All Forum Posts by: Justin Pierce

Hire one general. It is very hard to find tasks that don't overlap. You need one person to be responsible for the quality control. If you hire out each task and the work is crap, well, the drywaller will blame the carpenter, the painter will blame the drywaller etc. License and certainly INSURANCE is a huge issue as well. One point of contact makes it much easier to keep yourself covered and legal.

Welcome, Kristin. Good luck with your investing. I buy properties in the D.C. area (No. VA, PG & Montgomery counties MD and D.C.) But, it looks like you're down south. Put me on your buyers list if you come across any great deals up north. I will look at deals down your way but they would have to be larger commercial deals.

Justin Pierce

A wholesaler found me on BP and brought me a deal that netted me $50,000 and some change.

I need about 4 more of those right now.

Thanks BP.com

Rich,

The strategy right now is to use cash to buy cheap. The exit strategy is market dependent. Despite the overal economy there are some stable markets out there.

Salk Lake City Utah area, where people from other more expensive states are moving has relativily low unemployement good tech sector growth and high demand for rentals. So there I'm buying at 50-60 cents on the dollar and hold as a rental making very good cap rates.

In the D.C. area there is actually a mini real estate boom in progress. The BRAC is brining lots of jobs and anything priced well is flying off the inventory. Appreciation was up double digits last year in most D.C. Metro Counties. So I buy and flip there.

If you want super stable there is Jacksonville N.C. Which is just outside of Camp Lejuene N.C. Home of the Unitied State Marine Corps 2nd Division. One of only 3 active duty Division bases for the Marine Corps. It's not going anywhere. Marines are good tenants. It is difficult to get 50 cents on the dollar there but you can expect a very slow and steady up tick in value. So there you buy and hold and are happy with a nice 8-12 cap rate.

Pick you flavor. I stongly suggest all three.

Rich,

I get your point. I'll just say that there are a lot of wholesalers. There are very few good ones, however. There are plenty of buyers also. You just have to keep looking.

The only way to find real actual end buyers to have deals in hand and beat a lot of bushes. When you actually have a deal you'll find out who the real buyers are and the posers.

I'm a serious, professional end buyer and I would love to find a couple really good wholesalers. I meet a lot of wholesalers but only a couple have brought me real deals and even then they were not very well packaged or presented. A good wholesaler is gold.

You entered into this with the expectation that a friend would treat you better than a stranger. That was correct, acceptable, should have been the case but rarely is. Don't beat yourself up over that.

Risking the friendship, as one person said, should not be in the equation at all. Friendship is a two way street. He is essentially taking advantage of you right now and if he holds a grudge against you for walking on this then screw'em; he's no kind of friend anyway.

I would try to buy the properties from him. Can you do a subject-to type purchase? Is there equity in the properties? Maybe you could strike a sweet deal by negotiating the perchase of 2 or 3 of the properties with the agreement to manage the ones he keeps for free for a specified period of time.

If that doesn't work you really either need to get paid or quit. I would tell him that your going to begin collecting the rent and taking your management fee before passing on the proceeds. If he doesn't like that then you are just being taken. In this business, you'll get taken a lot if you let people.

You are not OBLIGATED by FRIENDSHIP to be abused.

Student housing is probably a good long term play. I think the comments here cover most of the major concerns. There have been some good articles about his very subject. Search money magazine, I they had a real good article on this about a year ago. Sorry I don't have the issue.

I own properties in 3 states in both the east and the west of the country. If you are buying out of state you have to have someone you trust on the ground. If you run ads in another state you will end up chasing a lot of shadows. People love to think they can sucker an out of stater.

Make contacts with someone local (realtor, wholesaler, family, friend). I'm very careful with wholesalers. There is nothing better than a good wholesaler but to be honest with you they are hard to find. Realtors are governed by state laws and also state, local, and national associations. They also have at least a minimal commitment to the field. They have a code of conduct and you have recourse against them if they do not act in your best interest.

There is a lot of run around with screening and due diligence on any possible deal. Run your deals through your local rep and give them insentives to bring you deals.

Don't spread yourself too thin. The only way you can be confident that you have a good deal is to know the local market. You can't be much of an expert on 100 different areas. I look for good people before I look for good properties.

Drew,

Wholesaling is not easy. The answer to your question is based on your best assesment of yourself. Sure, you can learn to wholesale on your own, but are you honestly diligent enough to do it. I'm the kind of person that has to get into something deep and quick otherwise I might loose interest before I learn enough to know better. It could take you months and months to learn enough on your own to have the confidence to try your first deal.

I have no idea how good this course is you're considering and I do not endorse any Guru; however, they do serve a purpose.

Another option is to go out and find an real life buyer, not another wholesaler. Let that buyer tell you exactly what he or she wants and go from there. I'm always happy to find another bird dog in my area. I'll happily tell them what I want and if they bring it great, if not I'm only out a little time. I have my exact buying criteria on my blog on my website and here on BP for cases just like this.

Hope this helps.

Justin

Rich,

I feel your pain. I'm getting so tired of risk averse sissies in this industry. Appraisers, lenders, investors unwilling to do their job an put it on the line a little and yet still expecting big profits. 3 MIL liquidity... what a joke.

We need to put together the big boys real estat group. Only those willing to work hard to find and manage good deals allowed. Must be willing to bet on good risks.

You want safety and security then go get a government job.

Justin