All Forum Posts by: Ronald Allen Barney

Western WI!  I used to have 40 acres in Dairyland if you know where that is.  Fire hazard watch in a swamp was a learning curve for me, hehe.  Learned the hard way the swamp was too stagnant to grow wild rice.

Much of what you said about land brokering is also applicable to regular RE, although tools of the trade are cheaper.  No ATV required although sometimes I do switch over to my 4x4 truck for rural properties just to show the down home folks I'm down home too.

The biggest thing that strikes me about RE in general, this being my third month at it, (was "just an investor" before), is the constant contradiction of the twin messages I keep getting from "gurus" at my market center:

1)  Set a goal for some insanely high number of closings for your first year.

2)  It takes over a year of constant drip marketing to get enough closings to live on the commission checks.

Uhmmmmmmmmmmmmm... yeah. So while I started out full time, I didn't bring a friggin' year's worth of savings to live on waiting for my marketing to "take effect" (and the classic lead gen advice of "just call people you know" won't work for me because I was pretty much a loner most of my adult life), I've had to take a day job. Even though I haven't quit it already feels like failure. I get a few tire-kicker buyer leads but no closings. MLS drips and then they ghost me. Other agents in my post-licensing training course are already closing deals.

"Pound on doors and beg for business."  Yeah.  Like that's scalable.  F this, man, I mean, seriously.  For every one house  anyone anywhere around here is thinking of listing it's 20 agents in their face begging for the same business.  I feel like a homeless 10 year old in Bombay in a crowd of other starving kids chasing after pennies, all the time.  I think I just talked myself into giving up, which then triggers my ornery side that says F that.  I'm all in now.

Gary Keller.  I know that name, hehe.

Many moons ago I was at Hurlburt Field with AFSOC.  Good times.

Prices are crazy high and rents have not yet caught up with the sale prices but they will.  When nobody can afford to buy or qualify to buy they'll go into rentals, and supply and demand can't help but drive rents up.  You might want to verify your rental data with actuals rather than calculators, in case the rent market is already starting to catch up.

I would think the buyer agent would be worried silly about blowing past the financing contingency period and screaming on the phone at the appraiser for you.  I know I would be close to taking a hostage.

If you're going it alone, thoughts and prayers.

GA requires a 60 day written notice to lessee tenants prior to eviction.  If they are squatters I believe just a call to the Sheriff would take care of it.  Check first that it's not under CDC eviction moratorium rules.

Advantages of a buyer agent:  first off you as a buyer pay none of their commission.  It comes out of the seller agent's commission.  If they do even one tiny slice of good work for you, they did it at no cost to you.

Advantages of self-representation: if you want to focus on FSBO which buyer agents will tend to avoid, you may get more exposure to that end of the market.

I think they're listed under the $0 general contractors, the interest-free unlimited unsecured mortgages, the $0 property managers, free cars, and free lobster.

Bank of America was the default referral when I started up my LLC, and came with some discounts on capital loan products. I have no complaints with them. It's pretty hassle-free connecting my accounting software to those accounts which I can't say for my personal bank.

Bigger will take either more cash or private gap funding.  Let the quality of deals pull you into bigger if they're there, or if not, if better deals are in smaller MFH, go that route.

Typical vacancy used is 5% but other than that it looks right.  Very sweet deal.

The ocean front game due to the high sale prices for turnkey is to find the distressed ones (drive for dollars on those ocean front roads), and either flip, BRRRR, or rehab/STR. Anything turnkey will not cash flow.