All Forum Posts by: Rick Santasiere

@Matthew Gundersen.  I like both Joe and Brians comments here as far as providing you with some of their thoughts. 

Also, my agent informed me that I will need a prequalification letter from my lender. No problem I can get that, but should I get it for the asking price of the property? The property needs some work so I am preparing to submit an offer quite lower than the asking price. In your experiences have you found having a letter for the asking price is better? Or should I get the letter lower to what I am preparing to ask?

There are lenders who will not insert the property address any longer in their pre-approval letters (I am not certain, but I believe there are some regulations that changed in the past year or so), so really there are only two options here:  1. Lender provides you with a pre approval letter with the property address listed you are offering on. 2. The exact $$ amount of your offer. Joe mentioned to never put the $$ amount on a pre approval. I disagree, respectfully. If you are coming in "low," there is a good chance that your offer will not be accepted, and will require further negotiation anyway.  A good lender is ok changing that dollar amount for one or more offers on the same property; it's part of their business.. I do not have to repeat myself on this one, but please take my advice and do some more research on it so that you can understand.

I do have some concerns with some of your other questions, and why you are asking them on this forum.  An experienced buyers agent should be able to guide you thoroughly through the process of:

- EMD and how much to put down (based on local custom, the property itself, and a slew of other factors that we don't know; but your agent does). Sometimes it is completely fine to put "as little EMD down as possible," however, you have no idea how that will be received by the seller and selling agent. A "weak" EMD is something I associate with a buyer not wanting to put "skin in the game."

- Inspection Contingencies. Brian mentioned his experience.  This is based on contract language. Use your agent or speak with your attorney prior to submitting your offer if you have these concerns.

I wish you the best of luck with your offer.  If you are to take anything away from my response, it would be to ensure that your agent understands your concerns and questions, and to ensure they are qualified and carry the experience to answer them to your satisfaction. If you are not satisfied, you might consider finding an agent who does have the experience that would make you feel more comfortable pulling the trigger.

@Care Anne S.,Realtors and Brokers learn about the term "steering" in the Fair Housing sections of our principles and practices guides when in class. Wikipedias definition is this:  

Racial steering refers to the practice in which real estate brokers guide prospective home buyers towards or away from certain neighborhoods based on their race. There are certainly other "projected classes" other than simply race that also encompass steering, and most good agents do not entertain even a hint of telling a client about how we "feel" about an area.  There are testers out there to keep us in line as well, and our licenses are in jeopardy if we answer incorrectly. 

Daily, I need to tell my investor clients that they should do a drive by, use their favorite school/crime rate website, and research the areas themselves.  Actually "walking the neighborhood" certainly adds another layer of comfort as well, but the drive by should come first. If you don't feel comfortable getting out of your car, then you might have your answer about how you (personally) "feel" about the area. Because in the end, we all have differing levels of comfort.

Filipe Pereira do we have a referral we can send? I wish we could help, but we currently do not cover this part of the state for property management.

@Brandon Turner, if you don't have boots on the ground yet, @Filipe Pereira is a great resource. As both Filipe and Mike stated, there are some areas you should not purchase in. Bristol is located in an area that has access to a lot of jobs in this part of the state.  Some could argue that CT is not exactly exploding with job growth (this is correct), but there are some major players here for sure.. ESPN is a big one right in town (one of our tenants works there), and as already discussed, it borders some nice Class A top notch towns with great amenities. I love Bristol for cash flow, and have for quite some time.

I am not certain as to the #'s the client came up with, but it is definitely a 12+ Cap with good management.  It is definitely management intensive though...

Norwich Avenue. Two 6 unit bldgs

@Sean Maginess welcome to BP and great to see more folks in CT looking to build wealth/create passive income.  Feel free to reach out any time.  We are closing on 12 units in Norwich in a few weeks, and cover most of the state. Would be happy to share some experiences.

Filipe Pereira love the "fault" comment. Give yourself some more credit man, I am simply in this thing 100%, and you saw what it did for me (and what corporate did to me as well:) What it will do for you will be different, but it will give you more or a lot: Time. Money. Passion. Charity/mentoring/giving back. I LOVE the comments in this thread about how you should NOT have quit your day job. I have no judgement against these W2 types in the least, in fact, I have a healthy respect for them as well. However, the ones who said "You should have kept your day job" clearly don't understand who you are and what you have experienced in the 12-13 months in the cooperate world. Never let people poke holes in your ability to dream of making things bigger for you and those around you. When Elon Musk dropped out of high school (I don't know the full story...), but if can't imagine that ANYONE had ANYtHING positive to say about it:) He is changing the world (literally) as we speak.. The 40 hours that you have "freed up" to concentrate on something you are passionate about FAR supercedes the stability that others have stated on this thread. Stability will ALWAYS provide abundance to honest, hard working, and passionate people. It's the law man.. And to my dear friend Albert M. Filipe's "action" is something all of us should be inspired by!! Lets grab dinner soon my friend! Great post Filipe. Great thread, awesome comments, and keep up the inspiration. It is inspiring me to be better too!!

Chris Reid as so many other have said. Solid guy. An extremely passionate guy in everything he does. And this is his local area.

Filipe Pereira Brendan Griffin thanks for the mention. Zora Luan congrats on getting your license. I'm willing to meet with you for coffee some time during the day when you have some time. PM me if you wish.