All Forum Posts by: Val Csontos

@Bill Gulley The Urban Land Institute or ULI is not a "guru"program, they publish books on Multi-unit Apartment Dev/Management and other subject areas for non profit and for-profit organizations. Basically some of the same ones CCMI uses. Also here in Baltimore the JHU (Johns Hopkins) Business school also uses some of these same books for their Graduate Degree in their R.E. Development program.......

All i was trying to say that depending on the individual some one could just spend $200 on ebay and get these books, that could help them evaluate commercial properties on a similar if not better level than a person with a CCIM certification. My mentor who was/is a broker/investor for over 30 years and a CCIM certified, Leadership graduate etc.... said the same thing: "many of these designations are just for show to impress clients in the broker community"

Since the field is so competitive (like you said it above) they the "status quo" do come up with various designators so the folks with the money and or experience can remain on the top......

@Karma Senge

Normally it is done the other way. Folks do get an RE sales License and start broker commercial props then "upgrade" to CCIM certification to look good.

I am not saying CCIM is not useful, but unless you plan to broker for other people, the "secrets" of a CCIM courses can be picked up by reading books from the Urban Institute and others...

I just looked at your long term goals, which includes of owning 1000's of rental units. I could be wrong but I believe brokering commercial or other deals might just be a destruction for you from reaching your goals!

Have you heard of the Gerry Keller's Book The Millionaire R.E. Investor. IMHO If you just implement what's in the book, step by step you can get to your goals faster than with getting distructed with brokering.

Disclamer: I have an RE licence as well but I mostly use it to broker properties that are great investment deals but do not feet my "buy and hold" niche"

Ps, I would be curios to see what

@Joel Owens thinks of CCIM certification.

Good Luck!

@Brian Anderson

If you handy with Google (usage of specific key words) you can find published documents on the web. For example i was able to locate a document with the Economic Development Co for our county that has commissioned a large RE Broker firm to do a research with in the area. That document did not only included trend analysis for rental properties, but population growth(loss) predictions job statistics, type jobs percentage home ownership and predictions....etc..

Do a little online digging and see what happens. It did toke me i think 3 -4 hours of online research to find statistics that in needed.

You could start with words like "demographics data", " occupancy rate", etc.. Even if you find a document that does not meet your needs, because wrong location or outdated info, you should still glance at it to help you come up with better key words. So you can focus your research on item that you need.

If you have patience you can even find unclassified research documents that REITs managers uses.

Good Luck to you!

Read All of your clauses in your contract, it might or it might not addresses your concern.

My personal opinion (not a legal one) that you did not suffer a real loss.You need to sell the place, and the property now probably worth more because of those improvements you made and may be will even sell faster!

My wife has a saying that she tells me on ocassions when she thinks i need it:

It is not worth looking back focusing on the negative, as it will not solve your initial problems anyway (in this case the sale of your house) just focus on the positive side, and the problem will solve it self.

I believe she right!

Good Luck to you, and i hope it works out for you!

@Daniel OKeeffe I would look up on BP which investor does business there in PG Co. and I would just ask them privately or find out and go a locally held REI meeting.

Some peopele would like to get to know you a little bit before giving you his/her contacts.

Good Luck!

Glass is half full guys! Let's lighten up! :)

Every one including myself, DID use guru books at one time or another, especially when internet groups were not as available,and useful as BP nowdays! Even if we are too embarrassed to admitted noways!

My take on the Ethics and books:

A guru book is a bit like money, it will not change your Core Believes/Ethics you were raised with, BUT amplifies it! If you were honest hard working you will still be honest, just going to work, invest etc.... better/harder.

But if you were raised shady you will just going to be shady with a "larger business model" No matter how many ethics books you read!

What do you all think?

@Dan S. I would just call around to banks in your area that has 20 or less branches and ask for the VP or commercial lending. This move would yield you some relationships(a bonus) for your future deals as well!

Good Luck!

Great Job, Congrats! I like the House! Please keep us posted on the sale!

Regards

Val

@Mike Cartmell in my neck of the woods you, as a licensee you could probably get in trouble for a transaction like this.

I might be wrong on this, but for me personally as a licensee (and an investor too) it does especially sound like a textbook case of no no under the new Dodd Frank regulations in regards to "flipping" as R.E "professional"

I am curious, to see what others think.

Good Luck to you!

@Steven Williams What goes a round, comes around, so i would not recommend "cutting realtors out"

Instead of looking at realtors as your adversaries (which they are not) Why not get their help to make the deal happen?

Here is an example what i have done in the past using Realtor's help to make my pretty good deal a "better"one:

I went to the listing agent and told him that the only way i can purchase the house listed by him if he holds the note for the amount of his commission at zero percent with payments over 60 months.This way i can use his commission to be credited towards closing cost on the subject property thereby reducing my cash required for down payment by 5%.

If he says no than I would tell him that I will bring my own buyer's agents and he/she would loose out by 50% of the commission.( that is legal in many places as the sale of said property would have not occure with out the help of this "second" realtor. Many of the listing agent will consider this, and in some cases you might have to educate their broker what are you doing, but is worth it, as you will build some relationships too, and in the end that could lead to more deals for you!

In my view with out some help of realtors you will NEVER build significant portfolio of REI properties. So why send out a bad publicity on yourself?