All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Greene

@Taylor Ferris - when I don't know a neighborhood as well I start with the absorption rate to see what kind of market it is, seller or buyer. I want to know how long homes are staying on the market and I also scour the MLS in the low price range to see what investor-friendly properties are trading it and then I look for flips in the area to see the difference. I use RPR's street view to see the blocks surrounding to give me an idea of the estimated values surrounding a property I may like.

Great point by @Jake Thomas - you don't have to pay for leads on the sites to actually have an impact. I have gotten several listing calls off of Zillow just because I make sure all of my clients give me a 5-star review and as part of my close-out, I make sure to add every past sale onto the site. I make sure my profile photo and bio are consistent with my website and across all platforms so they can see the continuity when they see you again and again.

A licensing class will teach you almost nothing about how it works in the field and absolutely nothing about how to get leads, close deals, etc. If you have a great instructor, they may give you personal anecdotes, but the licensing class is like so many other licensing classes - it's a full view of anything and everything that the profession is about, but nothing about how it really works.

You need A LOT of hand holding when you get started since you are working with legal documents that could have adverse consequences if not done correctly for a client or yourself. If you are an investor looking to get your license, you won't need the excess of training at the larger brokerages, you will want to find a mentor who is an investor-friendly agent, but you do need a mentor if a smaller agency has limited training.

@Tim Moore - get their info off the tax records first. Then either plug their names or address into a free search on anywho.com or use something like Spokeo.com to track them down. They are probably getting peppered with letters so get on it!

Many different things to consider @Joseph Billow - have you ever had to evict someone before? It can be very dicey for your first property. Most holdover tenants are renting under market value so it's in your best interests to get them out. How you do that is more difficult depending on the state. In a tenant's rights state you will have to be nice, offer cash for keys and be diligent and available to make it a smooth exit. Before asking if they would like to stay on, you need to get a look at how they keep their unit. Personally, I like a vacant property whether it comes that way or whether I have to do it because on a foreclosure there will be fix its to make, at the least, and you can turn them back out at higher rent if you can get them out.

As landlords sometimes we forget when we get a new property that it's not the tenant's fault that the previous owner was foreclosed on, but we are also now in investment mode and need to protect that. Meet the tenants, find out their plans and see how they are feeling and then take it from there. Cash for keys is the best solution. Never antagonize a tenant by telling them they will be out right away because you don't want to open the possibility for them to be angry at you while they are still there in the unit.

@Ernest Chamblee - see below

Were you an agent with any other brokerage before your own? Are you two previous careers much different from real estate? - I don't work for my own brokerage, I work for a Sotheby's affiliate now. I have worked for mainstream large brokerages like Sotheby's, Keller Williams and Berkshire Hathaway. I also tried a stint at a higher split model with eXp, but for me I need to be at a leveraged brand because we do high-end listings on our team and need the brand coverage when battling for those.

My prior careers were different for sure. I was a prosecutor for 7 years and a criminal defense attorney for 2 and then was involved in the art world with galleries and curatorial work for 5 years. It all helps me now.

And advice to new investors/agents; what is something you wish you would have been told or known when you first started out? My best advice you will hear all over BP. Find a mentor for being an agent and REI. Nothing will help you get up on your feet faster than a mentor who you can give assistance to in return for learning. Good luck!

@Taylor Ferris - there is a fine line in the dynamic of being investor-friendly when you are also an active investor in the same area. I don't invest in my market because investors traditionally know that most agents take the A deals for themselves and then pass the B and C deals on to their "top" people. Investors are too smart for this. So you do need to have investment experience, but be careful if you are competing with the same investors you are trying to court.

If you don't have the capital to do it yourself, figure out some alternative strategies to find properties. Investors want agents who get leads on off-market opportunities because any yahoo can find what is on the MLS. If you don't have advertising spend, if you start driving for dollars and knocking on properties and doing your neighborhood due diligence you will provide value and from there you can develop trust.

@Joseph Rios - you can't know what to look for until you know what you want out of it. Are you looking to be a full-time agent or are you looking to invest and use your license for MLS access and finding deals? The brokerage that you look for will change based on these factors. Most people focus on commission too much when, as @John Knisely said above, mentorship is what you need to succeed. There are almost no brokerages in this area that will give you any leads of any value, most will offer floor time or phone time, which is virtually worthless.

If you want to work actively as an agent, you will want a bigger agency where you can pick up people's Open Houses for them and find a mentor. If you want to use your license for MLS access, you want to find a brokerage with a better split, one that you see with their signs in the yards of investment properties. If you see an agent's name on some properties that are clearly investments, he or she may be someone you want to approach and see how you can help them.

@Dave Charron - if you don't want training or need an office mentor (which you will need a mentor of some kind just to make sure you are doing everything correctly on the contract side working your own deal), don't go somewhere like KW. They will get you on monthly tech fees, training requirements, etc. If you don't need the branding of the big agency (which is really only relevant for higher end listings), find the best deal.

My best advice for this is to do what most of us do as investors - drive for signs instead of dollars. When you are driving for dollars looking for properties, see what agency is listing investment properties. When you see the sign three times and the same name on it, that might be your agency and mentor right there. Hope this helps.

@Ernest Chamblee - I have been investing since I was very young and learned everything from my dad who did the same. I went through two separate careers before becoming an agent and now I run an RE investment partnership with my sister and run a real estate team, so I am doing both hopefully successfully. If you look at what your goals are, and most on BP have similar goals, and they line up with passive income for life, you will find that being an agent is just a way to feed the beast for most investors. Quicker access, finding deals.

If I was going to choose between one or the other, it's a no brainer. REI all day long. You can create passive income building a RE team as an agent or just a thriving solo business, but it takes a lot of money in to get a lot of money out and you can't cash-out refi your RE team when you want to upgrade it.