All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Marcus

First find out what can be built on that lot. What is its highest and best use? Go to the town's building dept and find this out. If its a residential lot and zoned for it and there are houses next to it, find out how much those houses are worth. Then research the cost to build a house on that lot. This will give you a good starting point on how much that lot is worth. 

Did you have an attorney when you signed the contract with them? If you did ask him or her about your recourse. Forget about these people buying the property and seek to keep the $10K. If they're in the house (which I am thinking you did some type of Land Contract agreement) depending on what your contract states, you need to work on getting them out of the house immediately. 

These people probably had no intention in buying and was just looking to tie-up the property live in it for as long as they can and if cost them $10k but got to live in it for 10 months, then it just cost them $1k/mo to rent your place. And if this property is located anywhere in the 5 boroughs (NYC, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Staten Island) or even in Long Island they just got a hell of a bargain.   

Ask the owner, if you can give him enough down payment will he consider taking monthly payments for the balance of his equity? What you're trying to figure out here is, will he consider doing owner financing on this deal (will he be the bank). If he says yes, then you only need to work on getting the down payment amount and rehab money. Your credit shouldn't be an issue. 

Once it's renovated, cash flowing and you've increased its value, then you can shop around to refinance the property and cash out your seller.  

Large companies also invest in SFH.

https://therealdeal.com/national/2019/05/30/blackstone-sells-1b-stake-in-single-family-rental-business-amid-high-pricing/

1-4 units are still considered residential funding not commercial. Speak to residential lenders or ask the owner, if the property is mortgaged which company did he use to fund it. You can also use this "difficulty in funding scenario" to ask the seller -- if you can come up with enough down payment, will he consider taking back a mortgage on the properties (owner financing)? There a number of creative ways to approach this acquisition but you need to find out why the seller needs to sell so that you can structure the deal that works for the both of you.  

If you search "Free real estate events in NYC" or Free business events nyc" you will get a number of them. Just select the ones you think will be applicable. I also get a lot of invites from real estate attorneys and title companies who throw educational events. NYU has a free monthly networking breakfast event catered to attorneys & real estate professionals. 

The Real Deal lists a number of events some free, some paid. Ariel Properties have a monthly commercial event called "Coffee & Cap Rates" but there is a fee for that one. Keeps tabs on the companies you want to do business with and see what events they sponsor or attend and you go to those events. 

As for meetup it is a good site but I am dealing with large companies and most of the meetup events cater to small individual real estate investors. 

You have to network extensively and not just Broker events. Network at events that cater to attorneys, commercial lenders, etc... where most of the time there will only be a handful of Brokers at the event. Also go to events sponsored by big names in the industry especially in NYC. 

In order to deal with these people (developers for example) you have to have something of value to offer them. If you send them an off-market deal that fits their criteria, they will call you. And when they do they're not concerned about you having only 1 year experience. They want to know about the deal you have.  

I was sending a post card mailer. 

If you're advertising/marketing yourself as a real estate agent follow their rules. If you're marketing as an investor you can be creative as you want. 

Now when you start speaking with the sellers, right in the beginning you inform them that you also hold a real estate license, as any professional real estate investor should (my explanation to sellers to differentiate myself from the non licensed investors) but that you are there not to list their property but hopefully buy the property.

When you put a property under contract that is not listed (there is no listing agreement whatsoever) and one that you found from your own marketing efforts, why would your Broker be entitled to a commission? 

When you discuss this scenario with your Broker, of course he or she would say they're entitled to a commission. I have personally done deals (non listed properties) and wholesaled it and retailed it and my broker did not get a cut of the commission because there was no commission in the deal. I was dealing directly with the seller not a listing agent. 

At closing when I wholesaled the property, I sent an invoice to my title agent and I/my entity was added as an additional payee on the seller side under the HUD-1.

Now when I was retailing the property and I was ready to sell, I listed the property where I was the listing agent and signed a listing agreement with my Brokerage. 

If the reason you want to pay your Broker (even if the property is not listed) is to maintain a great working relationship with her, its okay to do that being probably a nice guy. But it is not based on a legal obligation you have with her. Verify with your own attorney to be 100% sure.