All Forum Posts by: Jacques Herve

I can't believe guys sending "Congrats!" for 3 houses under contract and taking it as evidence of the program effectiveness... Send me $5 grand and I'll get you under contract on 6 properties in a week. Matter of fact send me $100 and i'll do it. Thereafter, the guru gets 50% of the upside and the student gets 100% of the downside. What's not to like?

It's commonly said that high risk investing brings high reward. B'more is an interesting case as it is high risk (run  down properties, high crime, crappy tenants) but the local authorities make sure it's no reward at all: LL hostile, no enforcement. Karma occasionally bites them in the ***: mayor had to resign as did previous one. Be sure next in line will uphold the tradition.

Agree about the pics but one thing no one mentions is the price history (zestimate). Shows below $50k as recently as 2015. 

200% appreciation in 4 years and the deal is marketed as an "investor's dream". Seriously?

Thanks KellyAnn, you make great points. I should have mentioned I currently split my time between managing my rentals and a side hustle in the car business. The latter occupies me the most right now. That proportion would be reversed if I went the realtor license route. Should the money be there, I could devote full time to the RE activity. I certainly have a realistic view of the latter. Not expecting a get rich quick outcome. Just concerned about saving on the transaction costs of restructuring my RE portfolio.

Thanks for the input. $5k cost, $20k plus savings, works for me.

E&O remark important, will look into it.

"Knowing what I'm doing" Restructuring will occur. I'm thinking (naively?) that having a license won't detract from what I know.

Get. Back. To. School. Unless you have access to capital -and even then, make sure it doesn't get siphoned away by the top guys as an expensive lesson.

As others said:

1) You can intern in RE businesses while in school

2) This is a cut throat business where Lady Luck plays a good part.  10% of the people make 99% of the money -most of it from the remaining 90% investors. Which category you think you'll be in with no capital no education and no experience? (No disrespect, just a fact)

3) It's a hyper cyclical sector where downturns wash away all the noobies-over-leveraged-folks so without capital your only comparative advantage will be work ethics and built up experience: college and internships will bring you that.

Been investing in RE for 12 years now (DC area). Started with a SFH renting bedrooms and now renting it to one family. Added 2 successive principal residences as I moved along. Nice portfolio because of low leverage but appreciation on former own homes is elusive (because bought at retail prices and nearby building frenzy). Eager to restructure the portfolio through 1031. My concern is transaction costs: if i were to sell all three and buy equivalent value, we're looking at 6% realtor commission each way.

Were I a realtor, I could be listing agent for my properties and save say 2% (listing commission 3% -half of the 6%- minus the broker's cut of about 1%) and possibly more if I were to work with a buyer not using another agent. On a $1 million portfolio, we're looking at anywhere between $20k and $120k (6% on the sale and 6% on the purchase). Nice chunk of change, not to mention I could possibly do regular deals for clients as well.

Does that make any sense? What's y'all's opinion? :)

TIA