All Forum Posts by: Nghi Le

REIAWA and REAPS are the two big REI Clubs here, although there's some smaller meetup type ones that are pretty good too. I would recommend you check them both out, and only sign up for one. This is because they are big competitors and tend to schedule their events on the same day (so you'll always have to choose one over the other). I had signed up for both before I realized that. But honestly, even if you rarely attend their events, I think their membership benefits make up for the fees pretty well (and both have some pretty unique member benefits).

REAPS is the largest nonprofit REI Club in the Northwest, but it also has a lot of guru sales pitch (although REAPS does a good job of knocking down their price tags). But that only occurs at the main meetings; the satellite meetings are pitchless :-)
But any REAPS member can get you in for free on one of the main meetings.

REIAWA generally tends to be more expensive (and they don't give a free guest pass for first-timers either), but what I like most about them is their Saturday classes.

Both have their pros and cons, so I do suggest you checking them both out (and their calendars) to see which one you like better.

Welcome to BiggerPockets, @Gary Waldron !

I also wanted to support what @Blake Yarbrough mentioned; you do not need an LLC to start. Take it from me... I started real estate by paying for one of those expensive guru seminars and they created an LLC for me and now I have to maintain it. And recently I've been getting more of a headache because all of these upcoming tax/entity deadlines.

All the overhead/expenses/complications is just unnecessary when you're starting out.  It's mainly for asset protection, but honestly, nobody's going to sue you unless you have a large net worth (so being a "newbie" may be to your advantage).  If you still want additional protection, get a million dollar umbrella insurance policy - mine is just under $20/month.

Congratulations!  That first call's pretty exciting.

What's the strategy for your mailers?  Are you trying to flip the property, keep it as a buy-and-hold, wholesale, sandwich lease options, etc?  You can add me to your buyer's list if you are trying to wholesale :-)

If you use the MLS contract, you need to specifically state "and/or assigns" as the Buyer's name.

If you use your own contracts, you can just have the assignment as a clause instead of having the "and/or assigns".

You won't be able to add "and/or assigns" if you are purchasing a property on the MLS from a bank; the banks just won't accept it.

Finally talked to an attorney about this.  In Washington state, they would be considered duplicate names, unfortunately.

I utilize remote desktop and Dropbox to allow me to access my QuickBooks wherever I go.  My current setup is to store the company file in Dropbox, which keeps a version history and automatic backups.  I've only installed QuickBooks on a computer that's running 24/7; you can buy an HTPC or a small server between $100-$300 for this purpose.  I remote into the computer wherever I'm at, whether at a friend's house, a public library, etc, and just use QuickBooks from there.  You can ask an IT friend to set this up for you so that anyone can log onto this remote computer.

The other solution I thought about, but haven't tried, was simply to install QuickBooks on all the machines (desktops/laptops) your team plans to use it on, and then just share the company file through Dropbox.  That way, when someone modifies the file, it's automatically updated on everyone's computer (almost instantaneously, depending on your internet connection and how large the file is) without you having to do anything.  But I've had issues with Dropbox in the past with conflicts if multiple people are opening the same file at once, but I think QuickBooks locks the file when it's in use, so this might not be an issue at all.

@Nathan Emmert 

Wow, you're right!  $9.46 for 360 checks with duplicates!  I'll order from them next time since I've already ordered with Costco.

Their QuickBooks checks are $39.44 for 500, whereas Costco's (with membership) is $36.03.

Thanks guys.  I checked out both Walmart and VistaPrint.  I then looked at Costco, which ended up being cheaper for me:

2 boxes (348 checks) of duplicates for $11.53

They seem to also have pretty good prices for QuickBooks checks too, which I may use in the future.

Hi @Darren Mills ,

REAPS and REIAWA are two of the biggest names in this state, but there are some other groups/meetups/events in the area that are very beneficial. I usually get more out of the satellite meetings than the main meetings for the big REI clubs, mostly because of the smaller size. Bigger isn't always better, especially for networking and actually getting to know people. But you should check them all out to see for yourself.

Here's a couple of the smaller meetups that I've enjoyed going to regularly:
http://www.meetup.com/SnoCo-Connected-Real-Estate-... (there's a meeting happening tomorrow!)
http://www.meetup.com/Puget-Sound-Real-Estate-Inve... (there's a special event they're hosting this Saturday)

Always nice to hear from another investor in the area.  I've met a lot of investors from West Seattle in the past couple months.  I'm close by in Burien :-)

I work in downtown Seattle at an IT firm as well; always nice to see someone transitioning from IT to Real Estate!  You can add me to your buyers' list as well ;-)

Here's the information on the SnoCo meetup:
http://www.meetup.com/SnoCo-Connected-Real-Estate-...

Hope to see you there this Thursday :-)