All Forum Posts by: Ryan J.

I am negotiating a deal with the sellers agent to have him represent me (buyer) to purchase a home.  Normally I'd hire my own agent, but due to the craziness of the market I need an inside edge.  The commissions split is 4% of which 2.5% goes to the buyers agent and 1.5% to the sellers agent.  My deal is give him 1% of the buyers commission while I get to keep the remaining (1.5%).  

My question is how do we structure this into the purchase and sale agreement? His brokerage sent the attached doc (form 40).  But I've never seen a form like this before... Is it legit?

Forgot to mention, we are trying to find 30 year fixed loans. 

we have 6 financed properties and would like to finance another.  Any ideas where we can get financing for the least amount of down payment?  Our broker says 30% down but there's got to be a way to do 20% or maybe even less.  We live in Seattle and have been landlords for 5+ years.  

Does anyone know any banks that offer Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOC's) or cash out refis for investment/rental properties?

Where can I find "low down" financing for an owner occupied duplex in Seattle WA?  By low down we mean 15% or less.

We currently have loans on 5 rental properties, all single family/condos.  And one primary residence townhome.  All are cash flow neutral/slightly positive with more than 2 year rental history/tax data available.

We live in WA State and have bought 6 homes using buyers agents.  Unfortunately the agents do not add much value - we have found all of the homes ourselves and attend all of the open houses ourselves.  Everything is available online (market analysis, comps, etc) and in most cases we are more familiar with our target market than the agent! 

Since the agents aren't adding value, we have started to write our own offers.  We are not licensed realtors but understand the standard contracts.   And after purchasing 6 homes we are familiar with the intricacies and mechanics of the offer.  The sellers agents have even been impressed sometimes mistaking us for real estate agents. 

My question is since we are writing our own offers will we pocket the 3% typically paid to the buyers agent? I would assume the 3% would appear as credit on the HUD statement during close.

Looking for a single site where an investor can understand if the property is worth buying.  It would be nice if we could see cash flows, rent estimates, appreciation estimates, comps, etc

Yes Zillow and Redfin are great, but they don't have all the data presented in a clean, useable format. MLS is even worse.

Does anyone know if there is a real estate investing website similar to redfin.com or Zillow.com except geared toward real estate investors?

We were turned down on our first 20+ offers.  It got to the point where I had pretty much memorized the offer paperwork (form 17, etc).  It got so bad we even lost a house twice!  The first time, to a higher offer.  Then, a year later when it came on the market, someone beat us out with an all cash offer! 

I know everyone has mostly the same advice.  But keep going after it.  There's nothing like persistence.  Even though we failed to get our first property, we used it as motivation to get aggressive and buy another, then another, and so on.  Since losing that first house we have acquired 4 rentals and working on our 5th.  It has taken a few years, but this is a long term game.  The hardest part is getting the first one.  Don't give up!

Depending on the market, "high end" SFR can appreciate much faster and sell for much more. However, the "low end" homes can also do pretty well (cash flow, etc). So, which would you prefer. And more importantly... why?