All Forum Posts by: Amber Gonion

@Steve Gerten I agree with @John Woodrich we have heard about the recession for a couple of years. There is no good time to buy if you want to see it that way.

The fact is there is a balancing act of factors prices, interest rates, rents, supply, economic, etc. it doesn’t line up to have cheap rates and low prices and increasing rents one will always be off. So my opinion is that the best time to buy is today, the more units you have for a longer period of time the more wealth you will attain.

If you are flipping or in it for five years or less there is more risk (5.5 years is an averages economic cycle) If you are buy and hold your value could go down for a few years then pop up and climb, but during those five years rents will increase, you will cash flow, services/repairs become cheaper, and all the time you are financed in cheap money paying low interest collecting equity each month from the rent paying the mortgage.

How much money will you lose waiting for the crash? How much will you lose during crash waiting for it to end before buying? When will you know it is over and safe to buy? People that bought in 2008 are back to value and increasing while collecting cash flow and gaining equity. Diversify your investments for sure during all cycles, but don’t hesitate to buy real estate at any point in the cycle unless you are exiting within 5 years.

@Presly Ulen what we often recommend to our investors is to know your neighborhood. If you are from a certain area you may know about it block by block better than the next investor that just knows the general area. For example if you grew up in Hopkins you would likely know every part of the city and whats improving and declining.

Your market is the twin cities area and the demand for rental housing, price to rents, and future trends.

You need to know your city and what they expect from landlords and the costs involved in compliance.

Neighborhoods are not the same block by block some have good demand blocks and others have undesirable blocks.

Knowing your block would be understanding that the houses in a certain part of the neighborhood are In high demand because of the walking trail, proximity to transportation, or a school boundary, planned light rail, etc. On the other hand knowing the the blue house on the corner has always been a drug house, or the train runs through the neighborhood at night, or the neighborhood is starting to go downhill with rentals is important to know.

Just seeing the numbers on the mls doesn’t tell you enough to evaluate, but knowing market, city, neighborhood, and blocks tell more of the story. You can see where having in depth knowledge of a certain area can be very helpful.

@April Leclair Minneapolis is a strong rental market with reasonable costs. We have always avoided the brunt of economic downturns and have about a 2% vacancy rate.

@Sean Sloop the catch must be that it is 1.5% for the listing, but you still need the commission for the buyers agent so add on the typical 2.7-3% buyer’s commission and they are at 4.2%-4.5%. We do that all the time.

When anyone puts a property on the MLS you need to disclose the amount that will be paid to the buyer's agent. Keeps everything above board.

I think it is important to find an agent that has house hacked in the past, only does investment real estate, and offers you experience and knows construction.  Investment real estate is nothing like residential.  My husband and a long time friend that is a residential agent both walked in to a house where are they were going to for a social event and they started talking about the house and each saw the house much differently.

Give @John Woodrich a call.  He may be able to help you.

@Brandon Mitchell as others have said there are many parts to your team. Agent, lender, management are on the top of my list. After are title company (agent should be able to direct you to a good one), contractors (manager should have a list), inspector (agent should know who is competent), insurance, and accountant.

@Jennifer Pauyo. Amber Gonion here, I am an investor with my husband, Broker of record for our company, and do management in the Minneapolis area.

@Christopher M.  Welcome to BP.   Lots to learn, but the experiences in investing and managing are the most interesting.  I would love to coffee sometime to discuss your plans.  We many clients that have different advantages and plans for investing based on their unique situations.  Our advice is use your advantages in the market and get into the game.  Too many investors stand on the sidelines waiting for a home run deal.  We can show you examples of investors that acquired properties early and because of that have done very well in a relatively short time.

@Tim Johnson We have had several deals for investors for big deals 7M plus as well as small deals where we needed to convince the client to walk away because we knew the property was not a winner. We sleep well every night and our clients know we have their best interests in mind and still use us.

We have no problem with getting great deals from represented sellers, as we are seasoned brokers and investors and it is a fair game. We are careful with home owners that are not represented as it isn’t a fair fight. We often will split up to represent both parties to ensure fairness. In the end you need to be able to enjoy the money you make without guilt. If you can sleep well with the deals you make then you are good.