All Forum Posts by: Jake Fugman

@Jalen Henningsen Welcome to the broker community! Id say that its important to leverage your personal experience on the investment side. Have you done any deals yourself? If so, target investors that have a similar buying or selling profile. If not, then try to perhaps get passively involved on some smaller deals to gain experience (joint venture or smaller syndication). Also, going to local REI meetups is a great way to meet investors.

I would note that most of your business on this side will likely be early stage buyers so dont waste too much time trying to land large listings... most of those will go to larger commercial firms. 

Good luck!

@Jen Arizmendi  Nextdoor.com is a good one to try.  If you "sponsor" select neighborhoods and post good content Ive heard of solid lead generation.  

Where/how do you meet most of your investor clients currently?  

@Audrey Parzyk I work with a lot of buy/hold investors looking at similar profile SFH. A few quick notes assuming this will be a buy/hold targeting renters for $1300-1700/mo.

- New kitchen should be done for $10K or less (ave appliance package $4,000 + $3,000 cabinets + $1500 counters + $1500 misc).  Anything more and you are overspending for a rental. 

- Depending on the city your buyer will likely need a permit if they are re-wiring the entire house.  

- No new windows or doors?  If so would be about $400/$200 ea respectively 

If they are going to be all in $160,000+ Id make sure that after repair rental demand is at least $1,600/mo or else there are better areas (even with good schools) to look. 

Good luck!

@Jeremiah Guenther  Congrats on taking the plunge.   There is a lot of opportunity on both investor and agent sides.  I got into the sales side after being an investor because I saw the value in leveraging existing knowledge to help younger investors like myself gain a foothold. 

I would say it best helps to use personal investing experience to gain credibility with other investors.   If you have done your own deals talk openly about success AND failures. It builds trust and shows you arent just trying to sell them.  If you still havent done any of your own investments talk about how you may plan to get there soon OR try just investing passively in another investors deals.  There are plenty you can get into for only $10-20K and still gain access to the underwriting and overall strategy.  @Dan Barli made a good call to meet these people at local REI meetings.

Also, I would anticipate on representing mostly buyers shopping under $1M if you are working with investors.  Buyers over $1M typically have their own off market access to deals and sellers of properties over $1M will list with a mid market commercial shop. 

Good luck!

Hey Shelby! 

Thanks for sharing your story.. mine is similar so I wanted to give you some feedback on my experience as an agent/investor in Chicagoland area.  I was also an investor and THEN chose to obtain my license to leverage my knowledge but also seek financial freedom from a typical corporate structure. 

- Yes, I would say its effective to share honest successes AND failures as an investor.  It simply gives you a lot more credibility no matter if you are selling to an investor or non-investor clients.  

- Day to day focus will depend on where you want most of your income to generate from. If you want to own 25 rental properties in 5 yrs Id say you will be spending little time on brand development and just use license to gain more exposure to deals OR if you plan to try and sell more than a few houses per year you will need to generate leads somewhere outside your personal sphere of influence. 

- Definitely appropriate to represent yourself as a fellow investor if you are attempting to list an investor's property. I would warn that its very tough to secure listings for large multi family or SFH portfolios over $1M to list on MLS. Typically those sellers go off market or use a midmarket commercial shop. If your goal is rep large MF investors down the line I would start in the commercial space now.

Feel free to reach out with any questions and good luck!

Hey Stephen,  I think Berwyn has a good balance of value and cash flow when it comes to multi family.  

I dont own property there myself but have represented buyers who do both buy/hold and flips in the area. I know the #s looked a lot better 5+ yrs ago when you could get 4-8 unit building at $75,000/unit and rent for $1100+/mo based on finishes. Buildings now look to be closer to $100,000+/unit but can still show decent cash flow if you understand what type of finishes demand the best ROI.

@John Warren owns a few buildings in Berwyn and could comment on his property management experience there. 

Let me know if I can help any other way!

@Dane Kania  Im a full time agent, and do my own buy/hold/flips.  Id say the largest subjective benefit is early exposure to deals.  Especially if you plan on ever representing investors on the buy/sell side, it will definitely help you stay sharp all the deals in your area since you are seeing what works for your most successful clients. 

One downside is that depending on your state and sponsoring broker you will have to disclose your status as an agent plus even be required to pay for home warranty on your personal sales.  There are several extra processes that more or less make sure an agent isnt ripping off a buyer or seller - so do your homework. 

@Jeremy Segermeister  Bottom line, yes - you can represent friends/family and give back as much of the commission in a credit at closing as you want.  Typically the firm where you hang your license will take at least 20 - 50% (mine takes 20%) of the commission, so you want to collect at least enough to cover your time and the split to your firm.  This doesn't include the monthly flat fees your firm will charge for access to their tech, support, etc. 

In general Id say it would be worth your while if you expect to do at least $1M gross in sales that come "easy".  Others will argue more or less depending on the work you actually do. 

Good luck!

@Brant Biba I agree with @Mark Ainley that its tough to find a great MF deal in a lot of the western suburbs simply since inventory is low.  You typically will need to look at older and more established areas that had the need to build a lot of 2-4 flat buildings in the last 100 yrs..  

If you are looking to be outside of the city and as close to Darien as possible I would steer you towards Berwyn or perhaps Forest Park where there are a good amount of MF buildings and taxes are reasonable. 

@DuBeaux Dingle  As @Patrick Sweeting mentioned make sure show what value to can bring to the table. If you want to work with buyers I would start practicing some basic financial analysis for buy/hold rentals (BRRR) and/or flip projects. There are plenty of resources on BP to get started. Then after you have mastered it make it well known that you will offer free deal analysis for potential clients. This will separate you from other brokers - at least at the starter level.