All Forum Posts by: Maggie L.

Always happy to talk the St Louis, Missouri market.  Did you have a style of investing you prefer?

Welcome to BP; always nice to see someone else from Missouri join.  Have you set up keyword searches for the mobile home parks?  It should help you find the relevant forum posts (and people) faster than going through every post.

If your broker is OK with both they will probably want you to do something extra e.g. LLC for the PM side of things. Whether it's PM or sales, you'll probably hit a point where you need to delegate to assistants so it sounds like you're on the right track. If you're going the LLC route look into electing to being taxed as an S Corp. Your CPA can discuss specifics, but S Corp status can be useful for things like paying employees, especially if you want to pay yourself.

I believe there are a few states where there's a court case that says the MLS can't be Realtor exclusive (# 6 http://www.realtor.org/law-and-ethics/mls-access-litigation-summary), but in most states you need to have a license or be an assistant to an agent. If an agent lets you be an "assistant" because they don't want to take the time to send you comps they're probably risking their license.

I'd second what Laura recommends.  An investor friendly agent should understand what you need.  You may also want to talk to a newer agent - they have more time to give clients because (like you) they're still getting their business going and you may be able to get further discounts as a repeat client.

Grant, welcome to BP.  Sounds like you have some good goals in place already.  If you're looking to finance your purchases I'd really recommend talking to someone like a lender or CPA early on.  They can talk to you about how to maximize your credit, and may know of some financing options you hadn't considered. If you were in the St Louis area I'd have a few recommendations, but hopefully you know someone locally who can help. I was listening to a BP podcast this morning where they mentioned the importance of getting a CPA on your team right away.

Welcome to BP Dan.  I'm also a Realtor, but in St Louis, Missouri, and also have family in Minnesota.  Whereabouts did you live in Missouri?

@Jeffery Neal oh the joys of adjusting below market rental rates.

http://towergrovecdc.org/cdbg-activities/landlord-... is the list of topics they had for landlord training this year; I'd recommend emailing Dana and asking for the handouts to start. 

They also offer tenant screening services (which they advertise at the start of every training) and have access to some databases that aren't generally available, which is one of the reasons I use them.  I think the training is really useful for new landlords, but they have lots of other resources for landlords and real estate more generally.

As a Realtor who works with investors (in Missouri) I'm going to guess that you probably have an agent who is more focused on "typical" transactions.   I got my license after I'd started investing, so I came at it with a more investor mindset.  I know some very successful agents who would cringe at the sort of things that I consider a normal level of service for an investor client (non-exclusive agency agreement, write offers for low priced short sale, bank owned transactions, etc).  The needs of an investor are very different and I suspect your current agent doesn't appreciate that.

When I have a flipper client my arrangement (which I know others also have) is that if I find them the house I get to list it when it goes for sale. I would argue that the net amount of work is similar (if you're doing comps for ARV as well as acquisition costs it's similar to comps for a buyer as well as comps for a listing) investors require a different mindset and approach. Is this the arrangement you have with your current Realtor?

If you've talked to your agent and you don't feel like they get it, I'd recommend a search for someone new.  Ask around on BP or at local investor associations.  There's someone else investor friendly out there, and if you're averaging a flip a month that should be enough for an agent to give you the level of service you need.

In all honesty, an agent for ANY type of client should be sending comps out. If you've asked for comps and they're not doing that they're failing in their fiduciary duty.  For my clients I have previewed houses, sent comps, brought the contractor in (I have contractors to recommend if they don't have one) and discussed comps for different rehab scenarios with them before we sit down to write an offer.  I wouldn't necessarily expect that level of service from everyone, but sending you comps is pretty basic to my mind.

While I defer to anyone with experience on this particular topic (I've never sent mail to renters for an apartment locating service) I will say it's a numbers game so the more the better.

The two important questions to my mind are 

1) Cost

- does your marketing budget have enough cushion to do all the apartment complexes if this experiment doesn't work out?

2) Desired target

- are you focusing your marketing in certain areas of town/certain individuals and do all these apartment complexes fit your criteria?

If you're happy with the mailer and you can afford to send out the ad to everyone, I'd say go for it.  If 1 and 2 aren't big check marks, I'd keep it small at first.  Personally, I find the moment I send something out the first time I notice something I want to change (possibly for the 7th time...) so small scale may be good for that reason too.

Out of curious, how are you making money off a free apartment locating service? Are you charging prospective landlords or are you hoping some tenants may try to buy a home instead? Something else?

I'd add a few items, some of which potentially overlap.  Any question could probably be asked for developing a business, as well as practicing real estate/getting to know the local market.

1) What sort of training will I receive?

- what is mandatory, how much does it cost (base fee, required books, etc)

2) What support will I receive as a new agent?

E.g. mentor/coach - will they receive a % of what I earn

E.g. Opportunity to work under a more experienced agent as part of a team/group

3) What technology is available and are there any fees (in addition to standard)?

E.g. website, email, mobile app, online advertising

4) Any expectations for new agents beyond certain training?

E.g. staffing front desk, running open houses, required materials to purchase like signs and business cards

5) what support will I have writing contracts?

E.g. talk to broker, experienced agent, example contracts explained

I'd also ask if there's a cap, a maximum amount that they remove in a given year e.g. $25k 

Depending on the brokerage the answer to some of these questions may be nothing. That can be good or bad, depending on what you want from a brokerage.

Feel free to ask more questions/request clarification and I can try to help