All Forum Posts by: Maureen Hannan

Thanks so much, Ben. I'll certainly do more searching, and I'm glad to know your overall sense of the market is positive!

Cheers!

Maureen

To my investor colleagues,

In my non-real-estate life, I'm a copywriter and online marketing consultant. I'm exploring a new business area in targeted search engine optimization and marketing services for investors and property managers. 

May I do a little quick canvassing to find out 

1. how you're currently generating leads. 

2. whether you currently have a website, and 

3. whether you are interested in finding out how to generate more leads through optimizing a website for search. 

I've had some discussion about this with one other investor in the community. Right now, I'm trying to determine the level of need among investors, brokers, and property managers. Any help I can get from my colleagues here would be much appreciated.

Thanks so much!

Maureen

Hi Sean!

Welcome to the community. What a powerful thing, to have gone through a foreclosure and have that experience to bring to your investing. I wish you well. I wonder if you might consider writing some more (maybe on a blog here?) about what your foreclosure experience taught you. I'll bet that alone would be a great way to connect with others here. (And the number one tip, I've learned, is to network at every opportunity. That's the only way to learn first about deals and all the backstory behind them.)

Cheers!

Maureen

Welcome, Ed! I'm fiscally pretty conservative too. I think that your comfort level with risk will increase, the more you network and understand the anatomy of a deal. The investors I got to know locally let me watch them in action, going into a prospective flip, walking through together, and running the rehab numbers in their heads. It was cool to watch and made me realize, they're conservative too, in their own ways. Experience and knowledge make us all more comfortable with risk. This site is wonderful for learning to "speak the language," so that you can converse with investors.

Wishing you well,

Maureen

Hi Anson! What a great post. I'm curious about how your deal-making with other BP members worked? Were they members in and around where you live? Did you connect through the forum or through the blogs? 

Thanks for any insights you can share--I'd like to learn how to do better networking in 2015, so that I can post an "I'm thankful for..." shout-out like yours next year. :-)

Maureen

Through local outreach and asking questions, In 2013, I formed an easygoing, let's-have-lunch relationship with a soon-to-retire RE agency broker in a neighboring county. There's a brisk demand there for SFH rentals, and entry-level prices have been at around $100-$130K (for a 3BR cape cod or rancher). I was patient, and my broker friend helped connect me with investors there who wanted to do some deals. I took out a home equity loan on my primary residence, which was enough to finance my first two properties. That move alone gave me wonderful freedom and tax benefits. One investor the broker connected me with was eager to find capital for a new business he was starting with a partner, and another was happy to offer seller financing on a place that he had used as his office and didn't need any longer for that purpose. I wouldn't have known the back stories on these deals or had the ability to establish trust as quickly as I did without the help of that broker who'd been in the community for 40 years. As a result, the properties I bought were at about 15 to 20 percent lower than market prices. I just got a contract on one of my properties ($159K for a house I bought for $124K and put $2K into fixing up), after renting it out for a year. Won't make me rich doing real estate this way..., but hey I got $1200/month for it for a year also, of course....

One other cool thing is that, due to the relationships I've now formed with other investors in that community, I'm partnering in my first flip. One investor's billboard sign brought him a very motivated seller with a house in perfect condition--selling at about 35K below market prices in that neighborhood. And he came to me to partner with him in lining up financing. Looks like we'll pull it off. :-)

And of course my broker/mentor/schmoozer friend has benefitted from the transactions too! He's now acting as a de facto property manager for me also--I still do a lot, but he often saves me the 45-minute drive, collecting rents for me and supervising/paying contractors. I think that when you begin to form relationships, all kinds of opportunities open up.

Don't mean to make it sound as though it's all been smooth sailing. I've had some nasty tenant experiences in all of this, and it's all taken a lot more of my time than I ever expected. But I do think that when relationships are formed, dozens of unexpected deal opportunities can open up. And if you can find an investor who's willing to do seller financing at a good price just to capture interest and relieve himself/herself of landlord duties, you can get your foot in the door without much hassle.

Thanks so much for your reply, Wendell. :-)  I really appreciate knowing you can relate. It's a sick feeling when the loan goes into default, isn't it? And not just because of the financial aspects....

I'll be in touch with you Friday if that works for you--and I'd be delighted to work with you to see how we might improve your website's local reach and traffic...while bolstering your Google and Yelp listings and collecting some citations. 

I'll reply to your PM with an overview of what I'll be prioritizing for our little SEO sprint. :-) 

Cheers!

Maureen

I'm grateful to BP because help I got here on the forum in 2013 gave me the knowledge base, insight, and courage to foreclose on a property I held the mortgage note on. A private mortgage situation...one of those things a really savvy investor never would have agreed to. But at the time, I just didn't know. It was five and a half years ago, I knew a lot less about investing than I do now, and I was scared of the stock market. Making the loan seemed like a win-win, and I was newly divorced in the midst of a bad (and worsening) economy....

To explain a bit more, becoming a private mortgage lender was not something I went looking for. It was a request put in front of me--completely unexpected. I looked at it....It seemed like way to get better returns than a CD would ever give me, and (though I'm ashamed to admit now that I let emotion lead me in this decision) it was a way to help a family-friend-plus-kid stay in the family home after a divorce. Of course, you can write the rest of this story, right? The family friend stopped paying after a couple years, and an attitude of entitlement set in. "You can't take my house away....You'd never do that, would you? I thought you were a good person. Don't you know how many problems I have?"

