All Forum Posts by: Gregory Owen

In Florida, Georgia and Alabama there is an option to just pay for the MLS.

This is because the Realtor association lost the landmark case in 1991 brought against them by Fletcher Thompson. He sued them because they previously denied black agents to join due to their racists policies in the 1960’s specifically, “we don’t accept black members”. Case notes are available online. 

Consequently, you can now just pay for the MLS without any association membership by finding a Thompson broker

Use Google to seek these & other ‘MLS only brokers' in your state.

 Thanks Chris. I have a trading history with Gitsit already and have made some great trades. There must be other sources though surely. I am following up on LinkedIn and a variety of other places to find some. 

I am looking to connect & network with like minded investors with experience in note investing. I’m particularly keen on reverse mortgage vacant single family notes with deceased borrowers. These can be anywhere nationally but my presence in Florida makes that my preference. 

Finance is not needed as we have our own funds. 

There's more. An alternate MLS that offers a 'No-Contract' monthly fee service is now available. Furthermore, it covers not just a small portion of the State of Florida but the whole State for around $45 per month. It syndicates to all the same sites such as Zillow, Trulia, Homes.com and even Realtor.com.

You can list any property in Florida not just those in the MLS district you subscribe to. Learn more here My State MLS

These options are NOT, in the main, tax efficient especially fix and flips. You should consider the BRRRR method namely Buy, Repair, Rent, Refinance, & Repeat. There's no tax on money you borrow, purchase and capital expenditure for repairs can be written off, no tax on the Appreciation plus you can Depreciate residential assets over 27 years. Finally someone else pays the PITI or Principle, Interest, Taxes & Insurance. You build residual income and pay no tax. It's EASY. Lastly avoid Short term rentals at all costs. Property management (in Florida at least) does not require a license of any kind. They can do what ever they want with your property and many do as there is no governing authority.

I received an email today suggesting some 'Osceola County Foreclosure & Tax Deed Auctions Coming up This Week' and encouraging me to request a title report for each. As an experienced broker of over 20 years with over 200 transactions of either bank owned or short sales completed I was a little surprised I was not aware of a couple of properties close to me. So I looked them up.  One borrower only purchased the property in July 2023. A public records search revealed Property Taxes paid up to date and no Foreclosure case in either County or Circuit Courts for the current new owner. An old case for the former owner was discovered and cancelled back in April. I could easily have paid for a pointless report on this and other properties. When you Google Property Onion reviews the first review page was their own site. All reviews are positive so there was the first red flag. Any other unsuspecting clients duped by this crowd? 

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment.

Section 8 using BRRRR

How did you finance this deal?

Cash Initially then pulled cash after repair

How did you add value to the deal?

Upgrades including new bathrooms, new roof, new paint, new flooring plus HVAC

You should look up Non-member access to the MLS in some southern states. This relates to a class action lawsuit in Georgia in 1991. One agent, Fletcher Thompson refused to join the association based on their prior racist policy of not accepting anyone of color during the 1960's

Case notes are here:- https://www.nar.realtor/legal/...

Look up Thompson Brokers in Florida where you can access the MLS without paying fees to any association. You can activate your license for free-forever and just pay for the MLS (even that is optional). Commissions are the generous and similar to other agencies.