All Forum Posts by: Ryan Evans

I'd go to Denver, Austin, Vegas or Boise. 

My experience with wholesalers is that they just blatantly lie about the properties. I have no issues with the idea of wholesaling and I've almost bought a few deals. I've even thought about letting a few market a property or two of mine.

The misrepresentation tactics with sellers can certainly be quite shady, but that's an ethical issue I won't bother with. What I see happen is that new wholesalers get all pumped up by the online course they bought and then go out making claims that they can make cash offers to sellers, but since they don't know their numbers the price they have to sell it at to get a slice of the deal ends up being far beyond what any investor would pay and the deal goes nowhere. 

On the buyer side, most wholesalers I see know little about rehabbing properties so the estimates are so far off that it's laughable. My inbox is full of "deals" for a 50k purchase, 30k rehab and 120k ARV. The real numbers are always something like 50k rehab and 105k ARV, so they may be a breakeven deal at best. Though, with the risk/time/energy involved you'd be better off getting a job at Mcdonalds.

I think the industry may be so prevalent because for every shady wholesaler there must be an amateur, overconfident buyer who doesn't know they are getting screwed. 

If you want to be one of the good ones, know your numbers and be transparent with them. 

Since you're from Cleveland you know better than anyone that the market is entirely dependent on where you buy. Plenty of areas are better for cash flow and others for appreciation. It's like much of real estate, the best strategy depends on what you want to accomplish. 

A couple of the properties I bought in 2017 have increased over 50% and they are in the lower-end "cash flow" areas. I still consider it having been a pretty significant risk that I took, but it's paid off. Though, if I had bought in other areas, the dollar amount of appreciation on more expensive properties would have done just as well. 

Just be cautious of the age of properties out here. A lot of properties are over 100 years old now and just come with their own sets of problems. 

Keep in touch with your lender and let them guide some of your financial decisions over the next year. You can just ask them straight up what you should be doing to get yourself in the best position. They're the ones who are going to be judging your financials at the end of the day, and they have incentives to get you to the point where you can become their customer. 

There are a few of them. I like the Lokal meetups and RE Think Tank group since I tend to meet more people doing real estate rather than just talking bout it. The various REI clubs around town are okay as well.

I'm not sure which if any are still running these days. If they are I'm assuming they're not as well attended. 

If you're waiting to be ready, that day will never come. I moved from the PNW to Cleveland a couple of years ago to go all in on real estate. You'll get sucked into the real estate life enough to where you won't miss the social stuff as much. Being in the middle of a pandemic might make socializing a bit more difficult, but everything else hasn't really changed. 

Contractors are busier than ever, Home Depot is still open, and people are still looking for good places to rent. Real estate meetups are lacking, but you can find plenty of people through BP to meet up with and then start leveraging your networks there. I really don't think you'll be too hindered because of the pandemic. If anything, it will give you more space to focus on getting on top of things. 

Well, your realtor screwed you by not making sure this was sorted out in the transaction. You can get an escrow hold for unpaid water bills. It's actually written into the purchase agreement in most cases. For future reference, do that at a bare minimum.

If you shut off the water and your tenants show up to their eviction hearing and mention it, your case will get thrown out and you may get fined for constructive eviction. So, don't do that! Sure, you can give 24-hour notice to go in, but you might as well steal their tv while you're at it because shutting off the water is just as illegal. 

You're on the hook for the water bill. Just accept it, learn the lesson, and carry on! Good luck getting everything under control!

Don't forget that real estate can be incredibly simple if you want it to be. Since you're not stretching yourself thin on the first deal you can always pick a stable market and buy a relatively newer, rent-ready single house and just get a deal done so you're familiar with the process and you'll learn a ton just from that. Closing on a property and managing the process of getting it cleaned up and rented is a straightforward process if you aren't taking on a big rehab project or anything. 

You can find tons of markets where you could put 25k down and get yourself a nice single house for $150k that will cash flow and get you into the game. Then, figure it out from there. I just see a ton of people wait for years and years to find the right strategy when the simple strategy is sitting right in front of them. Just a thought! 

Might want to call the city and track down the necessary department. There are restrictions on the number of unrelated parties living in one household. I thought I heard once that the number was three. If it's a STR then it may not matter as much.

@Brian Garlington pretty much said it all. There are so many tire kickers and the commissions are so low that the only way to make money is on volume or doing deals at a far higher price points than most investors are looking. Once you’re approved you should know your neighbourhoods, know the rental markets, know the taxes, etc and be able to clearly articulate what you want to buy. If you don’t know then it’s your job to figure it out. An agent can then help you narrow it down. Agents won’t spend a week driving around looking at 40k properties and coaching you through the process then giving out all their referrals just for a chance that you might buy something that will pay out a $1200 commission. That’s what 90% of the out of state investors are asking for, so do your homework and you’ll start getting attention! 

Thats just a little honest advice from a local agent who gets and ignores messages almost every day from new California investors who haven’t done their homework.