All Forum Posts by: Matt Godwin

Quote from @Yael Lederman:

Have you tried reaching out to the OpenPhone team? They may have some thoughts / pointers that could help. I used to use them at an old job and their support team was always very helpful

I haven't strictly because the documentation they provided says that all traffic from OpenPhone will be considered A2P. But, it probably doesn't hurt to reach out.

I know I'm resurrecting an old thread here, but I thought @Garrett Christensen or @Nathan Gesner might have some insight on a problem I've run up against continuing to use OpenPhone for my business-related communications.

Hi BP fam,

Here's the situation, I currently use OpenPhone for all of my real estate business related communications (e.g., talking to buyers, sellers, other agents, etc.) as I want to keep my personal cell phone number private. However, I was recently informed that the major carriers are going to be classifying all traffic from OpenPhone (and several other applications) as application-to-person (A2P) traffic instead of person-to-person (P2P) traffic. A2P traffic requires registration and the inclusion of requirements from the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) (e.g., opt-in and opt-out language). The problem is, my communications are P2P just using a virtual number for privacy reasons. I'm not doing any SMS text-blasting, etc. 

Has anyone else run across this issue? What are you doing to solve it?

TIA

Quote from @Amika B.:

I am part of eXp Realty. I love it because it provides a ton of training both on-demand and live. It has a strong referral program between agents. Allows you to purchase your own properties and keep 100% commission (great if you're an investor). And connects you with a mentor for your first 3 transactions. I am a very self-paced independent type of worker and I absolutely love working from home. eXp does not have brick and mortar buildings so if this is something that's important to you or having that clear office space, eXp will NOT be the right brokerage for you. That being said, although I work from home, I have constant support from mentors, brokers, and other colleagues across the world so I definitely don't feel like a kite flying in the wind. if you're interested in learning more let me know! I may be able to provide you with a guest pass to our platform so you can check it out :)

Hi Amika! I'm preparing to take my licensing exam in the next couple of weeks and have been looking into eXp as a potential sponsoring broker. I'd love to get a little more info from you about your experience with eXp if you have time to set up a call/meeting.

Congrats Andrew!

I'm currently working on my pre-licensing education. I debated for a while but ultimately decided to pull the trigger because I think you gain versatility and additional connections. The work that goes into finding clients as an agent, isn't all that different from what you do to find off market deals anyway. As an investor focusing on wholesaling to build capital, if I approach an owner offering to buy their property cash at a discount, if they decline because they want to get top dollar I'm stuck. As an agent/investor, I can then offer to list their property for them. Plus the MLS access and the ability to submit as many offers as I want is nice too.

Welcome to BP, Stan! I'm a newbie investor in the New Orleans area and always looking to connect with like-minded individuals.

Hi @Amanda Jewell! Welcome to BP! I'm in a similar situation as you. Long time listener (joined BP in 2019) and have been doing a lot of reading and watching. I'm also in the New Orleans area and have started looking at properties and have my financing all lined up. So I'm looking to pull the trigger soon. Just gotta find the right property. 

Have you thought about a strategy you want to use? FWIW, my plan is to combine live-in-flip with BRRRR. Basically, buy a property that needs some work but is still habitable, live in the property while I do as much of the work as I can myself and hire out what I can't, refinance to pull out the capital I've put in (or HELOC to utilize the equity), acquire and move into a new property using the capital/equity from the first, and rent the rehabbed property for cash flow.

@Aaron K. it seems you were right. But for whatever reason I couldn't seem to make that same basic calculation work. I tried calculating it by the formula in the article but just couldn't seem to get it to work. However, I tried again and just took the cashflow x 12 and divided by the original out-of-pocket and it worked fine. Thanks for pointing this out.

@Frank Geiger I seem to have solved the issue. Thanks for offering to work through it though!

Hi all,

I recently ran a property I was interested in, through the BP Buy & Hold Analysis calculator. But, because it's easier for me to wrap my head around things if I understand where the numbers/values come from I've tried to independently calculate some of the metrics from the calculator. Everything has worked out well except the Cash on Cash ROI. I just can't seem to get the same percentage the report generates regardless of how I plug the numbers in. I've studied this article from @Brandon Hall extensively to try and understand how that percentage is being calculated. The closest I can get is a CCR of 31% but the calculator returns a value of 14%. So can anyone clarify exactly what metrics are going into this calculation?

Based on Brandon's article, I suspect there was a simplification in the "Annual Debt Service" number that isn't present in the numbers generated by the calculator. Any help you all can provide on this metric would be immensely helpful in my ability to fully comprehend the report.

Matt
@Brandon Hall

@Walter Beach thanks for reaching out. As a former EMT (not in NOLA) I can appreciate the knowledge you have regarding the city. I'm sure that will be very useful to you as you begin your REI journey. Of course, if I can be of any assistance to you please don't hesitate to ask!

@Braden Smith thanks for all the insight and links! I'm currently working my way through the beginner's guide and staying tuned to the forums. I would definitely be interested in chatting sometime about the market. I initially started looking at listed properties (e.g., Zillow, Redfin, etc.) but it seems that's not likely to be a productive strategy in this market (perhaps any market for that matter) as it's pretty saturated with investors. If you don't mind me asking, what's your strategy for finding properties? Are there any local investor meetups you would recommend? I know there's the one on the Northshore but wonder if there's anything a little more NOLA specific.