All Forum Posts by: John Vo

Brandon Booth you're not the only one that have problems getting the listing agent to call you back or answer your questions. I'm an agent myself and would occasionally encounter the same dilemma. If it's a property that you really want, I would suggest contacting that agent's broker directly if the agent do not answer within a reasonable time, within 24hrs for me. Personally, I would just move on to a differently property. An unresponsive listing agent falls into 2 categories for me: 1) they already have a contract in hand or will have one soon. ( Good agents would always entertain a back up contract or at least keep a line of communication open with potential buyer in case current deal goes sour) 2) they're not organize (I.e they don't have a system in place to take emails/phone calls. This is a deal killer for me because it means I would have to pick up their slack if things go sour in the deal)

@Brandon L. I'm a real estate agent and I created my website using a Wordpress webpage theme. I'm not a programmer by any means, and it seems a little bit daunting at first, but I got into it when I got the hang of it. My website is fully functional and running. It took me about 3-4 months, a couple of hours a week here and there, to create the website the way I wanted it to look and function. You can track traffic to individual webpages using Google Analytics as well as increase website traffic by advertising with Facebook or Google Adsense. If your local MLS has developed an IDX widget, you can copy the IDX codes and it'll give your page visitor the ability to search the MLS listing. I would say that $3K a month is a lot to pay for creating and maintaining a website. Does that include advertising to increase traffic to your website as well as lead generation? I think it would just be better for you to look for a Wordpress Meetups group in your city and/or watch Youtube videos on how to create your own Wordpress website. It'll save you money in the long run once you have everything setup and running.

@David Bokman & @Michael Nicholson, I appreciate the advice! It might just be the case that I'm not dealing with the right wholesaler. I will stick to my fundamentals. 

It sounds like you're trying to identify which area is "hot" based on sales volumes and price. Your local MLS already have this data and send a monthly update to all their member. The data specifically identify trends based on sales volumes and prices. I get these data through a partner that's a real estate agent so I know what you're talking about. I use the data to target specific area and then send out direct mail those area. I would suggest partnering up with a knowledgeable real estate agent to get access to the data. If you don't know a realtor at the moment, San Antonio's Association of Realtor is nice enough to share their data to the general public through their website:

http://realestate.sabor.com/pages/mlsstats

This is a little bit more labor intensive since you have to input the zipcode and it'll spit out the MLS data, but you can use this data to create your heat map. Hope this helps.

Thanks for sharing Travis! I will definitely put your ice breaker line in my arsenal for future negotiations.

Thanks for the advice Charlie and Hung! I try not to second guess myself, but it gets the better of me sometimes. I'll stick with my fundamentals. 

Hi Chris, I'm relatively new to HML also, but I've talked to several different HML lenders in the Houston area and have applied with Jet Lending at one point. They would generally lend at 70% of the ARV(after repair value) and can close within 10 business days. The application process varied from lenders to lenders but typically your credit, income and of course the property condition and value would be looked at. An appraisal is required before they commit to the loan. Some HML will let you choose the title company some don't. There's several in the Houston area some of which are: Jet Lending, Noble Lending, Sherman Bridge, and Red Door Lending. Their interest rate varies depending on if you're rehabbing or doing BRRRR. Typical interest in rehab is anywhere between 10-14%. Be very careful in your deal analysis and take into account the cost of financing from HML it can make or break your deal. Hope this helps.

Hi everyone! I'm a new investor to the Houston, TX area. I've been analyzing some of the deals that I get via wholesalers that I've met at real estate investor events. I usually do my due diligence by doing several comps through zillow, the local MLS database, and property tax records. Then I would add up what I my rehab cost, finance cost, etc would be and come to a purchase price. The purchase price that I arrived at is almost all the time lower than what's advertise on most of the wholesale deals I've seen. So my questions is, how do you make an offer to the wholesalers without offending them? (PS. Most of the purchase price that I came to after adding my acquisition cost is about 15-20% discount from what I've seen being advertised)

Edward, I think the biggerpocket article/post you're referring to is this one: https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/03/16/real-estate-credit-card/. So to clarify you're trying to pay for this property outright using your credit card, correct? If that's the case I believed it's doable but the hard thing would be to find a closing company that would be willing to take the credit card charge. Many closing companies I know would not be willing to do this as it's an 'unsecured' line of credit. They want a certified fund. You can thank the 2008-2009 real estate bubble for that. However, you can take the cash advance and have it "seasoned", I believe the magic number is at least 2 months in your bank account at least if you're attempting to get a mortgage using credit card fund as your down payment, so there's no further prying question. But as you mention, this is something that you don't want to do. So your best bet is to find a title company in your area that's "investor friendly" or a real estate attorney that's investor friendly, to help you. Your local REIA can help with that.