All Forum Posts by: Micheal Waldrup

I've been looking into REOs in my area. While there aren't very many, I've tried to think about what kinds of offers are generally accepted for REOs. Outside of (and most importantly) making sure that an offer I make is conservative, makes sense, and is profitable, I have no basis for what is typical. Anyone have any first-hand experience that may be helpful here? Everyone loves thumbrules, but even a few examples from experience would help me. Thanks everyone!

@Paul Timmins Got around to reading a couple of the resources you pointed out. Great stuff. Thanks so much for responding!

Thanks everyone for the answers! I will be sure to check out both of those schooling options, very much appreciated.  @Andrea M. - I really like the thoughts you had on a built-in network with the in person class. Great idea. 

@Glenn J.  - Thanks for the recommendation, I will check them out.

I'll be sure to post here what I end up going with for others to see.

Anyone else have thoughts on the other questions? 

In regards to being a great agent in general, I found this post http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2010/08/11... by @jscott. 

There is great stuff in there for any of you that might have found this thread through searching agent related terms!

Wow, so much information here! What a great resource! 

After doing much of my reading throughout the site, I feel like it might be a good idea to get my Real Estate License first. I'm still Active Duty military until January of 2015 and I'm on a great shore duty right now with plenty of 'off' time. 

So, a few questions in regards to this:

1.) Do you have any recommendations on schools and such for Virginia Real Estate Licensure? I'd prefer online since there are still those late days where the military demands my presence, and they never seem to be predictable which makes scheduling classes difficult. I live in Virginia Beach, if that helps.

2.) What is usually the process after Real Estate School? I read something here about having to be 'sponsored' by a broker before I can practice real estate. How likely are any sponsoring brokers to be willing to take on a 'brand new' agent? I heard also that there are some brokerages that will sponsor you as long as you'll pay the $3000 a year or whatever they ask, is this a common thing?

3.) What kind of company should I be looking to work at if I want to really focus on investing? I'd love to be as close to actual real estate investing as possible. It would be great to learn for a bit as an agent working with investors.

4.) What have the best 'investor friendly' real estate agents you've worked with done differently from your average agent? What can I do personally to ensure investors really want to work with me and make the relationship mutually beneficial? I am in no way selfish, and have an abundance mindset so I'd love to work with investors that are the same.

I think that's enough for now. Obviously more to follow. Thanks for reading, and taking the time to respond if you do!

Newbie here. In doing some of the reading here on the site, I ran across this graphic. http://www.biggerpockets.com/rei/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Real-Estate-Cycle1.png

I realize that there a multiple versions of this cycle running at all times, where the local market may be at a different place in the cycle than the macro cycle. By macro, here I mean national (U.S.) market.

If you had to place the country as a whole into one of the spots on this diagram, which would you say we're in now? Does that choice differ from where you'd say your local market is? I'm trying to get a feel for recognizing this in both a micro and macro scale. I'd love to hear as many opinions on this as I can.

Great @Erin L. ! Thank you. I will be sure to get in contact with you. My wife is also a Veteran, now a respiratory therapist. I plan to dig around here for a bit, then maybe I won't seem totally clueless in an actual discussion. :) Thanks for the welcome!

Hi Everyone!

I'm Micheal Waldrup. Active-Duty military, currently with 10 years of service in Nuclear Power. I'm due to get out in January of 2015 and plan to transition to a career doing freelance programming (which I already do).

My goals in real estate are to roll into buy/hold/rent and rehabs. I have little / no experience in real estate other than being a homeowner myself and having family who are agents.

While I enjoy the programming work I currently do, I find myself more and more into my business and real estate interests. I fully intend to close my first "deal", whatever it may be, before I get out of the military next January.

I plan on being around for a long time, and would love to start my real estate endeavors here in Eastern VA, especially VA Beach and surroundings. Seems like a complex market though with all of the military money around here.

I'd love to meet anyone from the area . I'm also very interested in hearing about local groups that meet or people who are just willing to share knowledge ( free lunch in it for you most likely :) ).

Can't wait to start interacting with everyone! I'll be around, reading -- more like devouring all of this information. See you around.