All Forum Posts by: Ken Brengle

Trying to keep the thread alive! I am not really an affiliate marketer, but I completely believe in this site and your products. To receive a commission for paid memberships and bringing people to your extremely helpful books, I think I would definitely ramp up my marketing efforts in whole. 

@Debora Stiff

@Ryan Ingram is exactly correct! I do not have experience with Markel, but I know American Modern and Vacant Express intimately!

American Modern in my experience has the better niche product for the number of dwellings they will insure at one time and the ability to switch between vacant and occupied as Ryan said above. However, in my market, based on price Vacant Express has the better premium. If you are only needing it just for renovation periods, American Modern May not be the way to go. I highly recommend you find an independent insurance broker that isn't with one of the captives like State Farm, American Family, or Farmers, since they only have the one product to push on you. An independent agency usually knows the market better and can shop the solution that is best for your needs and can find the better premium.

Happy hunting out there!

@Kelly DeWinter

Well, I gave you free reign to be pessimistic, so I can't fault you for doing precisely that. I am however hoping you can clarify exactly what you mean about outlining exactly what I am offering him, as I think that would bring value to not just me here, but anyone that reads this thread. I am probably looking at this through a narrower scope than an outsider looking in, but I thought it pretty clear that in his desire to walk away from the rental game, I was providing that outlet for him due to his health issues. Please elaborate on your statement as I might just be missing something. 

I don't know if it helps to provide any more of the back story, but gifting the down payment was actually his idea. He is pretty salty after the experiences with the last 2 realtors he worked with and is now just wanting to be done. Long before he offered up this solution I had spent the last year hearing about his problems with these realtors. He knew that I had recently purchased a new home and turned our old home into our first rental and I had expressed to him as a result of our purchase did not have down payment money available. So through conversation it came out he bought this property through a foreclosure some amount of years ago, rehabbed it, and has more than made his money back on it through renting it through the years. Now it is worth 10x what he bought it for (based on my cost estimation software I use in my industry and knowing the cost per sq ft very well in my area, I am inclined to believe he is very accurate), he states he just wants X dollar amount for it and even after the gifting of the down payment, there is easily enough equity remaining to make that happen.

I don't ever want to acquire or amass wealth through shady deals or taking advantage of anyone, so I know the statement of two players playing each other is a false one. Perhaps though, he is playing me. Maybe it isn't as good of a deal as it sounds. Maybe there is some critical information I am missing, and searching out that possibility is the intent of my post here.  I am a huge fan of the podcasts and I continually hear of people getting deals by solving problems for others. I thought this deal fit that mold nicely.

Sooooo....I have one rental and want to start scaling my real estate investing side hustle. I am in the insurance industry and now that my customers are finding out that I have a desire to acquire more buy and hold rentals, I am starting to get deals offered to me. I have come up with some pretty creative terms that are really a win win for both of us, but since it is not a traditional deal structure that everyone is familiar with, a few have been hesitant to agree to the terms. I am ok with that as I know not every pitch will result in a deal. However, now I have someone that is begging me to make it happen!

He is getting older and has health problems and is looking to liquidate all of his rentals. He has a phenomenal amount of equity in his last rental and has already been pre-approved by a local bank to gift the down payment out of the equity to the buyer. So I am looking at no money down into a beautiful property. My hang up is how rural this property is and the viability of a long term renter. He says he can get more inquiries than he can process if he puts it up on Craig's List. I am trying not to get emotionally attached to this deal and operate from a logical place, but this place is gorgeous and just MIGHT be a giant leap forward in my RE investing portfolio.

Any sage wisdom or ideas I have thought of are gladly welcome. Please do not be afraid to be pessimistic in your comments if this sounds foolish. My feelings won't be hurt and I will gain a gold nugget of info. I am not afraid to be trainable. 

I am definitely not an expert on this particular subject, but I watch a lot of YouTube videos and listen to a lot of Podcasts, and anyone I have ever listened to tends to believe that quality photos do get them better renters. Graham Stephan in SoCal swears by it and requires his property managers to use them to promote his properties. 

Whether it does or doesn't, and I can't put a quantifiable number on it, but logic tells me that it absolutely works. You would want the best pictures possible to market your property for sale on the MLS right?