All Forum Posts by: Ryan Dossey

Hey man, congrats on the first deal! 

One thing I didn't see mentioned was what the value of the place is? Buying a nice place for 250k that's worth 250k is less sexy than having equity from day one. 

I alsodidn't see any mention of HOA fees/dues and or rules. Being a townhouse most of them have CC&R's that you need to ensure you're following.

1) I got started in RE back in 2014 at the age of 20. Feel free to browse my old cringe posts as proof lol. Be careful not to place your identity in your age/success in RE. Being "boy wonder" can lead to ego and pride definitely comes before the fall. 

2) Irrelevant. No one has ever asked me. 

3) Depends on if you want longterm or short term residents. 

5) We used Redstar https://www.redstarbackgrounds.com/ they give you accept/decline recommendations. Verify credit, employment, etc for you. 

6) I would definitely want noise (quiet hours), guests, and treatment of common areas covered. 

7) We've used Rent Manager as it focuses more on the financials which I think is super important. That's actually one of my pieces of advice for you... learn how to do your own book keeping so you know your P&L in real time at all times. 

8) Hard to say without knowing the value of the place, CC&Rs, as well as any HOA fees/dues. 

Hey all, 

My wife and I bought a house in P-Cola and will be relocating in Sept. I'm looking to remodel our masterbathroom, install a new oven, and swap our electric range with a gas one (yes the property has gas).

This is our personal home in a 400k-ish price range so wanting it to be nice but not trying to pay $30,000 for a bathroom either. 

Any Pensacola folks I should talk to? 

The gold has to go! 

Only you can decide if this is a deal that you want or not. I will say that we have filled vacancies the past two weeks... With medical professionals moving to town to work on vaccine research. 

I would say that the value has gone down though. So I would make sure you are getting a SCREAMING deal. 

I release new videos every Monday and Wednesday at 3:30 PST. 

In today's video I go over 3 quick tips for investors doing direct mail. 

@Ryan Daigle We didn't know about it until we tried it on this one. Very happy with the results and definitely using it going forward. 

We listed a wholetale (flip with no real work done to it) last month and wanted to spruce up our listing a bit. I stumbled on a company called Box Brownie that does image retouching, virtual staging, and even item removal for a fairly reasonable price. 

They charged $4 to get rid of the Indiana gray sky and replace it with the sunset. There was also a car in the driveway that they removed... 

Before: 

After:

Notes: 

I love the sky change and definitely think that it made the listing cover photo "pop". I wasn't as thrilled with the grass coloring as no one's grass is that green in Indiana in February. Otherwise, they did a great job and I'm sure the change increased our click-through rate from folks browsing listings. 

Total cost of ^ this? 

$8.00

According to a 2015 article in Forbes, "The National Association of Realtors states that staged homes sell 87% faster and for an average premium of 17% more.".

They even stated that 95% of staged homes sell within 11 days. That's a pretty bold claim...

Mine sold in 10 days. 

One of the dangers with virtual staging is that it can be used to deceive potential buyers into believing that rooms are substantially larger than they really are. As investors, it is our responsibility to operate ethically and ensure that we aren't setting up any realtors for disappointing walkthroughs with their clients. 

Please note that in some markets realtors are REQUIRED to disclose if virtual staging has been used.

Box Brownie did a fantastic job in using appropriately sized furniture for the size of the spaces we had them do per our instructions.

Master Bedroom Before: 

After: 

Finished Basement Before: 

After: 

Finished Living Room (Sorry I don't have a before handy): 

Overall I was EXTREMELY pleased with Box Brownie's staging of our flip and we will definitely use them again. To do all of the edits/staging we wanted on this flip cost us right at $300. To have the home staged it would have been 2k+. 

Have you ever used virtual staging or tried it?

@Anson Young thanks for the kind words man! 

@Matt Ferch We currently take around 10,000 calls a month for investors. I've got guys in your market I can put you in touch with if you'd like :) Just shoot me a PM.

@Martin Mas Thanks for the feedback! I try to make everything I share a "for dummies" level of easy. :) 

You are welcome!

@Ashley Woodard

@Karl B. It's a great way to find deals without sinking an arm and a leg into marketing if you only want one or two.