All Forum Posts by: Josh Randall

Troy Johnston

I'm actively pursuing REI in my area, but I haven't made my first purchase... yet! I don't know how familiar you are with Cocoa, but Melbourne is about 30 minutes south. My goal is to stay a little closer to where I live if possible, at least starting out.

Very good point Joe B. I was kind of thinking the same thing.

Ann Bellamy, Bill Gulley, Chris Martin...

Thanks for your input.

One thing I failed to mention is when I first talked to this agent I told him I was interested in a property as an investment and he immediately asked what I wanted to do with it, did I want to buy and hold, fix it up and resell, etc. So overall he didn't seem to be ignorant about investing in generally and certainly not anti-investor.

However, and going back to the original question about HML, when I explained to him what a hard money loan is and how it works he didn't follow up with any comments that led me to believe his apparent ignorance was do to terminology.

Anyway, I have since talked to my father and he pointed me to the agency he used in this area back in the late 80's and early 90's. They are still around and are a third generation, family run company. In fact, I believe the son of the agent my dad used to work with (the owner at the time) is running the company now. And best of all, REO is their specialty. I'm going to explore that avenue next.

I'll let everyone know how that works out.

Troy Johnston, welcome to BP. Good luck with your REI. I hope you have much success.

Thanks Wayne Brooks and Bill Gulley.

I talked to an agent yesterday about a property I'm interested in. He seemed really nice and in talking I found out he has four rental properties himself, but when I mentioned I am considering using a hard money loan he had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. He said he had never heard of a hard money loan. He told me he is full time and has been an agent for three years. Should I run away from an agent like this? Or is this typical?

Thanks!

J Scott, I plan to get my license at some point, but I really want to get my feet wet now! :)

Guess I kind of jumped the gun. Should have searched the forums first.

Thank you to everyone for the answers.

I'm wondering if it's a bad idea to deal directly with the listing agent for an REO vs. having another agent represent me? This is a property I'm looking at for my first potential flip and fix.