @James Wise @Brett Synicky and @Garrett Diegel for your ideas. I am really new to the business (under a year) and although I have a license in DC and MD, I do not know all the areas very well - in fact, I do not know anything about DC at all. I am sure that I will be asked about an area I know nothing about, and I have a little under a week to prepare my flyers and gifts to meet with a panel. I am trying to view it as a fun event to generate leads instead of being so stressed out about my inexperience. I like your ideas about a contest to capture leads, because that way, I am not just there to hand out gifts - it comes with a price, huh? Lol. Thanks so much once again.

I was given an opportunity to hold a booth promoting my business as a realtor.  It is held at a place where there would be a lot of professional attendees. I will be the only realtor there - the other business entrepreneurs are lawyers, interior designers, website designers etc so it is a great opportunity for me to build my business.

I am not allowed to bring in a laptop as they do not want one display to overpower the others' around so I am settling for flyers and maybe some promo gifts.

Has anyone ever done a street booth or a table in a public place before? I would appreciate your ideas on how to make the event a successful one. My main goal would be to generate leads that lead to closed transactions. Thank you.

@Account Closedyou're absolutely right in saying that but initially I was paying upfront fees just to be able to access websites that so many offer for free. It was also the same group that charged a "specialist fee" just to be on the tour eg $1600 just to be on the tour, that did not cover the cost of travel.

@Sidney - not sure why the tag isn't working for me...anyway, in that four years, I only felt comfortable to go with one. Told you I was risk averse! :) Even then, it is a JV partnership to flip a property, so I don't have to deal with property management.

I am a conservative investor and don't like to take risks but like you, I live in the DC/MD area, and realized that in order to make some money, I'd have to look at other states, hence take some risks. I will just share my experiences to date.

I always meet up with the people I am planning on doing business with, because you get a good idea of how they run their business, look at their inventory, meet their staff, if any. You also get a feel of the area you will be investing in, sometimes it sounds a lot better on paper than when you are there in person. I rely a lot on my gut instinct as well, it has always served me well. For example, if a person claims they have so many deals but is unable to show you a single property when you make the trip there, there should be a red flag waving in your head. 

I spent close to $10K in just traveling and paying fees for property tours (run out of Australia) I have traveled to North Dakota, Montana (saw the crazy rush with the oil boom and people sleeping in their cars) Michigan, Georgia, and Chicago. This was all over a period of 4 years. Hopefully you won't have to spend so much as I did, I was inexperienced back then. Still am, but now I hope I know a bit better!

Most of my contacts were from LinkedIn and various Australian Property Investment Magazines. This was before I knew about Bigger Pockets. Out of the many people I have met, and the many trips I took, I finally felt comfortable to go into a JV partnership with some one from Bigger Pockets. Don't feel pressured going into a relationship just because you made the trip out there.

It has been a learning experience for me because obviously, people have different working styles. Communication is key in building trust especially for the first few transactions. I suppose once you know the person well enough, you will not need that level of communication anymore.

The other thing that I looked for was how to exit a partnership if things don't work out. I do expect some repercussion but to what extent and is it reasonable?

Hope that was helpful, sorry if it was a bit long.

What a great post! What really stood out for me was the advice your attorney gave to you record the purchase price in the public records. That is new to me, I have not heard of this process before. Could you kindly explain how the recordation takes place, especially if no funds were exchanged?

Love the after photos, what are your plans for this house, to rent or sell?

I doubt if it will keep foreign money out of the country. Prior to this, the Australian newspapers reported that many savvy Chinese investors had already started pulling money out of China and buying beachfront million dollar properties in Sydney and Melbourne. The report also mentioned them buying properties here in the USA.