All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Hasan

Do you have any recommendations for books or any learning resources that you would be willing to share?

Mary, 

Thank you for your response. 

You make a good point about having a good safety net. It seems like some new investors fail from the outset because they go all in without a backup plan. However, I have also seen "rags to riches" where someone makes an all or nothing bet in real estate and wins. While those are nice to hear about, they are not the norm and I don't really have the stomach to do that. 

Hello BP community,

As a new investor,  I feel like a core pillar upon which success is built in real estate from what I have seen from other experts in this forum is being able to determine acceptable risk for a deal. Rushing in to a deal with leverage as a new investor could be disastrous for reasons that could result from lack of due diligence or circumstances out of their control. I basically am trying to compile a plan based on any suggestions given. 

To start the discourse I will use a hypothetical, if I have a W-2 job that is paying 31200 a year gross pay and have a credit score of say 750 with about 2500 in savings, should the focus be on trying to save enough to get an unleveraged property deal which will obviously take a while or should I take a risk and take a Loan (HML, PML etc) for a fixed up buy and hold if I can make the deal work on paper? (Perhaps some experts may argue its not really a risk if you can make it work on paper but I am trying to account for worst case scenarios such as if a tenant doesn't pay rent and affects cash flow of HML, PML etc)

While I am excited about real estate, I want to have a level head in determining whether leverage should be used or not in the situation listed above. I would like the expert opinions of anyone who would be willing to share. 

Thanks in Advance

@Peter MacKercher

Sorry i guess I glazed over the fact that you said monthly in your initial post. My apologies, I was inattentive. 

@Peter MacKercher Sounds like fun! I hope to learn a lot from you and any other experts who join in on the meeting. See you tomorrow!

Also is this by chance a monthly meeting?

Yes, they always ask if the listing agent wants to represent them as the buyer. That way they get dual commission. However there are rules about dual agency in some states so they ask for referrals for any colleague who would be willing to represent them. 

The wholesalers I talked to seem to try and get all people to benefit. 

Sure. That is just what I was told. They try and find fixer uppers in the area to see if the seller is a "motivated seller". Maybe a house has severe internal repairs that other homebuyers don't want to deal with. Maybe the wholesaler is the first to the punch. Things like that.

I perhaps should have explained in my post that the wholesalers I talked to only bother with distressed houses on the MLS that they think are good enough to put offers on. Even then, the listing agent could get them more money 9 times out of 10 but sometimes the homeowner is open to deals if they feel justified. At least from what I understand.

What about the ones who work with MLS deals? I have heard from other wholesalers that sometimes they find good deals on the MLS. How can they be transparent with listing agents so that everyone is in the know?

Sincerely,

Jonathan Hasan 

Hello Christi, thanks for weighing in 

Can you tell me more about how they are being completely transparent? I guess that seems to be the issue holding people up, including me. I thought that being full disclosure is what all wholesalers do by default... 

Sincerely,

Jonathan Hasan

Darius,

Thank you for your response. Sorry, this one might be a bit long but I would appreciate your feedback since you are a real estate expert. 

As a new person to real estate, I have been actively trying to learn about both sides of the story when it comes to wholesale. I have been trying to avoid confirmation bias in regards to this topic. I have been actively seeking out arguments that are for and against wholesaling. I can't really comment on the religious aspect of your passage but I will try and present my arguments to counter. To be honest though, they are mostly just questions. 

Couldn't a person say that people who don't really understand wholesaling are doing exactly what you say I am doing? They hear about a couple of bad wholesalers and now all of a sudden any wholesaler is bad and immediately conclude that they are immoral cash grabbers?  Why don't these people bother doing research and trying to find ethical wholesalers or even just do more research on the issue? Why is their a wholesale calculator on bigger pockets if the profession is so bad or unethical? Couldn't someone make the argument that BP is facilitating criminal activity if what is being said is true? This might be a stretch but the only reason I see someone going to click that link to the calculator is to test it out or to generate reports to convince cash buyers about the worthiness of a deal so they can commence business. 

I also have not talked to many real estate agents either. The ones I talked to all seemed to be upstanding people who care about others based on their stories. Is it right to say all real estate agents are good? That seems to be the assumption that real estate agents are better, ethical and more honorable than wholesalers  Is it because they are bound by the fiduciary agreement? Does that hold any sway over someone with no ethics in that field? Does the fiduciary agreement really hold any power? Barrier to entry for being a real estate agent as far as I can tell for my state is like 200 dollars for the application fee, licensing examination, fingerprinting and the background check. So it honestly seems like anyone with criminal intentions could go both routes. 

I am honestly still trying to reach out to other wholesalers in my area to learn more. I talked with about 3 more people who are in this business who say that they have helped people as well. I guess trust seems to be the main issue. I still need to find sellers to see how they benefited and perhaps some listing agents as well. 

Thank you for the discourse. I do hope I understood your main point and sorry for misinterpreting your first response. 

Sincerely,

Jonathan Hasan