All Forum Posts by: Josh Miller

You have my number, how can I help?

For weekly wholesale deals in Omaha please enter your contact information at www.CashBuyersOmaha.com

This is a full fixer.  Asking $17k.  3/1 998 sqft.  Utilities are off.

On a nice little street. Much better than the rest of the neighborhood.  Also, home next door is getting full rehab.

Street View:

House:

Give me a call at 402-506-9009 to view inside of house.  Thank, Josh

Hi @Rebecca Ricker, holding a meetup once a month.  I'll try to post on BP farther in advance next time, sorry about that.  Feel free to sign up for meetup notifications on meetup.com  Thanks!

Hi @Yong Park, if your ever up in Pasadena give me a shout, or feel free to come to our out-of-state meetup.

What we're about:

This is a group for real estate investors who don't want to pay $400,000 for a house in Compton. While CA may be a great place to invest for appreciation we are focused on locations where it still makes sense to hold rental properties and live off the cash-flow. If your looking for great cities where the median home is under $150k, this is the place to meetup and talk. No sell pitches, no "programs", just a weekly get together for like minded investors to share ideas and strategies. Out of state investing is hard, come and share ideas and strategies with active investors.

This months Topic - Learn to be the bank

What are the two main problems with out-of-state investing?

Finding a good Property Manager and finding a good Contractor. In this meetup you'll learn how to get long term cash flow without having to deal with either of these. We will be diving into land contracts, and other creative seller financing terms to turn your renter into a Home owner. We will explore how to make this a win-win situation for everyone to ensure your setting you and your tenant up for long term success. Motto for this meeting. "It's Fun to be the Bank."

We will discuss in detail how to properly set them up.
Home Warranty, Interest Rates, Taxes, What's legal and what's not, Ethics, Tenant Screening, Finding a buyer, Coming up with the money, Term Length, Term Conditions, and lots more. We will be diving into the details of how to get the deal done.

Also as a bonus, time permitted, we will discuss some of the key marketing methods to attract distressed sellers (in order to buy homes at a discount). High level overview of direct mail, Facebook advertising, PPC, SEO, bird dogs, bandit signs, etc.

If interested in attending please RSVP on meetup.com  Link to meetup

Update:

Now meeting at 

Communal

1009 El Centro St South Pasadena, ca

Good question @Chinmay J. and without going into to much detail, your realtor and purchase manager could be one and the same person but their skill sets are different.  Your realtor needs to know the neighborhood ARVs, your purchase manager needs to know how to negotiate. 

Say you worked really hard and mailed out 1,000 pieces of mail, answered 20 phone calls, and finally got one motivated seller who you set an appointment with to purchase their house.  A realtor is trained to go out to the house, give a fair opinion on the price of the house and inform the seller what he/she could sell it for and how long it would take.  The purchase manager that you'll train will go in not even talking about price but trying to figure out what the sellers pain point is.  What's motivating the seller to sell?  While the realtor knows they could always list the property if the price isn't low enough for you to buy, the purchase manager isn't getting paid if they don't get the desired price. 

Hi @Isaac Chapman that's so funny that you mentioned @David Greene, we just re-connected yesterday after not talking for the past year.  Still need to read his book :).  Glad to hear you liked it.  

Regarding the resources I used to look at the Macro level...

Their is so much info and data out there it's really up to you to decide how deep to dive.  I spent the last 5 years at Chevron (before I quit my job to do real estate investing full time) looking at big data so I probably went a little overboard but here are a few data sources to get you started.

1. And probably one of my favorites is https://www.zillow.com/research/data/ you can look at as macro as state level all the way to neighborhood (for select neighborhoods only).  

2. My favorite book on the subject "Big Shifts Ahead" By John Burns.  If this book doesn't blow you away... well it will.  AMAZING graphs and data all around demographics.  

3. Also, not going to list out all the site but know that you can find it for free on US census sites, the following:

Business Patterns

Employments Statistics

Household Income

Number of Jobs

Owner vs Renters

Personal Income

Population Change

Vacant Housing

You can go really crazy on all the data if you want, just don't get paralysis by analysis.  Taking action and making a small mistake and learning is far better than taking no action at all.

This is for a local meetup event.  If planning on attending please RSVP at 

https://www.meetup.com/Out-of-State-Real-Estate-Re...

I live in Pasadena, CA but invest out-of-state because I like the idea of my properties cash-flowing and not having to rely on appreciation. I now purchase multiple properties a week but it was really hard getting to this point. These are some of the lesson's I've learnt along the way. What are some of the lesson's you've learnt along your journey?

