All Forum Posts by: Johnny Kang

@Nguyen Quach

Awesome!

@Trevor Fulkerson

Hey, for some reason I didn't get a tagged notification. 

I'll PM you the link. 

@Nguyen Quach

Yeah, with $100,000 damage they can't stay in their house, but it doesn't necessarily mean they've moved since the incident took place recently. Probably either staying with family or hotel, reimbursed from their future insurance proceeds.  

I have a VA who skip traces for me, but I do it in bulk. For one offs, you can contact @Joseph ODonovan & see if he can find a few phone #s. 

Also try sending letters to both property & mailing addresses.

@Nguyen Quach

Yes, in order for the seller to know how much he'd be willing to sell for, he has to first know how much his insurance will pay. 

And depending on how he deals with them (whether he tries to handle the claim himself, or hire a Public Adjuster, which I recommend), settlement amount can range drastically.

Depending on the extensiveness of the damage, most of the time, Public Adjusters are looking out for the insured's best interest, since they work on a percentage of the proceeds, so they'll point things that need to be remedied to the insurance company, that the homeowner will have no clue about. (If it's a small claim, like $10,000, the PA probably won't spend too much time putting together a thorough scope of work.)

- Ask the owner if they have a PA. If they don't have one, why not?

- Are they willing to be displaced for however long it takes to renovate the property? Even if the house is habitable and the smell is contained, how long are they willing to live in that condition?

- If the settlement amount, plus what they can walk away with at the closing table is to their liking, would they consider selling? 

- If they're leaning towards fixing it up, ask them if they know reputable Fire Damage Restoration companies, that also renovate. (Most restoration companies don't renovate because margins are much lower renovating. So the owner may end up having improper restoration work done, doesn't smoke seal necessary areas properly, then when a renovation company comes in and finishes the work, come next hot summer season, the smell of smoke comes back). 

- If they look like they might consider selling, you have to start looking for restoration companies that also renovate who guarantee their work so you can figure out the cost. 

@Curtis H.

I did a 6 figure assignment, and I'm in a high priced area as well, so take my reply for what it's worth.

A few things:

- I understand your view on a family looking at this as a bargain, but to assign a contract, you need a cash buyer. Most families looking at a property as a bargain they can put sweat equity in, won't be able to pay cash for a property like this.

-Why spend $30k of your money? Then your $100k assignment is really a $70k assignment. It'll have to be sold to a fix & flipper and they're gonna wanna finish it the way the want to, knowing what works in that market.

-Most fix & flip guys want between 15%-20% return, depending on the capital they have to deploy. But at over a $1million, even though the return for them may be around 16%, it's too much capital for so little return. Last developer I worked with who was all in for $2 mill (paying our assignment fee), paying the purchase price, cost to develop, holding costs, etc, netted $1mill. 50% return on their money.)

-If you can find a title company who knows how to structure the closing, you don't have to double close for anyone to know what your assignment fee is. This is how we assign, without doing a double close. 

-You can make this work and make some money, but I think most flippers in LA would want a higher return if they're going to spend over $1mill. 

Let us know how this pans out. :)  

@Dalton Robinson

I just posted this on another thread, asking about mentorship, so I'll just cut & paste:

Find investors in your area who have a process of consistently finding & closing deals (you can look up who bought properties under LLCs, or just Google "we buy houses" or something). That means they have a repeatable process you can learn from.

Offer to do whatever work that needs to get done. Admin work, social media, online stuff, phone calls, pick up supplies from Home Depot, etc.

Be persistent, follow through, show initiative. A lot of investors would love to help someone just getting started, as long as they know they're not a flake, and bring a work ethic.

That's how I got started. I didn't even ask what my cut was going to be. Once I paid my dues, things naturally progressed to where I got equal partnership, but you have to earn it.

Real estate is like flying. Eventually you have to go up in the air. You shorten the learning curve working with someone who's actively doing it.

Trade your work ethic to gain experience

@Chasity Couch

Find investors in your area who have a process of consistently finding & closing deals (you can look up who bought properties under LLCs, or just Google "we buy houses" or something). That means they have a repeatable process you can learn from.

Offer to do whatever work that needs to get done. Admin work, social media, online stuff, phone calls, pick up supplies from Home Depot, etc. 

Be persistent, follow through, show initiative. A lot of investors would love to help someone just getting started, as long as they know they're not a flake, and bring a work ethic. 

That's how I got started. I didn't even ask what my cut was going to be. Once I paid my dues, things naturally progressed to where I got equal partnership, but you have to earn it. 

Real estate is like flying. Eventually you have to go up in the air. You shorten the learning curve working with someone who's actively doing it. 

Trade your work ethic to gain experience, but I wouldn't pay someone $1000/mth. 

@Michael Ablan

Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with "Property & User Management Automation (PUMA)"

I recently saw a post in a FB group where this guy is building out a PM software from the ground up. 1-10 units being free, 10-75 units for a monthly subscription. He's developing it from his experience in having 280+ doors, where he saw lots of missing functionalities from other platforms currently in the market. 

Software will have built in automation for followups (for both PM & tenants), email, text, robo-call feature, accounting module, maintenance request & history, configuration of rent collection & due dates, amortization schedule, insurance, cashflow etc. 

Free version's launch date is December 2018.

@Ben Stevenson

I wouldn't be able to give you advice on whether buying out of state is for you or not, since I don't know your situation. 

Only thing I can say is, why I'm keen on buying out of state.

- Eviction laws are unfavorable for landlords in NY

- NY properties are almost always an appreciation play; something I'll do at a later stage in my career, but not to start off

- I know the towns I'd buy in Pennsylvania because I've been going down there for 15 years 

@Ben Stevenson

My biggest regret is not turning my earned income to passive income from the deals I've done so far (10).

Those 10 deals netted me $354,766.67, and I could've easily went out of state (prob PA, since I've been going down there on short weekend trips for about 15 years), and bought a 6 unit (2 adjoining properties, 3 units each) I looked at last year all cash, which from having run my #s, would've netted little over $40,000/yr after all expenses. 

Buying out of state wasn't in my radar cuz I still had NY prices in mind, where you can't even buy a condo in an area you want to live in for less than $550,000. And that's just in the outer boroughs. Manhattan would be at least over $1,000,000.

But lesson learned. ~sigh~~~ lol