All Forum Posts by: Brian Fouts

Just my advice, but first get rid of some misconceptions.  You say that holding property is how to become wealthy, but I am sure there are many on BP that will have a different opinion.  There are MANY ways to become wealthy through real estate.  For me, the key is to have an overall plan and strategy to reach your goals as well as an understanding that the real estate market is cyclical and different strategies are more fruitful during different "natural" cycles of the market.  

Second, it depends on how successful you are at wholesaling and how much knowledge you gain before jumping to another strategy.  See my comment above about having a plan to reach your goal.  Start with your goal and time frame for goal, then work backwards to NOW so you know where to focus your actions today.  

And I would caution against the state of mind of "it's not all about the money."  I am sure you don't mean it this way, but (my opinion) people that view money or wealth in a negative light will have a hard time achieving it.  You probably have it right in that it's not wealth you want but you want what wealth will provide you.  

Many times they will lend or give credit based on your personal credit, so you will see the inquiry there, but the balance and credit line/card will not show on your personal credit report once you get it.  I am going through this right now for business lines of credit.  

Welcome to BP @Arthur Schulte,

I am located not too far from you.  Prior to being a full time investor, I was worked as a project manager for a large GC in Seattle.  That firm did the new starbucks in Seattle that has the roasters on display and such.

There is a local BP meetup this Thursday in Kirkland, may be a good event for you to attend and meet other in the area.

You can have the assignment fee paid outside of closing.  Buyer you are assigning to pays it directly to you.  Day of or day before closing.  I have done this, but there has to be trust.  This keeps the assignment fee from being transparent to the seller (but obviously not the buyer).  

If  you are trying to hide your fee from both buyer and seller, I feel that you are playing a dangerous game.  If either of them wants to find out, they can look at the docs filed with the county, but if you have done it correctly up front, everyone is winning and everyone should be happy.  

Welcome to BP @Chris Parker,

As my brother Jake mentioned above, our office is in Lake Stevens.  Great area to be in!  If you ever want to get together for lunch, let me know.  

Double close, if doing correctly, means double excise tax.  Title transfers twice.  I have done them, it is expensive.  But, I am doing double close on Owner Finance transactions where I stay in the middle long term.

If you assign a P&S, it is one closing, cheaper.

Stewart Title, Old Republic, CW Title, all in Bellevue.  Call them and explain what you are doing and get their feedback.  They will probably not understand what you are trying to do, will say it is illegal, etc.  Just takes some talking to them. 

Driving for dollars is a great way to get started and get familiar with areas and properties.  

Found some great leads that way when I was just driving to someone else's house.  Always try to take a photo or go back and get address.  

Pretty standard reasons:

Not doing their job by not inspecting properties regularly.

Not filling vacant units as quickly as other managers.

Not having a large enough team to handle all the properties they are managing.

Not reporting issues to us/owner.

We took 10 properties in one area and gave equal number to two managers.  After one year, we moved all properties over to one of the two managers.  They were the best.  

Well, you can pay them.  Simple.  :)

But that's not typically how most individuals work.  Mentoring takes time and time is valuable.  It has to be a win win for everyone.  So how can you provide value to a mentor?  Couple of ideas, and it greatly depends on what type of investor they are and what your availability is and what type of investing you are looking to do.  

• Provide office services (unpaid intern).  Offer to answer phones, file, whatever.
• Offer to do physical marketing for them.  Placing bandit signs, driving for dollars, etc.  Basically, if you let them know that you will do additional marketing and bring them the leads, you can accompany them on seller visits and watch how they interact with a seller.
• If they are doing rehabs, offer to go by the project or accompany them.  Perhaps offer some labor on the weekends.  

Typically how I have done it with new investors is I first want to know what their goals are.  If they are not in line with what I do, then they should look elsewhere.  If they are, then I start with the basics, marketing for properties with little or no money (driving, bandit signs, etc.).  Once they market and get some leads, we review the leads together, then they accompany me on house calls and I share the process.

@James Dainard

Oh, me! Me!  Hey, wait a minute here...?

:)