1. Location - City
   • Start at a macro level and make sure your city has both long term and short-term job growth, population growth, low median home values, low days-on-market (DOM), good affordability index, and has a good overall rent-to-own ratio.
2. Location - Zip Code(s)
   • Fly out to the city, and check out the specific zip codes your looking to invest in. Things can look really good on paper but what do the neighborhoods actually look like. What does the crime rate look like, are new developments coming in or are people moving out? Are shops opening or closing. BTW, if you think $200 is too much to spend flying out to check out your potential location than you probably shouldn't be investing out-of-state to begin with.
3. Purchase Manager
   • You make your money when you buy and although homes do occasionally pop up on the MLS, the sure way to find a good deal is to market directly to home owners (via 1,000 different ways discussed in a 1,000 other places). Once you contact a home owner you'll need to go out and view the property and negotiate a price. This is where your purchase manager comes in. Finding a good purchase manager isn't easy but a few places to try. A new or part time real estate investor. Or when you plan your visit go during a regularly scheduled REI meetup. At the group announce what you're doing and ask if anyone would like to partner with you and be your "boots on the ground". DO NOT go in asking, go in offering something.
4. Contractor
   • Believe it or not finding a good contractor is one of the hardest things in the world to do. A good contractor friend of mine once told me, "you can get 2 of 3 things but never all 3 in a contractor. Price, speed, or quality. The reason it's so important to get a contractor even before getting your first house is you'll need to figure out what the rehab is going to cost you. Most mistakes are due to either over-valuating ARV or underpricing repairs. I started with an overpriced top of the line contractor but I don't regret it. Yes, I paid too much but they stuck to their price, didn't have any change orders, and did a great job.
5. Realtor
   • Although purchasing off-market and possibly holding long term, it's still important to build a relationship with a local realtor who knows the prices of homes inside and out. As mentioned before, make sure you have something to give in return. You can give them listing from not-so-motivated sellers, a flat fee for checking out a home. Going off on a little tangent but don't look for agents who offer BPOs. My experience has been BPOs are worth what you pay for them. Until you learn the market it's worth working with a top-notch realtor who can give you realistic ARV numbers.
6. Property Manage
   • For the same reason you need a good realtor to give you accurate ARV values you'll need a good property manager to give you accurate rent prices. When you make your trip to the local REI meeting ask everyone who they use and for recommendations
7. Local Bank
   • It's never too early to start building relationships with local community banks. However, be warned that community banks are just that, banks that service the community. Don't come in from out-of-state looking to start working with them right away. Rather start the relationship by saying, "Yes, I'm from out of state (try not to mention California in first conversation) but I'm here to setup up business, just wanted to introduce myself and let you know I'll be checking in periodically to tell you more about my business".
8. Mentor
   • This is not mandatory but is definitely worth its weight in gold. Find an established investor already working your target market and let them know what you plan on doing. Negotiate something like half the profit on the first 3 deals or something like that. Make it worth their while. Again, don't ask for something, see what you can give. If you can't find someone in your target area to work with then find someone in your state who invest where your looking to invest and try to partner with them. Bottom line, it's way easier doing it with an experienced investor, no sense re-inventing the wheel.
9. Flexibility
   • No two markets are alike and real estate investing needs to be fluid. Don't come in with a plan that your unwilling to change, rather be flexible and willing to work with local market conditions. For example, if you are originally looking for 3/2 but find that everyone in your market really want 4/2s than adjust accordingly. Talk to different property management companies and find out what's in high demand and what to stay away from. Find a strategy that works in the local market.
10. Perseverance
    • So many folks from out-of-state come in with lots of cash, blow it on overpriced homes, lose money, leave, and think it was just "a bad market" or "there was too much competition". Real estate investing works but not without perseverance. Be prepared to fail but don't quit, get back up and try again. You will succeed (as long as you start). 

Wow @Jay Hinrichs super honored to get your feedback.  Frontier airlines, usually a 3 hour layover but super cheap if you stash your backpack under the front seat and don't care about sitting in the back.  

I focus on buying at a discount and have different exit strategies depending on the property type, repairs needed, and potential profit margins. For example, if the place needs extensive rehab I'll assign it. If the place just needs a quick paint and carpet I'll close on it, tidy it up and put it on the MLS. If the cash flow looks great I'll keep as a rental or as a long term lease option.

I purchase Class C properties. 

Regarding the purchase money.  I now have a good relationship with my local bank so I'll finance some through them if purchasing far enough in advance but 9 out of 10 deals I use private money.  Occasionally when I'm unsure of what I'm going to do with the property I'll purchase with my own cash and re-finance with the bank later.