All Forum Posts by: Joe L.

@Ecaterina Katerina Morosan thanks for the insight

@Chad McMahan not trying to cut corners / easier pay checks, just trying to minimize operating expense. The NJ real estate school I took broke down the initial expenses and they positioned joining NEXUS as not mandatory (unless you wanted the REALTOR license attached to your name). That's all that I'm looking for. But thanks for nothing.

@Michael Millet thanks for your insight

@Bruce Lynn thanks for your insight

Hello everyone,

I recently passed my NJ licensed exam and I am looking for a brokerage firm to join. How can I find a NJ brokerage firm that does not require me to join NEXUS / REALTOR?

I am basically trying to minimize my yearly operating expenses.

Thank you.

@Lindsay Op de Coul thanks for the message and would love to learn more. Please let me know what your schedule allows for a chat.

I recently passed my NJ real estate license exam and have been interviewing with a few big brokers. I realized that they are all generally similar when it comes to the out of pocket expenses. They all pretty much require NEXUS, MLS, E&O insurance, lock box, training, and "marketing" % fees.

I'm starting off part time so I can‘t justify paying all these out of pocket expenses. What's a good firm that will charge me the bare minimum of operating expenses? I'm assuming it will be MLS and E&O will be the bare minimum operating expenses?

Any additional insight will be helpful.

Hi everyone - I am in the process of finalizing my pre-requisite class hours to take my real estate license exam. None of the teachers at the school  want to throw a number when we ask what is a reasonable expectation for a new agent in their first year to get from their broker in terms of commission split. Understanding that there are endless variables (ie big name broker vs small, desk fees vs none, will they provide training vs limited, etc.) but can anyone provide me a reasonable expectation for a first year agent? Is it 50/50? Is 75/25 or even higher unheard of? I just need a sense going into my first year as I talk to real estate firms.

I'm completely in the dark on this and when I ask the instructors to give something, they always punt on the answer and they say every fee is negotiable. While I certainly understand that to be the case, I really don't have any expectations on fee commission split for first year agents. Any help will be appreciated!

Hi @Benjamin Fritz Thanks for the input. I agree with you that if I include the repairs & maintenance, vacancy rate, capex, etc. that numbers will not work. I guess I'm just second guessing myself and trying to talk myself into it because it seems like every property I look at, the numbers never work (especially in the past several months with the real estate market), yet someone still buys the property at either asking or above asking price. So it makes me question myself, what are they seeing that I'm not seeing to make the investment work in their favor?

Hi all - 

I am a new real estate investor looking to purchase my 1st investment property. I recently came across the following listing (https://www.trulia.com/p/nj/mo...) and wanted to get your initial thoughts / mindset on how you would potentially analyze this property as a potential investment.

From a high level perspective, these are the variable factors that I considered when crunching the numbers:

- Purchase Price: $500K

- 20% down / 30 year mortgage

~6% interest rate (conservative rate)

- ~$9,500 / year in property taxes 

- agent mentioned you could potentially collect a total of $4K / month in rent (one unit is currently being rented as month to month while the other is vacant), but let's use ~$3,800 to be conservative

- so ballpark estimate of my monthly mortgage will be ~$3,500 and if I'm conservatively estimating a total of ~$3,800 a month in rental income leaving me with a net ~$300 / month

- therefore my CAC for the year ($300 / month x 12 = $3,600 / initial cash outlay of ~$112K ($100K down + ~$12K in closing costs) = 2.5%

I know there are other things I didn't consider such as vacancy rate, maintenance, and whether I would use a property manager which would all drive the return even lower but a 2.5% return doesn't seem like a good investment.

Am I thinking about this the right way?

Regards,

Newbie investor

Hi all -

Does anyone have any experience with replacing low voltage landscape lighting units? I (believe) I have LED lights, so replacing the bulbs is not an option. I have to change the lighting unit so any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Hello all!

I am currently in the process of obtaining my real estate license and boy is it eye opening the initial out of pockets fees you are required to pay (licensing fees, testing, fingerprints, etc.)

What I’m curious to learning are the everyday operating fees that one incurs once they find a broker that will sponsor them. Can anyone shed some real world experience on this? For example, someone in my class pointed out some brokers charge “desk fees”? Any additional insight on what to expect, as it relates to costs of being a real estate agent with a broker will be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Thank you everyone! Appreciate the additional insight, especially the D&O insurance suggestion. Will look into it!