All Forum Posts by: Ronald Allen Barney

Okay, given what you describe of the market you're in you may want to pivot the strategy to SFH in A-class neighborhoods that are distressed enough to not be overbid by thirsty buyers. Cruise good neighborhoods and on each street find the worst-looking property on it. Bang the door. Make a good pitch. Leave your card and professional-looking literature. If their response is anything but an automatic flat "no" you CAN make that deal eventually even without an agent (get a good title company that will walk you through the direct sale process). Some of the cash can be used to rehab the property, use Rentometer to find a good strategic price point for renting, and collect cash flow.

He hasn't published any books that I am aware of, but any of the youtube videos featuring Chandler David Smith have helped me immensely with building a rapport with prospects and converting more of them to clients.  A good book I'd recommend is "How to Persuade People Who Don't Want to Be Persuaded" by Joel Bauer and Mark Levy.  Joel Bauer videos on youtube are also helpful and entertaining.  Bauer is featured briefly on a very entertaining marketing video called "The Pitch, Poker, and the Public" by Ben Mack.  You'll never see a business card the same way again hehe.

You'll want to keep looking to build a "Core 4" team:  Agent, Contractor, Mortgage Lender, and Property Manager.  Starting out that may be difficult because a few too many professionals out there don't want to invest their time with first-time investors.  Keep plugging at it.  The agent should be investor-literate and if they only want to sell residential dream homes keep looking.  The contractor you will need for most purchases to make a property rent-ready, barring some that by luck come to you already in a ready state.  Mortgage lender you will build a relationship with over time so as not to have to start from square one every time you go to get funding.  PM I highly recommend even if you think you have the spare time to self-manage.  It's better to have a PM in place and ready for you to grow into needing one than to decide at a critical moment you've got more operational headaches than you can handle on your own.

Having potentially a $180k cash position puts you in a very good place to start straight into a fourplex+ for doors.  Finding the right deal until you have a good agent on your team will be challenging at first, but after you've closed a few doors you'll start to get a "nose" for it.  Some of the more successful investors I know work with an agent to find primarily off-market opportunities.  When they prospect for listing clients and find one, rather than go to the hassle of listing they can bring those sellers straight to you.

Be patient and persistent on team building and deal finding, and best of luck!

I feel like Steve Martin in "The Jerk" when he goes, "I'm in the phone book, I'm SOMEBODY now!!!"

:)

Some tips for an investor reaching out to a real estate agent for the first time:

1)  Ask if they or some other agent in their brokerage specializes in investment transactions.  If there is not an instant "yes", move on.

2) If they answer "yes" that they are investment specialists ask a few pointed questions like house hacks, cash on cash return, cap rate, DSCR, 1031, ARV, make it like a job interview to make sure they aren't just blowing smoke to get you to sign their buyer representation agreement. Ask what the typical CoC ROI is for their market. Any sort of an "uhm" more than a second or two, hang up.

3)  If they do pass the "pop quiz" on investment terminology, tentatively go into a discussion with them on a specific listing if you have one in mind, or if you don't have a specific listing in mind ask for their spreadsheet of hot deals if they have one.  Every good investor-oriented agent should have a hot deals spreadsheet although they might not want to fess it up before they get a representation agreement.  That'll be fine if they hold it back for now.

4)  If there was one listing you had in mind dangle the carrot of the representation agreement as a reward if they do some homework for you:  to gather up expense data on the property, the rental estimate or Schedule E, and other data that should be at the fingertips of the listing agent.  They want that agreement signed so they'll do some legwork to get it.  Reward them with it if they perform well on their homework, or if they don't, move on.

5)  Once you find a good agent you like working with, stick with them.  You won't find them every day.  :)

Fraud, either buyer on seller or seller on buyer, was the root reason why governments set up licensures for the professions of real estate brokers, title companies, and lawyers who specialize in real estate.  It's fairly common to see people wanting to bypass the professionals, especially realtors, on a cost basis, like "I want to save the commission cost", but what they don't realize is that that cost tends to be a lot less than what a buyer or seller could run into if they aren't professionally represented and if the other party of the transaction is up to something shady.

If I advise clients in a similar scenario should I tell them DSCR would be based on the appraiser survey? Just to clarify.

My approach is I consider this a trial period for myself, being an agent full time.  If I get to a point where my savings will have run out and I'm staring down at a tax eviction from the house I have paid for, I may have to pivot back into full time W-2 and cut losses in the agent world.  If that happens I'll be flipping over to the investor side.

Brand new agent going through the brokerage training here.  The official word is that with hard work, pounding doors, and infinite hours of cold calling we will still come up with the leads and listings.  Internally my view is that the inventory shortage is an opportunity to commit the ultimate heresy in the Church of Real Estate Sales, and actively seek out buyers.  (Stands by expecting a bolt of lightning)  Since it now takes very little skill or effort to sell these days that's the path of least resistance so it's going to accumulate more lemmings.  The challenge is to represent the interests of a buyer well and secure good deals with a strategy that gets the offer in there and accepted ahead of the others.  Where the challenge gauntlet is laid down, next level agents pick it up.