Confused and shaken, I went to the forum here to find out what in the world I could do about the situation. Was there a way to sell the note? Was I stuck? How could I get out of this no-win deal? What were my legal rights? 

Immediately, I heard back on the forum from a collection of real estate financial experts and mortgage brokers. The advice wasn't all that encouraging, but it was honest and straightforward and made one thing abundantly clear: I needed to get really good legal help right away--and I needed to brace myself for the possibility that I'd only get a portion of my investment back. But after all, a percentage was better than nothing--and I couldn't allow myself to stay in limbo, while the homeowner slipped further and further behind (sometimes making inexplicable partial payments of just a couple hundred dollars at odd times).

I made efforts to talk with the homeowner. I offered to extend a deed in lieu of foreclosure, as I was advised to attempt by "Team Bigger Pockets." I was flatly turned down...laughed at, actually. 

So, with that outreach crossed off my list, I went on to put a real estate attorney in charge of the whole process. The homeowner got back on track with payments for awhile and then started missing again.

So, we started the foreclosure process. 

Heard nothing back from the homeowner (henceforward known as HO :-)

Then...the news that HO had declared bankruptcy.

Foreclosure halted.

Then the news that the bankruptcy was not going to proceed.

Foreclosure on again.

Finally, the HO decided to sell, before the auction date hit. 

Would I consider holding off on the foreclosure to allow the sale to close?

I agreed (though with some hesitation)--and the closing went smoothly. Got every penny of my loan back, plus all the interest and late fees that had accrued.

I can't even tell you the relief I felt holding the check in my hand, after that 15-month battle.

It's funny...you know, Bigger Pockets also helped equip me with the info I needed to acquire eight rental properties in 2013/2014--and sure, I'm thankful for all of that guidance too. But what I'm most thankful for is the way the community rallied round me (with no lecturing or tsk tsks). I was, at the time, a brand-new member. So it's not as though I had any relationships to bank on before I yelled for help with the horrible "mortgage-gone-wrong" drama. It was a humiliating thing to go through. I felt as foolish as I've ever have in my life...and it was good to get some just-the-facts expert guidance.

Once I get my investment back out, I was able to partner with another real estate investor in a pretty cool flip...and make a quick profit. I was also able to put some money into one of my rentals and sell IT for a nice gain. And with cash-flow restored, my next investment was in training/coaching in my primary business, which is copywriting and SEO. 

As my thank you to the community, I'd like to invite anyone here who's in need of local SEO services to reach out to me. I'm fine-tuning my process before I market my package of services widely. And I'd love to work with some RE service professionals with physical office addresses, to help them rank highly for the keywords they're competing for locally. 

PM me if you'd like to take advantage of my gift of 6-8 hours of SEO consultation. I'm not marketing services here, just to be clear. I'm looking to give something back to y'all...while I also sharpen new skills.

Thanks, everyone. Happy Thanksgiving.

Maureen

Hi Shera Gregory,

I'm also about to get my real estate license (Virginia in my case)--with the same intent as you. I have found a broker who is happy to have me affiliate with him for a flat fee (the exact amount of which we are still working out). I told him upfront that I have no intention of schlepping clients around on Saturdays--that I'm just doing this to advance my RE investment portfolio. He's fine with that.

I found him by first talking with a real estate flipper I'd heard about in the area. The flipper had worked extensively with the broker on purchasing flips, so I knew he was investor-friendly. (It's also a small town where a lot happens via word of mouth and reputation.) I asked to take both of these guys to lunch (the flipper and the broker) to pick their brains about the local market and how they have worked together to accomplish so many profitable deals. I mentioned over lunch that I was working on my RE license for investment reasons, and the broker immediately offered to talk with me about affiliating with him on my own terms.

I plan to buy my first property in that town through this broker (with him receiving his 3 percent just as in any typical buyer-agent transaction). I won't yet have my license in the timeframe I want to make the first purchase in, and I want to build a good working relationship with him. If all goes as I hope (and I like working with the guy), the broker affiliation will be a mutually beneficial thing that will also connect me more solidly with that local market.

We shall see how it goes. But I thought sharing my process might be somewhat helpful to you....

Good luck!
Maureen

Hi Will!
Nice to meet you! I think your plan sounds terrific--and quite doable. I'm in NoVa too, though I live way out in Loudoun County. I saw some nice appreciation on the three townhouses I bought here (Purcellville) in 2009/2010. (Just sold to prepare myself for Round 2 of my investing journey--in which I hope to do things outside of my town.)

I'm looking at the SFH market in Winchester and Harrisonburg right now--I have plans to buy 4-5 more properties over the next year, using the proceeds from the houses I recently sold. If you want to chat about reasons for that, I'd be happy to go into further detail--but for now, suffice it to say properties there are significantly less pricey. (And it's a growing area, with a solid market for rentals in the $800 - $1000/month range.)

I have also considered investing out of state--but I am more comfortable right now investing in what I know well.

I wish you luck, Will. I'm realizing what a treasure trove this site is--the best community I've encountered in my online travels. :-)

Feel free to reach out as you dig into your own research. I'd love to hear how things go for you.

Maureen