All Forum Posts by: Josh Bakhshi

welcome. How do you feel about the Detroit area market? 

Welcome, you will learn a ton here. Why did you pick kc?

I have my license and it costs me about 1K/year.  I only use it for investments and usually hire agents to do all the work.  It depends how many houses and how much you are willing/able to spend a year.  I make my realtor income from referrals.  Anytime I buy and/or sell a property (in any state) I get a referral fee of about 25-35% or about 1% of the purchase price.  If an agent doesn't want to give me a referral fee, then I just move to the next one. 

If you're only going to buy 1 house every couple years, then it's not worth it.  Unless you tell friends and family that you want to be able to refer you to agents they already decided on.

We have properties in many states and most I have never visited.  Couple pieces of advise...

1- Do your homework now. Find 2-3 metropolitan areas that you really like.  Then do your homework on what communities to look at and which to stay away from.

2- If you are looking for rentals, talk to a few property managers and see what they say about your findings and get their two cents. If it's a flip, then talk to realtors and do the same.

3- Look honestly about your financial situation and get ready to make bidS. 

It's scary, but that is what we are here for

Talk to your broker.  If you don't have one, find out what the rules are in MD.  I'm sure each state has its own laws

If you wanted to be an doctor or dentist, then it would be a good idea.  But if you're talking about real estate, a PhD wouldn't help you.  Spend the same time networking and learning from people doing instead of people talking. 

What are your goals?  Are you good in sales?  Are you handy?  I talk to about 30 realtors a week and do deals with about 10 of them.  I never asked or cared to see their diploma.

Florida is a great place, but a couple of my realtors there said that they are expecting a BIG dump of foreclosures in the next 12-18 months.  With the information you shared, I would buy a duplex and save for the flips in 12 months.

There are many areas of San Diego you would be lucky to find a 2 bedroom condo for 400K.  It depends where in SD.  My bet is if you are lucky enough to find something at that price, it's in a bad area AND you will have to put a lot of work into it. 

I don't think you can have your cake and eat it too.  But the best people to ask are realtors in that area.

Good luck

Welcome.  Care to share what you are looking to do in the next 1,5 and 10 years?

think about appreciation more than just cash flow. A house that goes up 10% is better than one with a 10 cap