All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Greene

It really comes down to value. If you are always giving away something valuable (information, time, resources, referrals) and not asking for anything in return, you will get plenty.

Imagine how annoying it would be to manage 100 single-family homes. Even if you didn't manage them, your management payments would be astronomical because it would be unlikely they are all in the same area.

I think people try to get mentors too early, when they haven't built a foundation for their business or their relationships. The best way to get a mentor is to become friends with many other investors (this is why meetups are great) and see which ones stick. I don't think it's harder than that. 

I agree with all of this. I do think you need a separate entrance option or at least two entrances in a four-plex to make it easier on the LTR tenants, but if you are open about it form the start, everyone gets it and you choose the unit composition based on which ones will be STR or MTR.

There are really only two decent books on wholesaling I know of - one by Todd Fleming called something like If you can't wholesale after this, I've got nothing for you, and the BP book by Jamil Damji. Those are good resources, but what you will find is that most of the closing is learned in the field by connecting with people.

A couple of tips:

1. Learn repair costs asap. Befriend contactors and other investors at meetups so you can build a catalog of how much everything costs. Most wholesalers just make this up and so the deals are worthless.

2. Focus on the person (the seller), not the offer. The person has to go somewhere. The person has a problem that needs solving. If you can solve the problem, you can get the house for less than everyone else who doesn't care about the person.

3. Don't oversell the ARV. Classic disaster which just tells us you bought too high.

4. Don't say you have cash, if you don't have cash. If you want seller finance, learn how to explain it well.

Good luck.

Once you complete your class and pass the test, you will start looking for brokerages. If you can make some relationships prior to that with agents in the area who do what you want to, you can find yourself on a team or at a strong brokerage that matches what you want to do.

Welcome, and thank you for your service. You are on a great trajectory and learning curve because you are learning from your mistakes and also preparing to move slowly instead of scaling before you are ready. You have built a great foundation to work from. With your VA benefits and tax break, you are really set to do exactly what you want. A 4-plex would be ideal and you could play around with doing 1 long-term, 1 mid-term, and 1 short-term, plus you, if it works on your area to upgrade your income. Good luck!

Welcome. There are some great meetups in Northern New Jersey that you can find in the Meetups and Events section here. That is a great way to connect with others who are doing what you are doing. Are both of your properties in JC? Are you house hacking one of them?

That's a great market with a high ceiling, but how's the inventory for finding homes to flip? Here, the market is tight, first-time homebuyers are overpaying for all of our flip properties.

It should, but because some (not all) investors are fragile about criticism or prefer an echo chamber, it often falls into a back-and-forth where we are trying to help on our own time, and they are rejecting it and calling us naysayers. I think new investors who post here and take all the feedback as a whole, with a grain of salt, can really put it into play in real life and then discuss with investors at meetups in their area to get over the hump.