All Forum Posts by: Bryan L.

Mid 30s. Didn't even know that there was a such thing as a real estate investor. My wife and I bought an REO to live in. Weren't necessarily looking for a deal or an REO. But I got a little bit of a bargain, gained some equity by rehabbing it (to live in), saw the potential in flipping, and got hooked on the idea. Started reading and studying on the internet. It was another 4 years or so before I had any real success. Still live in the house now, and still use the HELOC that we got on it to invest and flip.

I'm doing a poll/survey of investors nationwide. This relates to a coaching product that I am thinking about developing. If anyone wouldn't mind participating, please answer the questions below.  Thanks. 

- how long have you been investing?

- how many deals have you done?

- what is your target price range?

- what size town do you invest in?

- what's your biggest challenge,

- how much are you spending per lead,

- how much are you spending per DEAL

- if money were no object what kind of production level would you be at

- what is your pain around getting deals done marketing wise,

- how much per lead would you be willing to spend?

- are you looking at MLS leads,

- if so if not, why not?

- do you have a Realtor that you are working with?

- how many deals have you bought that were listed on the MLS?

both

For me, this brings up the bigger question.

What is the best way for one to buy a property from a seller using some type of creative financing?  Every different method has it's own unique risks and advantages.

How about this:  Why not buy on a land-contract method and not record the land-contract?  Using this method, I would still want to have a liability insurance policy in place, but I think that it could be done without having to notify the lender.  Of course, your  equitable interest is not as strong (and not very well protected without having it recorded at the courthouse), but if you didn't put down a large down-payment anyway, why would you care?  Any thoughts?

What's all of this "illegal" stuff that you keep on talking about. None of this would be "illegal" where I live. And these banks (and their asset managers) have properties all over the country, so they have no way to know the local laws and such. Dude, the stuff that you are complaining about is just pretty standard/normal stuff with REOs. Do you think that you can get a good deal on a house that has no problems? Hell, if it were that easy, everybody would be doing it - and there would be no money in it. Actually, what you have discovered here is one of the biggest keys to finding good deals on MLS properties. The fact that it is difficult is a GOOD THING. Otherwise, there would be too much competition and the prices would be run up way too high by all the newbies/wannabies and all of the out-of-state and overseas investors.

@Nancy Brook and @Anil Samuel

 - Another advantage to paid coaching is the accountability factor.  Having someone to help hold you accountable to taking action (and the correct action).

But the truth of the matter is that most newbies/wannabies will never ever buy their first property at all - no matter what.  And I couldn't imagine chunking down serious cash and still not ever buying a property.  I wonder how in the world those people ever got their hands on that kind of cash in the first place.

Then, you also have this large pool of people who are newbies/wannabies who have never ever accomplished anything in their life at all.  I mean, they couldn't come up with a $100 bill if you offered to pay them a thousand for it.  They will never be successful in this biz either.

Well, mostly this is true. Especially with the big banks. You pretty much have to wait until they get listed with a Realtor. With small local banks you might be able to get to the right person to talk to before they list it. I know people who have had some success with the small/local banks. And I do know of a website for Regions Bank where they list some of their REOs before they go on the MLS. Regions is more of a mid-sized regional bank.

It really depends on how bad it is - and how extensive.  And it also depends on how you will go about getting it done.  Are you going to do the work yourself or hire one of those space-man-suit-wearing-professionals?  The space-man-suit guys can run thousands of dollars.  I once paid about 4 or 5 grand to have those guys come in and clean up a house and I had another house quoted where those guys quoted 10-12k.  Depends on the job.  Depending on how bad it is (or isn't), you may not even need the space-man-suit guys anyway.

@Will Mitchell

Will, most of the houses that I have bought have been MLS-listed houses. There ARE deals there, but some times you have to really hunt for them. And putting in a lot of offers is one way to hunt - but maybe not the best. Anyway, just take it one step at a time and learn and improve as you are going. My advice would be this:

step 1. Find a money partner or a hard-money lender who will give you some type of proof of funds letter, or a bank that will give you a pre-approval letter. You will need this to make offers on MLS-listed properties. Even if your Realtor that is writing offers for you doesn't require this (and they would be stupid if they didn't), the listing agent probably will require it before they let their seller accept an offer.

step 2.  Go look at a house that looks like a good candidate (probably a vacant fixer).

step 3.  Estimate your repairs.

step 4.  Make the offer.

step 5.  Counter offer back and forth as necessary.

There's no need for you to be going out and making 5-10 offers per week (or more) when you are just now getting started.  There's nothing that says that you have to take down a deal in your first week (or month) of trying.  Now, on the other hand, if you need a deal so bad real fast cause you can't pay rent or buy food or something like that - well a second job is the way to go for that, not investing.

@Matt B.

I got started with mostly free info from the internet.  But I also bought and read a good number of books.  Now, for some reason a lot of newbies will fork over money on Amazon for a book, but they think it's not good to pay a little money for a seminar.  Not sure why that is.  And to answer one of your questions specifically - yes, you can probably learn all that you need to know for free right here.  But that doesn't mean that all of the available information is here.  Probably sufficient information, but not ALL of it.  For example - there's one technique in particular that I use to find good deals, and I've never seen anyone talk about it here on BP.  Actually, I've Google searched it and can't find anyone talking about it on the internet anywhere at all.  Will I give this info out for free here on BP?  Nope, sorry.  Would I coach someone in how to carry out this particular technique?  Yes, but only if they are paying.  Does that someone make me a bad person or a huckster or shyster?  Nope.  Does it make me a "guru"?  I don't know.  Is the information valuable?  I think so, seeing as how I used this particular technique to locate about 1/2 of the properties that I've bought since 2008.  Well, it's valuable to me at least.