All Forum Posts by: John Corey

Bon, the software side is not that big of a challenge. Being able to legally operate a collective investment scheme is the harder issue. How do you expect the regulations would be addressed?
 

Greg, are you suggesting that a developer/rehab/flipper makes 90% profit? Or, did you mean a wholesale business would be at the 90% level? Noted that you suggested that the business would have to be structured correctly.

@Daniel Cain, good. You are on track.

At this point in your career, experience is the key. Play to your strengths.

Look for REIA meetings and real estate MeetUp or apartment association meetings in the metro area

Consider buying someone breakfast if your want to score 90 minutes if 1 to 1 time. Way cheaper than paying for mentoring at this point.

If you have some time, offer that to successful investors. No cash. Just a bit of time. So you can learn and keep the spending down.

If commissioned sales works for you, fine. Sale success does not come quickly. You will need training and practice. Or, stick to some other way of earning a living.

It depends on what you are trying to do. If you just want to keep a list of names, numbers and emails, you can use Excel or Google's Sheets.

If you want an integrated website with database, you can use something else. Ontraport is what I use.

Some of the tools expect you to be a programmer or hire it out. Other tools are built for an end-user yet might be limited in what they can do (setting up Facebook pixels, etc).

You can generally migrate from one CRM to another. That said, if you are using permission based marketing, the new platform will be a bit concerned when you want to upload your data. They do not know if you legitimately received the info or if you have been scraping the data from various places.

I suggest people draw pictures on a piece of paper first. Get clear what it is you want to do. How will someone enter your database and what do you want to do with the contact / lead? That will make it clear what requirements you have. Then go shopping to find something that is a tool you can afford. Expect some transition struggles initially as you automate. It is a new tool and you need to be a bit disciplined.

I was talking with a person who has run some businesses outside of real estate. They also made a success of being a wholesaler plus run some rentals (1 STR, some long term rentals).

We were debating if it made sense for him to be a license agent or not. He is licensed now in NJ. He was not for most of his past.

My take on the topic is all over the map. On one hand, many agents are dealing with end buyers and sellers. The agent provides a lot of customer service to someone who is never really considering the investment side of the business. Schools, commute, quality of life are the focus. 

In other cases, agents who work mostly or exclusively with investors are all about avoiding most end buyers and sellers. Their focus is on the deal, adding value and getting the transaction over the time so they can work on the next one. List it and leave it to the end customer agents to get it sold.

What are you thoughts?

Declaration: I am not an agent. I have been an investor for 35+ years (USA and UK). I love working with great, investor-savvy, agents. Paying extra for those sort of agents is fine with me. 

You could get a second job. Learn to spend less than you make. Pay off debts and make that credit report sing.

I know it sounds dull. Your own worst enemy will be the impulsive you that wants to rocket to the moon without figuring out how to make it work. This stuff takes time. And credit.

No idea if you would be good in a commissioned roofing role. One thing you might learn is follow up and follow through. Sales people who are not good at that will never develop much of a business. I suspect the real attraction is you believe you will earn more than in an hourly job.

If it was easy, anyone who was not lazy would be rich.

From what he shared, Troy knows the model for a lower priced area. It is less about what 1 property can qualify for with a traditional lender and more about what a bundle of properties will qualify for.

Strong cashflow is great. Assuming you do not end up with a poor tenant mix, strong cashflow can make for a great life.

Local banks or similar lender will tend to be OK with lower valued properties. They almost have to be if they want to keep the door open. That does not change the economics that much. The cost of processing a small loan is a high percentage compared to loan that was 10x the size. 

Speak with commercial lenders and portfolio lenders who are familiar with the area. See what they will be open to if you put a few properties together.

You buy 1 at a time and then when you have 5 or more (what ever it takes to hit the loan size they want), you refinance with a loan and a blanket lien across the 5. Rinse and repeat.

At some point, you can look at syndication or other legal methods to create a small fund. Either working capital to fund the batches you create before refinancing or as a way to just hold with little to no debt. The investor would be earning a return off the portfolio.

The issue sounds scary. That can mean there will be a profit in the deal if you focus on real solutions. Problems like this put off other buyers. They do not know what to do so they are 'out'. When that is the situation, the price you pay to buy should more than compensate for the problem that others just refuse to take on.

As you have already bought it, no more room to negotiate. Still, your budget of $30K sounds pretty good. As others have noted, it could cost more. It might cost less. Lots of variables to sift through before you know the best solution. Do it right and the next buyer will be happy. That opens the market up to competition and hopefully a full priced offer.

Do keep us posted by providing updates to the thread.

When you make a mistake, some of the time there is no other alternative than to just own the mistake. If you overpaid, accept the loss and move on. Or, accept that the family home is not going to change soon and just live there.

You clearly can make money when you buy right and do the work. Focus your energy there and do a few more profitable deals. This one is water under the bridge and that water will not be coming back.