All Forum Posts by: Jordan Turcotte

Both @Leland Barrow and @Ryan MacDonald have given great info on the San Marcos area. I am an apartment locator in San Marcos and have been locating in San Marcos for 7 years now. I wanted to add that as a locator this current year I am already running out of places to put customers. Inventory for apartments is probably going to be completely filled in June (for August move-ins). The university keeps accepting more and more students without enough apartments being built. Rents have gone up and up each year since I have started. There is going to be a lot of people without a place to rent this year which has made my job the hardest it has ever been. If you own property in San Marcos you will be doing well for yourself, but good luck with finding the deals. Anybody found a good deal lately in San Marcos? The 2% rule is almost impossible. You're lucky to get 1% it seems. I would like it if anybody could share their recent deals in San Marcos (buy/hold or flip).

You might be able to call it a marketing fee. Realtors pay for leads from Zillow and other lead sources. You could be considered a lead source and charge a fee for successful leads. Typical referral fee from realtor to realtor is 25%. You should know what it would sell for right?(ARV) What would be considered 25% of a typical 3% Realtor Commission? Example: Sale price 200k, Realtor gets $6000 you ask for a marketing fee of $1500. It just so happens to be the same amount of a referral fee.

Thank you everyone for your input! 

My approach with the seller would be very honest. I would present the seller with multiple options which include the typical real estate agent solution, and the investor solutions and explain the benefits of each one so that they can choose. The mailing would disclose my intentions of solving their problem with those multiple solutions. Hopefully the seller wouldn't think it is shady, but think that I truly want to help solve their problem. Well that's the perspective I would have. I may not know what I'm talking about since I haven't bought a property yet. I don't even know if I would ever get a deal that way, but I hope that with full disclosure the seller would see that my intentions are pure.

I am a Realtor and I want to start investing. My idea is I would like to use direct mail for both businesses. I'm thinking that the mailing would say that I can offer more solutions for sellers than your typical real estate agent. My hope is to be able to sit down and make offers to purchase the property and if there isn't an agreement that could be made then offer my Realtor services to help sell their home for them. 

Does anybody else use this type of combined marketing and use this strategy to grow both your investment business and real estate business? Are there suggestions so that I still ethically fulfill my fiduciary duty as a Realtor? I am not a broker so does anyone have suggestions on how I present this idea to my broker. I would love to hear everyone's success stories or even cautions about using this idea!