All Forum Posts by: Nick Atwood

First house hack, 15k for a SFH. Next year, a 4 plex house hack 20k, then a seller carried contract 10-plex for 75k. Then it just snowballed and became easier and easier!

@Dallas Roark Hey Dallas, feel free to reach out, I started in your shoes with our first rental a while back and have grown to 35+ residences personally, and have helped many others on their financial journey. We own a small local real estate office Atwood Realty south of Forest Grove, close to you as well specializing in investments. 

Hi Austin, if you're looking at a buy and hold long term strategy I'd be more hesitant in this space. There's a trend toward in home caregiving with local franchises taking a large market share from nursing homes. 90%+ of those aged 65+ prefer to "age in place", and the fastest growing job field is personal care/home health aides projected to grow 70% over the next decade according to the national bureau of labor statistics. But as a shorter financial strategy it may be more suitable. Hope this helps. We have family businesses in the healthcare space. 

Commercial lending space is a lot different if this is your first commercial venture: increased appraisal costs, inspection costs, etc. . Check out commercial loans of Texas, if it's a city with over 100k population, they're willing to write fully fixed term loans which is pretty rare in the commercial lending space; they've also got some great reviews online. Also, find a quality inspector and make sure there aren't any big ticket items needing fixed like foundation repairs. 

@Moriah Giles When I first got my license, I met and contacted every real estate agency in my area. I learned as much as I could about the commission splits, caps, and fee structures and looked over all the contracts, to see what my least cost was. All the training/classes weren't of relevance in my decision as everything I ever needed was online. Learn as you go. You don't really know until you don't know. Minimize all my risk by talking to people more knowledgeable than myself as often as possible. Glean from experts their words of wisdom in the industry. I've personally had much success out in the secondary, and tertiary markets. If you're curious about location demand, you can look at your local listing market for rent on CL, FB, and see what's renting faster, and at higher prices, and then compare that to the list prices. Also, utilize rent tools online such as rentometer.com.

@David Da Silva I've worked with a lot of realtors before becoming licensed, and even after getting licensed, and have not met that rock star investment realtor. I've never been lucky enough to find agents to represent me that could negotiate better than me. That's another factor of what prompted me to become an agent. I also had trouble finding realtors who understood where I was coming from on the investment side of things, as if you're speaking another language. That doesn't mean those agents aren't out there; I just haven't had the luck to come across any.

@Dennis Wayne Are you talking specifically about off-market deals? Majority of the deals out there, the seller is willing to pay a commission. If not, then use you being a realtor as leverage to gain bigger IPCs. 

@Steve Morris Having buyer's agents not refer me deals has never been an issue. Most of the time, the deals they send me I've already seen either online or offline. 100% of the deals I've invested in I've found on my own. As long as you're out there in the market, and actively looking then you won't be missing out. 

@Ola Dantis Good point, other office agents representing buyers don't forward me deals. I can see how this would be a negative thing, if I were a more passive investor not actively on the hunt.

@Steve Vaughan 3-5 deals seems steep as a break even point. My break even in OR is about 2k, so I only need like 1/4 of a deal. I get your point that some sellers don't want to deal with commissions. However, I use that as leverage to negotiate larger repairs credits, closing credits, IPCs, etc. If a deal is too good, I won't let a commission get in the way. It's all a negotiation game. :)

@Russell Brazil That's a great statistic! I can see how your average realtor would drop out fast. But your average realtor isn't an investor, and will most likely sign on with a big player, higher commission split brokerage. I only charge my brokers a flat $500 transaction fee, allowing them to grow their portfolio faster and profit more. It's not making me rich, but I'm hoping to just grow my business in volume. For me personally, I've also managed to negotiate significantly more for credits/price reductions for myself and my clients compared to the other agents I've worked with previously. I find the negotiation part of the deal the most exciting. I know it depends on the area, how complex the buying/selling process is, and how high the fees are, and am grateful I'm in the NW. 

I should clarify, I did take vacation time to complete the education as fast as I could. If I didn't it definitely would have lingered. I work a full time job during the week as a Software Engineer, so I only invest part time. Even if I had slowed down and only done a transaction every year or every other year, I still think it's worth it. That's a good point, the buyer's agent is not getting paid from the buyer. But, saving is earning. And if you're able to find off market deals, at least in OR, you can be a dual agent, and collect both sides of the commission! 

As an investor, it didn't make any sense why I was letter a buyer's agent collect 2.5% of the purchase price, for the minimal return I was getting. After many sales, I knew the real estate forms well and had the buying/selling process down. I decided it was time to get a real estate license. It took me about a week to get my license, start to finish- education, testing, forms, etc. I did the research and found one of the cheapest, low overhead, transaction fee based brokerages in the state of OR, and then over 3 years later, started my own brokerage! You end up saving thousands on each deal compared to your traditional brokerage commission split (20/30/40/50 etc.). It ends up costing a little over $2k a year to maintain a license at the minimum, but even doing just 1 sale a year more than pays for itself. A 300k property returns a $7.5k commission, or 3-4 years of the cost to maintain your license.

Being my own realtor provided so many more benefits! Being able to view properties anytime, anywhere. Negotiating on my own behalf. Not worrying about lowballing distressed properties, not worrying if I lose the deal if I'm negotiating too much - there are always more! Plus I can structure deals in a unique ways that provide a plethora of great benefits such as tax benefits, and less money needed to close deals! 

Someone debate with me, as an investor, why would you not invest the little time and money to get a real estate license and save yourself thousands?

Portland's market is still strong, depending on what type of investments you're looking for, then I'd recommend different areas. If anyone wants to chat investments in OR. Feel free to reach out! :)

Yep, commercial lending is a whole new ball game. I've personally used a few local lenders for past transactions. For me I prefer the 15 year fully fixed options. Columbia bank, and St Helens CU were the only 2 that I've seen offer that, I'm sure there are more, but it's just very hard to find. For residential properties I've got a few other contacts that are wholesale brokers offering extremely competitive rates. Feel free to reach out. Nick Atwood - Atwood Realty.