All Forum Posts by: Robert Huang

you can draft your own contract to purchase the house with the terms, closing date, escrow company, title company, who pays what, etc...

or you can find a realtor and offer him 500-1000 k (1.5-3%) to make the offer for you

or you can find a real estate attorney to do the same

or you can buy a purchase form from real estate attorney so you don't have to draft your own.

not sure about particulars in Illinois though. someone better may be able to help 

yes i see. i will talk to my broker before signing up. 

i am not sure about the reasoning behind why i would need to pay broker for my own deals, even if found on mls. after all i am also paying for mls thru joining local, state and national association. 

Hi

I am not sure if this has been answered correctly on the internet- did a search and found no answer.

If I am licensed as a real estate agent in order to access the MLS, and end up buying a property for myself, do I have to pay my brokerage a commission, if I choose not to collect commission on the purchase?

i stand corrected. =)

i had my license a while ago and here is my experience with what you are asking

-training and courses : there will be set times you need to show up at some of the training sessions. if you have another job, it may interfere

-solid mentor - that means shared commission - at one brokerage, you will have to share half your commission with the mentor for your first 2 houses. and no, you don't trail behind the mentor on their deals--they assist you on your deals.

-nowadays, they have a transaction coordinator, who keeps tracks of the deals' progress, which helps in closing deals. there is a charge for that if you decide to have someone else monitor the progress of the deal.

-some don't charge desk cost, but require high commission paid to brokerage; some charge desk cost, with lower commission to brokerage.

-if you want 80/20, it may be best to look for one that has desk cost; some brokerage also have tiered system, that 80/20 split is only achieved if you reach a certain level of commission.

here's is my take on it -

deals are relatively hard to find and training materials are easy and you can even resort to a transaction coordinator if you need one, i would go for a brokerage that doesn't require a mentor, unless they don't require a commission split and have a favorable commission split to you.

i.e. a typical california house 500 K

commission is 6% = 30,000.

80/20 split = 24000 to you

if you have mentor that requires 50:50, then that's 12000 gone. (you can do the calc yourself for your actual situation)

you will realize that 12,000 probably took only a few hours total of mentor's time in the whole transaction, while you were doing all the footwork either as listing or buyer's agent. most of the information is already in the study materials you've had--the nuances can be learned from you actually going out there; even if they spent 24 hours total on you, you're paying them 500/hr.

of course, it's ultimately down to the details.

so it depends on the people running the HOA. it's not very appetizing, as the quality may vary without any control over.

I hope I am posting in the right place. What are the arguments for or against an HOA property for rentals? I have one person tell me that HOA protects my investment.

Hi I am just starting out in the rental property business. I am re-locating from Southern California to Las Vegas. So while doing some market research online at www.apartments.com, I realized that there are A LOT of rentals in LV, density-wise, compared to Ventura, CA or Oxnard, CA where I live. I am looking to do Single Family Home rentals, buy and hold strategy.

How do I assess vacancies and need for more rentals? The rental rates has got to be competitive, and that means the purchase price of the house must be great in order for cash flow to be positive. Has anyone been dazed before by the number of rentals available but did it anyway and saw the light at the end of the tunnel?

this thread is helpful. i saw the ad for WCAP on a BiggerPocket email and am glad that i checked this out first. good to know that their credit source is credit cards.  i saw the promise of 50K interest-free and was piqued.

if you are a beginning rehabber, this is a deal i would avoid, (unless you have experiences in other related areas or have researched this extensively or have asked experts i.e. structural engineers for their input), as 

1) you don't know the prices your contractors would charge

2) the estimated rehab costs are lumped under general categories (i.e. concrete, plumbing, electrical), but do you know which specifically/exactly you need to fix?

3) you don't know how accurate your estimates are

4) who came up with the ARV?

There's too many things to fix at first glance, and if I were you, I would try to find something smaller. It is easy to put numbers on a paper.

Disclaimer- I am just getting started in RE, so my opinions are all based on books. Feel free to disregard them.