All Forum Posts by: Ruth Lyons

I agree with the comments by Greg above. I just had my offer accepted on a flip in a good neighborhood where the numbers work to fix and sell in a few months, if ARVs hold steady. If they drop, it’ll make a good cash-flowing buy and hold. In my humble opinion, you can’t sit still and do nothing waiting to see what happens. Move forward with a back up strategy that you’re just as happy with. 

Good morning. While I don't have a real estate attorney on the Eastern shore to recommend, please update us on what you find out. I am a real estate agent, and although I'm not interested in wholesaling personally, I don't see how it can be done legally as an agent. While there are situations where it can work, in general, I don't think you can represent the best interests of the seller by not offering to list the property on the MLS, thereby increasing the pool of potential buyers. And since you can't represent confidentiality to both a seller and a buyer at the same time, I don't see how wholesale deals can ethically be transacted by a licensed agent.

Thank you!

I actually started as an investor (buy & holds and flips) in 2015 and decided to get my license in 2018. Pros and cons by others above are accurate. One thing you should know is that there are a lot of fees and expenses to be a successful agent and, according to NAR, the median annual salary of full-time agents is only around $48,600 before fees, marketing expenses, etc. There's no health insurance or other corporate benefits either. Fortunately, I'm doing better than average working with retail clients and having my license has helped me with my deals, both experience-wise and MLS access. While I still buy from wholesalers from time to time, my last two deals were MLS listings and I got to them first because as an agent, I have access to listings in "coming soon" status whereas the public sites like Zillow cannot post them until they are in "active" status.

To add to the other comments regarding depreciation...it's a tax write-off on taxable income. In an SDIRA, you're not being taxed annually on your rental income so there's not need for an annual tax write-off. 

Thanks Heath. I will check it out. I don't have any leveraged properties in my SDIRA so I don't need to worry about UBIT, but the no middleman sounds enticing.

The customer reviews on Kingdom Trust don't look good...any other suggestions?

I have used Sunwest Trust in Albuquerque New Mexico since 2015. Low fees, easy to work with and leave you alone for the most part. I just got a letter they've sold the company and my account will automatically transfer to the new company owner. Looks like their fees and policies are in line with those of Sunwest Trust.

Looks great!

That’s good news. Thanks for sharing.