All Forum Posts by: Stanley Okazaki

@Kyle Sinclair I don't know just how hectic your schedule is, but I would stay away from management co. for now. 

Being that it's 1 single family home, management companies probably won't do the best job. They don't care how long it take to get a tenant in. I really do feel a property manager will hold you back (for now). It really isn't hard to manage a property on your own. 

Good or bad, I don't think you should even have to pay for a mentor. 

Again, my bad haha

@Katharine Chartrand 

I find I have better success with absentee owners when I mail them something less generic , something like a "hand written letter". I put that in quotes because you're obviously not going to write out a bunch of letters , but rather hand write one letter and make xerox copies of it. 

I also like to include something like ..."I completely understand if you're not ready to sell. If this is the case I just ask that you not throw away this letter or my business card so that if you should ever change your mind in the future you can refer back to this letter & know that you have someone ready, willing & able to purchase your home in it's "as is" condition.

Most of these sellers want an all cash sale & are willing to let it go for less than market value. They don't want to deal with property taxes, HOAs, tenants etc. 

@Zack Scharlepp 

This is me just spit balling...

I came across this idea when I was trying to figure out how I could purchase a property without sufficient income  or assets to back me up.

The idea revolves around finding the right property & Hard Money Lenders. 

You need to find a property that is below market value and needs little to no work. Bring it to a HML who will lend on 70% of the after repair value. Purchase the property. Get a tenant in and hold it for however long the seasoning period is then try & refinance into a 30 yr using a guarantor if not on your own.

I've spoken to a number of HMLs about it and they said it was do-able. There are still a lot of things I don't understand when it comes to doing this sort of thing, but maybe you can speak to a HML about possibly doing it?

@Roman Pak 

Your concern is understandable, but I don't think you should look at them as competition. Be a part of everyone's growth and you'll grow with them. The only way they'll become your competition is if they look at you as competition. 

There's a property listed on the MLS that I've been watching on the market for a while. It's listed at market value and there is no disclosure that specifies it being a short sale or foreclosure. In the agent remarks the agents wrote "VERY MOTIVATED SELLER WILL LOOK AT ALL OFFERS". I gave the agent a call and she explained to me that the owner is a widow & has fallen behind on his mortgage payments.

I give her a verbal offer of 65K cash and she says that's too low he owes more than it's work. I ask her about the possibility of doing a short sale and she tells me the bank won't ALLOW (not to get confused with approve) a short sale. 

I'm not very experienced with short sales so can someone explain to me why the bank wouldn't ALLOW a short sale?

P.S I sent a letter to the owner and he gave me a call back telling me he just wants to get out of the property & pay off his mortgage. Maybe the owner is the one that is opposed to a short sale because he feels he can sell the property at market value and pay off the mortgage?

@Farel Zamor 

That sounds good. Might want to make it clear somehow that you deal with real estate. You don't want people calling you trying to sell their kids bike haha.

@Serj Kalfayan 

I'm going to assume by LA you mean the glamorous parts of the city?

Depends what part of LA. My father successfully invested in the "ghetto" of LA for 30+ years & still does. He never lost money on a deal because he was willing to go where no one wanted to be. South central, Compton, Carson, Inglewood, etc. There's opportunity all throughout these neighborhoods I promise you. 

Everyone wants to be near the lime light. They get caught up in the LA image. If you think about it, you flip a home in the ghetto for less money & get roughly the same ROI as you would in a neighborhood like Culver City or Santa Monica.

This is all in reference to fix/flips. The buy/hold strategy is much harder to implement

@Farel Zamor 

Keep it as simple as possible. You're a wholesaler so I wouldn't include the verbiage "wholesaler" on your card. Wholesaler is an investor term for the most part so much of the general public will have no clue what that it. You might give your card to a motivated seller & they'll start asking what that is. Instead add something like "Farel Will Buy Your House".