All Forum Posts by: Masroor Ahmed

Got it. Making appointments to see places in a couple days.

@Will Barnard completely agree on LOI comments. Much easier to negociate key terms in simple english and allow the contract to be the fully detailed language.

@Mike B. admiittedly i haven't done this. Most of my market research has been on understanding demographic trends in this suburb and adjacent burbs and looking searching for comps online.  I'll probably do this asap.

Thanks @Will Barnard ...at this point, I think its just fear that's probably holding me back. I've got all that in the LOI, thanks to a friend who's been in the business for some time. Just have this lingering thought that I could be doing more pre-LOI, but I've probably exhausted that analysis. I'm very aware of the paralysis by analysis and want to avoid it, but not because I'm being impatient...sometimes its hard to tell the difference (speaking from other investment/finance decisions outside of RE).

Thanks @Mark Mosch , That's helpful...I have a solid LOI draft ready to go which is quite thorough with these contingencies (and includes inspection by 3rd party). I suppose then, with a solid LOI, I have contingencies for significant items I may miss during my superficial/initial evaluation. They way I look at it, there are certain major risks when buying a property and from pre-LOI evaluation to formal due diligence, I'm checking off those risk items along the way. I need to get comfortable with macro items (location, demographics, etc) before LOI, then the bigger building specific items, (say the roof is falling apart, etc.) won't come out until we've agree on an LOI and I'm diligence.... Just nervous I guess.

Hey BP folks - I'm a new investor and need some help getting over the challenge of getting deal number one.

While there's a ton written about due diligence check lists / process, I'd like some advice on pre-LOI diligence and getting comfortable enough to make an offer. How much leg work do you do before putting in an offer? Here are a few things I've hit on, but feeling nervous about putting in an LOI:

- research on surround area, demographics, businesses, general outlook

- walk through of building, saw 2 units of 8 with listing agent. Then drove by a couple times myself

- in the walk through, i evaluated as much as I could about the condition of the bldg, windows, age of appliances, common areas, water damage, etc.

- I'm a finance person, so I've evaluated the heck out of the math and varied scenarios

What am I missing? Adding to my caution, the property has been on the market for 3-4 months and the listing agent told me last week that they haven't seen any offers.  I even casually told him that the math doesn't work for me until i'm at a ~30% discount to current asking price.  Knowing that, he's still asking me to put in what I feel is a fair offer.  It probably doesn't matter, but my thought is he's either asking for an offer so he can claim at least one offer for his client (even if 30% lower than ask) or he really thinks the seller would consider this (I'm probably over thinking this last bit)...

Help =)