All Forum Posts by: Joe P.

I guess I look at all of the main ones -- 1% rule, ARV, projected cash flow, etc.

A deal is a deal when multiple projections prove profitable. I tell myself this all the time -- if it's a mediocre deal in a perfect world, and a horrid deal if things go south, then I leave it to some other investor who has a higher risk tolerance.

Ultimately, some folks do great with those -- maybe they do their own work, don't have a day job, manage themselves, and are rockstars at all of those things, allowing them to accumulate volume and properties. That's not me.

Ultimately, YOU have to decide what's within your goals and risk tolerance. One area I invest in within NJ, the 1% rule doesn't work...it has to be closer to 2% because of taxes and the age of the homes. But maybe in Philadelphia, investors are fine with 0.5 to 0.8%, and are banking on appreciation...none of us are wrong...some of us might be stupid, but not wrong.

Whatever you decide, you have to be comfortable and happy with. Information is key and the more information you can glean, even at a cursory level in your area, is going to make you smarter and you'll make better decisions.

Hi John - you're the second person I now know who lives in Macungie. :)

Appreciate all of those things -- this unit is actually in NJ. 

Hi all - thanks for your advice. I've had nothing but pleasant interactions with this young lady, and opted to keep pro-rated rent. She signed a mutual agreement to terminate the lease, and I returned all other rents/deposits. She hadn't moved anything in yet and didn't do anything with the unit. I also charged her for a re-key, which I think is prudent either way.

Part of me wanted to keep her rent until finding someone else or for the month, but this property is a BRRRR and is probably the nicest house on the block after the rehab. I had 30 applicants walkthrough and 20-something applications. I think I'll find someone pretty quickly from that original pool, or someone new.

Yes, this costs me a first months rent in effect. A month I needed...because the previous month had construction delays which prevented me from getting someone in sooner. Probably a financial mistake on my part...but I selected this young lady for tenancy because I had a gut feeling she would be a great tenant, and still could be when she returns to the area.

I swear this type of stuff might only happen to me. After a lengthy screening process on my BRRRR, I signed a lease with my tenant on November 1. Everything is good, received deposit and first month's rent. Just received a message from them today that they cannot move-in and need to move to another state due to a family member getting suddenly ill.

My radar is up (it's always up) but I want to understand the right process here. I'm thinking as long as they haven't damaged anything, I can do a deposit return/key return with them. They paid for a months rent, which I believe I should hold onto unless I can move someone in ahead of time, and then do partial rent up to that point.

Any thoughts/suggestions on proceeding? Anything I am missing? Anything I should do/shouldn't do?

Absolutely does, and the point was to illicit your thoughts from the other side of the coin. I've thought about OP's idea to get my license, and I've thought about working with my realtor to reduce commissions to help sweeten the deal (although haven't asked, just a means of "ramping up" and making the investor's numbers work) and so your opinion is helpful.

My thinking is If I use the agent for low purchase and commit to using them again for a (hopefully) high sell...but I am buy-and-hold strictly at the moment, so my poor agent is only getting the low purchase. :(

The point was determining if you should get your license versus working with an investor-friendly agent who would share proceeds with you on a deal. Certainly I wouldn't expect it, but wondering if volume from a single person buying multiple MLS properties in the course of the year would allow someone to recoup some of that money (sweetening the deal for the investor), especially if the investor is taking their time to find the properties first.

Certainly not an argument that it should happen, was just asking a hypothetical question in the thread. I'm a consultant for my day job, and if I have a client who is committing or consistently proving to put multiple contracts in front of me, I would certainly consider a "volume discount" for that client, especially if they asked.

@David, wouldn't it make *more* sense for an investor to try and find an investor-friendly agent, someone who might be willing to share some of THEIR proceeds with you, especially if you find the deal yourself?

For example, the property I just BRRRR'd, I went on MLS to find distressed properties that had stale listings, found this one, asked to tour with my realtor, told her to make the offer, etc. Now she did most of the work on the realtor side, but I'm wondering how appropriate (or not appropriate) it would be, in that type of situation and perhaps ongoing, if I'm finding those properties and making those deals, should I ask for some of the proceeds back to help with the numbers? I think its kind of disrespectful to ask, so I am curious to know a realtor's perspective in that situation.

I believe you need to be sponsored by a broker, meaning you need to work for an agency or strike out on your own as a broker in addition to the license itself.

I'm sure you're not the first person to think of this idea, I've thought about it on my own, so there must be a brokering agency that has investor-agents on their staff and maybe take some nominal fees while you do all of the work.

Following the thread to see if any investor-agents know. I wonder if I could bother @Tara S. since I know she's a NJ agent and might also do some work on her own..

Is your job flipping/rehabbing, @Ryan Guffey? (Thats what you listed as your job on the boards...)

If so, could you sub out some of those hours your spending? Could you take half of your business once you clear your projects out and dedicate it to personal projects?

Honestly? Experience and knowledge are probably the only substitutes, and either being able to comb through yourself or with someone that can do that is the only way. There's a book by J. Scott that I purchased that does a great job of helping to level set you if you aren't sure.