All Forum Posts by: Kiersten Vance

Hi @Kenneth Noronha

My advice is do not drop out of college. You need to get a degree in something so that when the market crashes you have something to fall back on if your investments haven't gone well. You are 18, so mostly like can't get a loan from a bank or private investor because you have little to no experience. Unless you have access to funds, you will need a job and good credit score to qualify.  If you do not like automotive engineering, can you switch majors to something you do enjoy? Maybe something to do with business or real estate itself? You will become a much more valuable business partner and investor once you have gained some life experience. You can continue to learn about RE through college, maybe even purchase your first property during college, but do not drop out. 

Hi @Michael McMullen

Congratulations for getting started now. Your best bet is to look for a real estate investment that you can owner occupy at first to minimize your downpayment. How are the prices around University of Akron? Do you have anyone that can co-sign with you? I assume you will have no credit and no work history graduating high-school so if you were looking to buy in the near future, you would need a partner of some sort. If you are going to wait until after college, within 6 months or so you should be able to save up a small downpayment and accumulate work history to be able to buy a place. Make sure you do good in school, get a credit card and pay it off every month to accumulate credit, and get a part time job to minimize your school loans! 

Best of luck!

Hi @Alejandro Upegui. Welcome to BP. Quick question, have you ever bought/sold/remodeled anything in Real Estate before or have you always rented? In my opinion, out of state turnkeys are not the best way to go. They will be ok for a year or two while they are still "brand new" but when things start breaking, do you feel confident enough to make decision long distance. I used to live in Northern Cal and managed my 8 unit apartment complex in Southern Cal. It was close enough to be able to drive to if I had to, but the difficulty level was much greater than now when I live only an hour away from them. A new kitchen or botched electrical job will cost you your entire year of cash flow in most cases.

If you are really interested in the hands off approach of a turn key, why not look into stock market investing? Why Real Estate? How much are you being quoted profit from the turn-key investments?

Hi @Travis Langley. Thanks for the post here. How is that 4 plex in Long Beach cash flowing for you? Do you have long-term stable tenants? My uncle has a couple properties in Long Beach and I have been looking in the area now that I live so close. 

Hello @Paul Munly. You can access most information for houses that are actively on the market on the public sites like Zillow, Trulia and Redfin. You won't be able to see the agent information (which includes commission %, special notes, ect) though, but if you had any questions you could always text/call the listing agent and ask. I am not sure getting your license would drastically help with this part enough to make the fees worth it. 

As for saving money, yes by having a license you would be able to get commission when you buy or sell. Remember though, depending on the broker, you will lose a portion of that commission to him/her. You can still save even without your license too if you are confident in your knowledge about the process: when buying a place, call the listing agent directly and ask them to do your paperwork for you in exchange for a portion of the commission that would have been due to the buyers agent anyways. (Say they are offering 3% to the buyers agent, if you represent yourself, you could say you want 2% back as a credit from the seller and the agent can keep the other 1%) Be careful doing this as the agent does not represent you so you have no advocate on your side. You need to be very confident in your skills to adequately inspect the property and receive appropriate disclosures ect. When you sell a property, you can pay an agent to input in the MLS only but do nothing else: around $500. You would field all the calls and arrange the showings ect and only pay the buyer's agent commission. I would still say you really need to know what you are doing though in order to try this. Your investment is on the line if you mess up so be careful!

Hello @Alyssa B.

What is your goal with real estate? Are you currently renting or do you own a home? Do you have kids? Will you be staying in the same general area for a while? It all really depends on your specific situation whether or not it is worth it to invest in CA right now. 

Example situation here: Say someone buys a 4 plex (the max # of units you can buy with a residential loan) and lives in one of the units. The person was previously renting a similar type apartment for X per month in a similar area. To make the example simple, the transition of moving from their previous place to the new place doesn't affect their life at all. If you can buy the new building and break even every month including repairs, cap X, mortgage, insurance, taxes ect, then you are now saving that X per month you were paying before in rent. I would say that is a great deal as you are paying less than you were before and your tenants are paying down the mortgage for you. This type of situation will be a little hard to find, especially in the LA area as prices are high. I would still say it is a good deal if you can find a place with negative cash flow of anything up to X dollars that you were spending on rent. You would just be paying yourself rent instead of a landlord. Some would argue that it is still a decent deal to  buy something with more than X in negative cash flow as you are paying down the mortgage and hopefully accumulating appreciation. 

Hopefully my explanation is easy to understand and easy to see how it depends on your goals and whether or not moving into a unit would drastically change your life and if the benefits would  be worth it to you or not. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

@David Allen - How did you make your offer? You said multiple times you didn't even get a response, but did you submit it through an agent on a CAR form or did you submit a different way? Also did you give POF? Maybe the agent just isn't taking your offer seriously.

My father-in-law as used Ronald Speigel for all his Real Estate attorney needs. He has worked out great for him. I haven't had the need yet to hire an attorney so I have not personally used him. If you PM me I can send you contact information and email address. Sorry but BP won't let contact information be sent on forums!

Hi David. Do you have an agent representing you? Typically the "selling agent" represents the buyer and the "listing agent" represents the seller. When you say selling agent, I assume you mean the listing agent is stalling and waiting for a better offer. Has your agent given you comps on the property? Have they spoken with the listing agent to ask whats going on? You may need to submit a higher offer to get it accepted. The listing agent and seller do not have to accept your offer or counter it, even if you think it is a really good one. I was in several of these situations with my clients and the sellers asked for highest and best even after we submitted full price. It's frustrating, but it is within their rights. Best of luck!

Hello Stephen. I am an agent an work a lot with investors in Southern California. I own several investment properties myself. I would be happy to talk to you more and help set up and auto email. Unfortunately, the auto email will not calculate cash flow for you but it can be set up in terms of price and location. I would be happy to help you analyze the deals and determine cash flow. You said you wanted to do FHA with 3.5% down? That means you would be living in one of the units, correct? If you bought a 4 plex for example, and lived in one of the units you would be lucky to break even on your expenses. It would be a long shot to cash flow $1000 per month and live in it. Let me know if you wan to talk more and get the auto emails set up. Cheers, Kiersten