All Forum Posts by: Maggie L.

Welcome to BP! There are lots of great opportunities to network and learn here, as well at local REI groups. St Louis has many options; I believe SSIC's monthly meeting is tomorrow night and starts with a networking hour, and STLIPA's weekly lunch is tomorrow afternoon. That might be a great way to connect with potential mentors. I also second @Jeremy Paschedag's recommendation to consider buy and hold investors.  I'm an investor friendly agent with several buy and hold clients.  Some are looking for turnkey, but others are looking for something to improve.

Welcome to BP @Barry Eggleston II!  What kind of investor are you?  Myself, I have buy and holds in South City, as well as being an investor friendly agent in the St Louis area.  Have you set up keyword alerts for the forums; it's a great way to learn and network if you haven't already.  I find the podcasts especially inspiring if I'm listening while working on one of my properties - they're perfect for painting.

@Pete PerezI set up automatic searches for all of my clients - investor and retail. I only have experience in a few states (MN, CO, and MO) and MLS are local entities, but I'd assume that in most (if not all) places If you give an agent parameters - price, geographic, etc they should be able to set up a search for you that goes to your inbox every day.

I'd recommend talking to a few agents to find one that is investor friendly and understands the unique needs of investors. A newer agent will probably have more time (and enthusiasm) for a newer investor, so don't discount them if they otherwise seem competent. Local REI groups are a great way to network and search for potential agents, in addition to places like BP.

I've read about investors asking agents to get permission to be an unlicensed assistant so they can get MLS access - something that Realtors are not supposed to (at least here in Missouri). In general, the MLS requires that you be a Realtor (additional fee for membership in addition to being a licensed real estate agent), though there may be one federal court district where this isn't the case. NAR has a summary of litigation related to this

http://www.realtor.org/law-and-ethics/mls-access-litigation-summary 

Once you have become a Realtor you can apply for MLS access, which also requires some additional coursework. Since MLSs are regional the specific requirements will likely vary. If you only need basic info about active listings the MLS is fed to a variety of websites (Realtor.com, Zillow, Trulia) that are free and available to the public.

There have been posts on this topic on BP in the past:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/3387/24575-mls...

Welcome to BP! Have you checked out any of the local REI groups? They're a great chance to network and possibly find a mentor. I'm an investor-friendly agent and buy and hold investor so different investing strategies, but please PM if you have any questions or think I can help.

I'm terribly biased but I think St Louis is perfect for someone looking for multi families.  Low cost of living, beautiful historic homes, and purposely designed so that many neighborhoods have a mix of single, duplex, and fourplexes that's very helpful for property values.  There are lots of great amenities like the Zoo, Botanical Gardens - many of which include free admission for residents because of historic endowments, Forest Park is larger than Central Park, and there are so many other beautiful historic parks (Tower Grove Park, Benton Park, Lafayette Park) and a variety of unique neighborhoods that offer different lifestyle and investment choices.  

The Rams may be leaving, but hockey and baseball are the big games here, and there is talk of an MLS expansion team if the NFL doesn't decide to bring in someone new.

Wordpress is really user friendly for non-tech savvy people.   Haven't done it myself, but I believe they have an easy way to purchase a domain name through wordpress.  Hosting is also important 

http://www.wpbeginner.com/wordpress-hosting/

I've got a bit of a background (CS classes, former tech support for a library) but more of my knowledge in this area is from friends who actually know what they're talking about.  Feel free to PM and I can at least send their recommendations/useful articles.

I'm sure these laws vary a great deal by state, both laws regarding incorporation and regulation of real estate agents. Here in Missouri I know some people in my office choose to pay themselves through an LLC (I'm an agent at Keller Williams) but the only ones I know of are also multi-agent groups or people who have broker licenses. I am considering it, but first I need to have a long discussion with a tax professional since I'd want to understand the minutiae of my situation - investments as well as real estate agent work. If you choose to have an LLC as a sole proprietorship you're not changing much (many advantages only occur in multi-member situations) and some extra umbrella insurance may be a better use of your time and money.

Welcome to BP! There's a lot of great information on the forums - I'd set up keyword searches if you haven't already. Have you been to any local REI groups? They're a great opportunity to network and learn about what's going on locally. I'm sure there would be a lot of advice about different brokers available to you. Personally, I'm an investor - friendly agent and hang my license at Keller Williams. Feel free to PM if you want to chat.

Thank you so much for sharing your experience.  This is an area I haven't gotten into myself, but it seems like there are a lot of opportunities, as well as risks.  Keep us up to date on how things go!