All Forum Posts by: Michael Kevorkian

@Rod Walker Look around a little bit and you'll see there are a lot of great resources out there that can help you get your hands on some really unheard of information. I only know of the paid resources that I use on a regular basis and can't tell you anything about free resources.

ListSource is one that is great for pulling lists to mail to. If you need help using it let me know and I can set up a gotomeeting with you to walk you through the process on their site.

Another one is Corelogic, same company but they offer different search options. I would look into a good local or national foreclosure listing service, biggerpockets has one (I have never used it) and you can check realtytrac too.

Listen to me on this one..... find a good probate provider in your area. Those are great sources of flip opportunities and you get to avoid a lot of competition in that marketplace.

Any other questions........ just ask and I'll do my best.

Have a great night.

@Richard Gaston listen to some of the great podcasts that are out there that help walk you through the process. Take your time and look around, check out some of the websites and resources for wholesaling and flipping and you're sure to find a lot of great, free information out there just like @John Horner mentioned.

I would highly advise getting a mentor/coach to help you in your business. Getting together and doing what your coach instructs you to do will help you avoid making costly mistakes and they will show you how to do this business the right way step by step. I am amazed at all the people who want to get into this business, have no experience and don't consider starting with a coach/mentor right away. It will really make your learning and profitability a much more enjoyable process if you do it right.

Have a look around BiggerPockets too, this place is a great resource for all things real estate but you really need to seek the wisdom and training of a dedicated professional who is there to help make YOU money.

Best of luck Richard!

@Iverem Rose you really need to try to understand the basics here and that is most real estate agents are not investor friendly.I highly recommend you take the advice from @Michael C. and find an investor friendly real estate agent or create one by getting your hands on a new real estate agent and working out a joint venture with them.

If you get your hands on a real estate agent that is willing to work with you as an investor, simply explain your business model to them in a nutshell, you don’t have to reveal everything obviously but you have to give them enough information so that they understand your goals.In exchange for them submitting offers, listing properties or whatever else you may have them doing for you and your business, you can exchange seller leads of people you spoke to who are not able or willing to do business with you because of the price disparity or whatever else and you can easily refer listing business to this real estate agent.

Obviously you can do this with new or seasoned agents however realtors are a funny breed, trust me when I tell you I know, I own real estate brokerage with nearly 50 agents and even though we primarily focus on investments a lot of my people still do retail for living.Try to get them to understand what it is we do on the investment side of the process and people say anything and everything to dismantle the investment business model from it is illegal, unethical, doesn’t work here etc..

When you find a good one, cultivate the relationship because it is invaluable.It may take you a handful of agents and several months before you figure out who is a good fit and who isn't.

Eventually you will get there and have a power team in place so you can check the “Find An Investor Friendly Realtor” off your to do list and keep building your business.

@Fednel Vilcant did you ever get the rest of the info so people can offer some help to you? What's the deal look like? Value? Total of all liens? Sale price to the end buyer etc.? Where are you on this deal?

@Dawit Araia great question to ask and there are always "a lot of spokes in the wheel" that keeps everything moving right? In other words the best answer I can give is...... it depends.

Deal structure varies from investor to investor , so what you will do on this deal may vary dramatically the way you handle the next.I wholesale & rehab a lot of properties and my typical process is the following:

Once I get a contract with the seller I will send it over to my attorney to begin the process of pulling title because I have multiple exit strategies with every investment I put under contract.I always try to wholesale my properties first, if that doesn’t work then I will fund them, close and begin the rehab.

When I turn around to sell the property as a wholesale deal, I take it a step further to ensure that I do not lose my deposit.Instead of just taking a refundable deposit for an assignment, I structure the deal with an extra document. I use an option contract this way I get a fee as option consideration which is nonrefundable.Assuming that the seller can deliver clear in merchantable title to the end buyer then I can very easily deposit that option consideration and do with it what I wish.

On the other hand, if you are not in a position to fund the and purchase the property then I would absolutely not recommend paying for title or any fees for that matter because you don’t know if you’re able to sell the property yet right?

If you have an end buyer in place then you’ll simply assign the contract and let his / her attorney handle all of the closing procedures from there.

Again in closing….. I’m going to say this, there are a lot of moving parts and every deal is different so just be sure that you are protected and do not spend money out of pocket if we can avoid it.

@Jessica G. outstanding job you did in the short time and with your budget! Very impressive! Best of luck to you down the road with your future investments.

@Leon Nicholson.... Welcome aboard! Love to hear that you are back! Outstanding! A wise man once said, "Every time I fail, I am 6'1" closer to my goal". Love to see that you dusted yourself off and got back on the horse. Best wishes to your success Leon.

@Chris Simmons

Hey there @Chris Simmons....... man you got some tough issues to try to sort through. Let me start by saying I am not an attorney or CPA and I advise you to seek the services of licensed professionals for legal and tax matters. Ok?

Alright so that being said, you need to do a little leg work here and you will be able to find what you are looking for pretty quickly and easily. Forget about main stream lenders, they work with homeowners for the most part so you'll want to hit your local banks and talk to the highest person there you are able to reach.

If they all tell you no then Google search for corporate loans, corporate mortgage, borrow money to buy real estate in llc etc. You want to find banks (maybe out of state and credit unions) who do this on a regular basis.

If that's a flop start networking for private note buyers and see what you can do in the HUGE private mortgage industry. Example scenario for a private mortgage buyer would be something like this: They discount your mortgage by 3%-8% of the loan balance, you should have 3+ years to go, interest rate of about 2-3 points over prime (which is what you may be paying a bank for a corporate loan) and decent credit. Effectively your father-in-law would make and record a mortgage and after about 4-6 months, "he" would sell it to a note buyer.

Let's look at the numbers for you and the investor:

Mortgage: $100,000

Interest Rate: 7.5%

Term: 10 Years No Prepayment penalty

Note buyer discount: 8% (worst case scenario) PLUS 7.5% on $100,000 mortgage which he only paid $92,000 for. 12.26% Annual return to the note buyer PLUS his 8% when you pay him/her off. There is a huge upside for the note buyers and they will do these all day long.

Your father-in-law gets $92,000 from the note buyer right? What happens after that is between you and your father in law as to the proceeds being split if that happens. I say that because I assume you buy the property at a lower price, improve it, increase value then refi out at 80%.

Just some food for thought....... I hope it helps.

@Beau Walsh great question and great points you make. My two cents is that you really need to consider what you've got and what you'll get. If you are grandfathered in or as you stated, don't know of other apartments with wood burning fireplaces, then I would leave it. You have the rustic charm and something that is rare to the buyer/renter you will want to move the property to.

Now that being said............ There is another side to this statement. Maintenance right? So take that into account if you plan on holding the property as a rental and considering it is not a single family home.

All in all if it was me, I would keep it, refinish as much as possible to keep the vintage charm but make it look new, clean and quite honestly..... a focal point in the unit. After all........ they don't make 'em like they used to.

@Jesse Lawrence it's 100% possible, doable and attainable to break into a market or markets you don't live in. I work with investors from all over the country who do joint ventures with me on a regular basis. Two things you should consider are:

1. Setting up your power team in the market you want to start investing in ie. realtors, contractors, funding partners, attorneys etc.

2. Never take your eye off the ball. You have to be able to manage them all and make sure they are all doing their part.

Don't expect to toss someone the ball and have them run with it. Each person really needs to be held accountable for their role in the transaction and no one is going to manage your business for you (except a manager you may hire) and even then you have to manage them.

When everyone sees that you are always watching and pushing them to deliver it makes the process much easier and more manageable for you.

Let me know if you have any other questions, I'm happy to help if I can.