All Forum Posts by: Mark Weinstein

@Marc Winter

Just out of curiosity, how will they know if you live there for a year? I've always heard that regarding FHA loans but always wondered how do they enforce that?

@Brian Ellwood

Good read Brian.

When picking your markets, how wide is the range of your area? Is your market a state? City? Neighborhood?

@Matt Groth Appreciate the advice Matt. Thank you!

@Blake Choisnet Thank you Blake! I’m already a realtor but I haven’t technically started the flipping/buy and hold yet. The only investment I’ve made in the investing portion of my plan so far is investing in knowledge from books like “The Flipping Blueprint” by Luke Weaver, “The Book on Renral Property Investment by Brandon Turner, and “The Millionaire Real Estate Investor” by Gary Keller (great book but feel it’s a little outdated in 2020).

So I’m still educating myself on investment properties but I’m already active as a realtor and have been for some time. So I wouldn’t be starting all at once. Your insight has been great, thank you!

@Kirk R. Appreciate the personal experience story and advice!

@Kirk R. Hey Kirk. Sorry I wrote that wrong, I meant to say “I PLAN on house hacking my first rental property.” I’m still renting atm so I want to avoid any confusion with that.

Yes ive sold real estate as an agent. I’ve only been able to close 2 deals since Covid but things are turning around in New York so the landscape is going to be different in about 3-4 weeks.

Thanks for your advice!

Hey BP Fam,

I received some advice last night and wanted to run it by the BP community to see some of your thoughts about it.

Last night I posted a topic about strategies to get the contact info for REI. I got some valuable responses but then I received a PM from a member.

We briefly spoke about the topic and then I let him know I'm currently an agent (the REI contact info I was seeking was actually for my agent work) and that in the next 6 months I plan to purchase my first two investment properties, one to buy and sell and one to buy and hold.

I was told by this member (won’t give his name out of respect/privacy) that this is a bad idea. He told me I should make a choice on either being a realtor, a flipper, or a landlord. He said it would be unwise to try to master all 3. I strongly disagree but I wasn’t looking for confrontation so I thanked him for his advice and kept it moving.

So it got me to thinking over the last 24 hrs, is he right? This isn’t a career plan I thought of in the spur of the moment, this is something I’ve been planning for quite some time now.

The reason I didn’t agree is because I think Its an advantage leveraging one position into the other. I personally believe all 3 professions are interchangeable to some extent. Plus, in an ideal world, when I begin my investment portfolio in a few months, I was always planning on taking a more hands-off approach as an agent and letting my office’s team handle some of my workload (obviously I would expect a lower % commission on these closed deals).

I already have a private investor who’s planning to fund the flipping projects and I’m house hacking my first rental property. I’m very good at analyzing deals now that fit my criteria for both investment strategies so I’m really trying to figure out why he’s so against this career plan.

Is he correct about me spreading myself thin? I personally think I can do all 3 efficiently if I follow my business plans for each. But at the same time, I’m very curious why such an experienced, successful investor would tell me that. He has more skin in the game then I’ve ever had yet so I’m playing devils advocate with myself. One side is saying “don’t let someone rain on your parade when he doesn’t truly know what your goals are” and the other side is saying “maybe he’s right, he’s been doing this long enough to know and is just trying to help me avoid mistakes.”

So what do you think BP community? I’m always going to follow my dreams regardless but I’m always looking for ways to be more effective. I would love to hear some of your opinions/advice on this.

Thanks in advance for your help!

@Jónas Tryggvi Stefánsson Thank you!

@Nathan G. thank you for the advice Nathan!

Hey All,

I'm curious to know some methods you guys use to get in contact with REI?

As an agent I'm thinking about incorporating REI as one of my niches. I tried getting some contact info from public records but I ran into a never ending cycle of LLCs (which is reasonable for REI).

I went door knocking last week and found that most the distressed properties were either vacant or with tenants who have little, if any, contact with the actual homeowner (again, pretty reasonable for REI).

Maybe I’m not thinking outside the box enough but does anyone else have trouble contacting investors? Any insight/advice is much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!