All Forum Posts by: Jason H.

@Andrew Johnson, Thanks for the detailed reply. In light of this, I guess the target demographic is not professional investors, but perhaps people who have heard that rental properties are a good investment, but aren't investment/finance saavy enough to do the analysis themselves. 

The idea to offer 10 reports for free and see who pays after that is an excellent idea.

I read Gallinelli's books and bought his REIA Excel software. I love it! I also built my own tool (basically reverse engineered Gallinelli's in order to make sure I understood exactly what it was doing behind the scenes). I've become obsessed with analyzing investment opportunities with it.

Is there a market for doing this type of analysis for investors? I could see putting together reports with the financial measures, including "worst case," "best case," and "best guess" scenarios. And also including area comps for comparison. Would investors be interested in paying for reports like this? It would eliminate the need to look up comps, find rent values, occupancy rates, local property tax rates, etc. I've been doing this for SFH, multi-family, and Airbnb opportunities. So fun!

I read Gallinelli's books and bought his REIA Excel software. I love it! I also built my own tool (basically reverse engineered Gallinelli's in order to make sure I understood exactly what it was doing behind the scenes). I've become obsessed with analyzing investment opportunities with it.

Is there a market for doing this type of analysis for investors? I could see putting together reports with the financial measures, including "worst case," "best case," and "best guess" scenarios. And also including area comps for comparison. Would investors be interested in paying for reports like this? It would eliminate the need to look up comps, find rent values, occupancy rates, local property tax rates, etc. I've been doing this for SFH, multi-family, and Airbnb opportunities. So fun!

Resources at my brokerage are limited, and the headquarters is actually in another county... so I'm looking outside our firm for other agents willing to guide me through the listing and selling process. I was thinking of contacting all the agents with open houses in my area. What's the etiquette involved here? Should I email them? Just show up at the open houses?

Most importantly... What can I offer these agents in return to make it worth their while?

Thank you!

These lenders make all kinds of claims... is it ok to ask for an example/typical TRID-conforming Loan Estimate in order to see all the details of a particular loan product?

I've been told by a lender they do not charge any fees or points. I assume this means Section A "Origination Charges" on pg 2 of the LE would be $0.00. But Sections B and C would still have fees there and I'm curious what they are.

Example Loan Estimate Form for reference

Anyone willing to upload a real world Profit & Loss statement and Schedule E so I'll know what to expect when I ask this from a seller?

@Ian Savage, @Kevin Phu, this is one benefit to working with an agent. An agent can help you put together a good offer that is more likely to get accepted (by limiting contingencies, providing the right documentation, giving the 'expected' EMD...).

Minimum EMD isn't going to be on a listing or the MLS (at least in SoCal). You just have to know what sellers (and their agents/brokers) are expecting in that particular market.

Here in California, there is no minimum, but 3-5% of purchase price is the customary amount. Buyers here do not often put down more than 3% since most sign a liquidated damages clause that limits the seller to 3% of the purchase price as damages in the event of a default.

Hi @Mike Iafrati, I wrote a similar earlier today. Some responses: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/55/topics/463112-aerospace-engineer-wants-to-get-into-real-estate?page=1#p2865605

I've never done this but I'm glad to learn people like you exist. (Profile "Follow" button clicked...) From what I've seen so far, there are about 4.3 million specialized occupations that have been created in the real estate industry. ;)

Hello everyone,

Excited to join BiggerPockets - looks like a tremendous community here.

I'm brand new to real estate. Never purchase a home, plot of land, or property of any kind. But investing in real estate is something I've been extremely interested in for a long time.

For the last 16 years I've been an aerospace engineer for NASA in Pasadena, California (still am). Living on your own in Los Angeles with student loan debt has been rough on my bottom line to say the least - I basically have zero capital for investing. So I thought getting a real estate license might help that. Figured I'd help friends and family buy/sell their homes, save the commissions, and then start investing.

I received my license earlier this year, got hired by a broker, ordered business cards, put up a website, etc. I'm now struggling with deciding what to do with this license...

1. Should I be searching for buyer clients?
2. Should I be out competing for listings?
3. Should I act as an investor-facing agent?

#3 appeals to me since I'm ultimately interested in being an investor myself. Might as well learn the analysis methods and techniques now and help those with capital purchase them. I also have friends that are investing in real estate, so maybe I could spend my time bringing good finds and buyers together. But is that really a good way to earn money as an agent?

Also, during my 16 years at NASA and doing web development on the side, I've become pretty proficient at data mining and data analysis/modeling. This includes machine learning and neural networks. I think this stuff can significantly impact the way investors analyze deals. So I'll throw out a fourth:

    4. Investor consulting: help individual investors and/or institutional investors improve the confidence and accuracy of their analyses.

I'm sure I'll get more direction after reading through and participating in the forums. Any advice is welcome.

Jason