All Forum Posts by: Patrick Britton

@Tyler Salzeider "to gain access to MLS, but not start with a broker as an agent."  

I don't believe you can do this. You need to be associated with a real estate brokerage or you need to have an appraiser’s license, etc.

It's really impossible to compare real estate to stocks and arrive at an outcome/result that is true 100% of the time. They both have their positives and they both have their negatives. At the end of the day it comes down to the individual’s risk profile, the amount of money they have, their time horizon, etc., etc.

So frankly, any answer this says it's one or the other is wrong. Dead wrong. And don't quote a book written by a real estate guru or a stock guru. Those aren't exactly unbiased opinions now are they?

And let's not forget that the vast majority of people on this forum have no idea with the stock actually is, have never traded stocks, don't even know how to invest in the stock market, and most people here are already predisposed to do something with real estate.

So frankly, this is a bit of a nutty question to ask a group of real estate investors on a real estate investing forum…

@Megan Stateler There's also the chance that the lender couldn't find an appraiser through their AMC who was qualified to do multifamily. Or perhaps the fee they were offering wasn't high enough. Next time this happens, because it will, tell the lender you'll offer an extra $300 on top of whatever the appraisal costs then you might get some luck.

A cheat might be to find areas where new hospitals are being built.  Most of the time, the hospital itself has done all of the due diligence for you since they're not going to build a hospital in an area that does not have a lot going in the right direction.  same is true for any new Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, or if there's an area that has recently seen a number of new fast food chains enter the marketplace. 

As you can tell, you're just following the larger, institutional and commercial money.  

@Parker Swank "Right now I am worried about the market in Utah, I feel like if I don’t jump in now everything will be way too expensive to make any passive income, and I feel like if I wait any longer It will just get worse and worse."  

I've been on this planet for nearly four decades and been involved with investing for 50% of that time. Fear of missing out (FOMO) is one of the most toxic emotions with investing, sales, marketing, etc.

One of the fastest ways to lose your money in real estate is to buy overpriced properties ahead of a downturn. And being the strongest seller’s market in all of human history, now is probably not the best time to buy. Does that mean there are no deals whatsoever? Of course not! But it is incredibly easy to make a mistake right now.

Without knowing anything more, unless your time horizon is at least 15 years I would encourage anyone considering buying real estate to sit back and wait at least six months. no asset class continually increases its value forever and very often the higher and faster prices appreciate, the lower and deeper prices will come back. This is a generalization admittedly, and often things last much longer than we expect, both the bad times as well as the good.

Now is a really good time for newer investors to practice their due diligence, to build their team, to plan for the future and to get on the right track.

@Brock Barr  

I think there's a large segment of the investor population that derives physical pleasure from analyzing properties but then will suffer physical and emotional torment when it comes to actually doing something. The worst ones are those who will analyze a deal to the point where they eventually find something that isn't absolutely perfect, and then reward themselves for finding this “flaw” which does nothing but reinforce terrible habits.

without exaggeration or joke, I once worked with a client who would always find something wrong with any of the properties available and was very proud of the fact that he never made a bad decision. Of course, some of the properties he and I looked at back in 2016 were priced between $400,000 and $500,000, and now of course these properties are selling for at least twice that amount. was this guaranteed?  No, but every single indicator in trend was going in the right direction.  In short, he was looking for an investment unicorn and refused to settle for a thoroughbred.  

Yeah, he's no where near being financially free and likely never will be.  

@Jeremy L Moskal  Everyone should keep in mind that rentometer gets their information from actual posted listings. But of course, since listings for rentals never actually “sell” or close in the conventional, recorded @ county sense, it's like arriving at fair market value by looking only at active listings, not sold comps. You will have a slight discrepancy between numbers but I've been using Rentometer for nearly six years now and they have yet to disappoint.

Rental numbers for urban areas are pretty easy to determine but get exponentially difficult the further out from civilization one gets. And at the end of the day, all of these rental amounts are not scientific figures but rather subjective, highly-biased and ever changing.

@Ryan Punter Between biggerpockets, YouTube and Google, you should be set. Just be careful not to fall into the trap where you become a perpetual student and never end up doing anything. You may even want to reach out to a financial planner to get a sense of what you'll need to achieve your long term goals.

@Dave Carpenter 

In short, it depends on the lender. Keep in mind that it is the lender who is the client of the appraiser. Yes, 99% of the time it is the borrower who pays for the appraisal but guess what, it is the lender’s report and the lender decides the purpose of the appraisal. I know what you're thinking and I agree: That doesn't seem right.

The overwhelming percentage of appraisals are done using the sales comparison approach. I would be hard pressed to find any lender or appraiser who regularly uses the income approach to valuing any property with fewer than five units. in fact, an appraiser might even lose their license if they did that.

Lastly, appraisers have not been provided guidance on airbnb by the uniform standards of professional appraisal practice. to date, the argument is that the income generated from short term rentals is so highly variable no lender can bank on an amount provided by the borrower, even if the borrower provides a plethora of documentation another supporting evidence.

The only possible wiggle room would be if a certified general appraiser uses other similarly zoned motels, hotels or the sort.

But please, if you're looking at the massive amount of income generated through short term rentals and believe that an appraiser is going to use those numbers to determine value, I'm sorry to inform you that this is not going to happen. However, check and recheck and then check again with your loan officer or commercial banker.

@Kenneth Gore my first two were conventionally financed with Guaranteed Rate.