All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Greene

Zillow is basically the MLS, but for FSBO options and all the FSBOs that post on Zillow are overpriced. The preforeclosures on Zillow are not preforeclosures, they are properties that have had a lis pendens filed and 75% or more get worked out. Zillow uses these so agents can place ads and then get the calls.

The MLS is fine for deals as long as you know what you are looking for and how to search it. The best deals on the MLS will be if your agent sets an alert for renovation properties that come back on the market because their deal fails. Banks and owners are ready to put a deal right back together and it's a great time to slide in and keep their deal going. Other than that, you are just in the same sandbox as everyone else so it is market dependent on how good the MLS is for investment buying. Generally, off-market will get much better deals because you are the only one who knows about it.

Deliver the comps and analysis, with your offer, and leave your card and then leave them alone. Most sellers who are 100k over market value know they are 100k over market value or are never going to be at market value until they are desperate. Why spend time trying to convince someone to sell for 100k under what they want when you can spend that energy on a seller who is 10k off of your price? Too much work on this is a waste of time. You should have options so that you don't spend your time on this.

It depends on what you value right now. You have to put your family and life first and then figure out your investment strategy. Too many first-time investors are trying to turn static into dynamic. Just because you have a house doesn't mean you should keep it. If you are able to downgrade in size, you may have to anyway to move to Orlando, then you could do that and use any equity to look for an investment property now or later. That 215 cash flow wouldn't last. One thing would break and it would be gone for the whole year.

If you were in a multi or in an area where appreciation was guaranteed, you might have a better keep-to-rent option, but I don't see it with these numbers. The property won't do well enough to make it worth keeping. Sell it. Clermont isn't going to be consistent enough to hang onto it.

You need to be more specific to get the most out of help on BP. You are basically asking what kind of music is good. When you say "getting started," what are your plans? Do you have your own money? What experience do you have? Why do want to get into it? Are you planning on living in the investment? There are A LOT of very experienced investors on here, but to get the best bang for your question don't be so general and give us more information about you and your goals.

All of your suspicions are valid. They need to take care of #1. #2 isn't that crazy with a small property, but they should have some verifiable records, only if by hand or deposits that they can check. This is a deal-breaker if you can't verify the payments because you may have tenants who have not been paying. It's one thing to see an alleged rent roll based on leases, but another to see all the payments being made on time. When you invest in anything you want clarification of it's past performance and this is no different. #3 is a no-brainer, but it can be difficult to do inspections and get all 3 tenants on the same page. Remember that all the tenants will think they are getting evicted so have no real incentive to help with inspections. I hope this helps.

I would just have him co-sign the lease. These scenarios are great in my opinion because you know where the money is going to come from. I would, as was said, either qualify him or the trust entity, but I don't mind college students with co-signing parents as tenants. You always know there is a layer of financial safety there.

You have a fulltime job as a security officer and are almost done with school for welding, which is a very solid niche business that isn't going away with technology to my knowledge and you want to pitch those to do agent work or leasing consultant working on commission? NO. You can do all of what you want while doing the jobs that will give you your own money to invest.

I read as much as I could stomach, but the thing that sticks with me is that you are asking a seller for 2-2.5% assistance at closing and then also putting very strict deadlines on her? Everyone has told you that it's you being way too emotional and then you respond by saying you are just a business person. So are we. I do everything exactly the opposite of how you handled this. It's been on the market five days, why does she care? I don't know your market, but a 3-family for under 200k, 5 days on the market is going to get plenty more action and all you are doing by being so aggressive is telling her that. You have to be willing to walk away and not care. I put strict deadlines on deals also, but I don't hound them. I just walk away and wait for them to call. If they don't, no big deal. You will develop a very bad reputation with these pressure tactics, not only with sellers, but with agents who help you and on the other side.

The quickest way to ruin all the relationships you've built over the past 11 months is to bring an unverified block deal to the table. They will have 1,000,000 questions you can't answer and as has been said above, there are countless red flags. If you are still learning, why do you care about 53 single-family homes in Detroit, a market you have no knowledge of. Properties that only exist on spreadsheets are of no use to you or anyone else, unless fully verified with contracts, photos of the exterior and interior, and I am guessing that's never coming. Focus on staying local and providing value and finding deals that you can see and touch.