All Forum Posts by: Sage Jankowitz

Purchase Price: $325,000 + $50,000 in repairs

4 Units: $1,200/month per each unit

Hey Realtyman,

I thought you have some great thoughts here. But question: Why do you feel any recommendation that comes with a kick-back is a bad thing?

IMHO, I think it's good business sense on the part of the agent AS LONG AS the recommendation is a quality one. AKA the recommendation does good, ethical, fairly priced work and the agent has thoroughly investigated the work they do (checked references, seen them in action, checked for licenses/insurance, etc.)

I have received recommendations from agents in the past where it's clear they made the recommendation SOLELY for the kickback and of course that's infuriating. OTOH, I have received recommendations from agents where I've met REALLY quality people and I'm happy for both the recommended party and any kickback the agent receives -- as far as I'm concerned the agent deserves it, quality work is hard to find!

In a couple of weeks I'll be getting my RE license and I look forward to jumping right in. After spending a year in the wholesaling world and working with a bunch of agents, I learned more about what I don't want in an agent, than what I do, but here are some qualities I hope to bring to the table:

1. Reliablity -- I dealt with this time and time again. Agents that didn't return phone calls or emails, were late for meetups, or simply didn't show up at all. I want to be that agent that picks up the phone every time, returns every call and email promptly, and go by the mantra "15 minutes early is on time, on time is late, and 15 minutes late is YOU'RE FIRED!!"

2. Knowledge of specific RE niche -- I found many agents I worked with thought they were experts on everything: investing, home buying, home selling, commercial, green properties. Instead, I got a jack of all trades who was an expert in NOTHING. I'd like to focus on one or two areas (i'm thinking residential home buying as of now) and become the go to guy in my area.

3. Knowledge of the area -- Similar to #2, I had many agents who were willing to go to any area. While this opened up my options, it also limited the knowledge a lot of these agents could bring to the table. I'd prefer someone who knows a couple of towns inside and out, and can keep up on the ever changing RE landscape.

4. Attitude -- I found many agents had a really disturbing sense of entitlement. They felt if they showed me a bunch of properties, I owed them something. IMO, your job as an agent is to figure out what your client wants and attempt to give it to them. If they don't like what you show them, treat it like peeling away layers of an onion, until you can get to the core of what they're looking for. This is something that I ALWAYS wanted in an agent and have never been able to find.

Those are a few thoughts off the top of my head. Anyone else care to add to the list, please do!

Jackson, I can tell you from experience, after spending over a year trying to break into the wholesaling world: it's EASY finding the buyers, but it's HARD to find the deals and get them closed.

IMO, most wholesalers spend too much time finding buyers and not enough time finding the deals. If you have a good deal, investors will come out of the woodwork every time. But you're going to have to evaluate literally 100's of deals before you find your first one, unless you get extremely lucky. Start working on your marketing plan -- who are you going to target, how are you going to target them, how will you keep track of leads, and what team members do you have in place to close the deal?

It's just unbelievable the number of quality people/responses I find on this forum month after month, year after year. You all rule, but you also already know that...

Does anyone know of a great beginner horticulture book? Although I'm not a fan of the "for dummy" series, something in a similar vein by a reputable author, that covers a wide array of sub-topics in the the broad subject of horticulture would be very sweet. And to you rehab fellas, I'm not talking about landscaping for curb appeal, just indoor/outdoor gardening purely for enjoyment! Thanks guys and girls!!

Charles, my plan is to work as an RE agent on the buyer end, focusing on residential properties. I'm going to target brokerages which sell the most residential properties in my area and also offer fantastic educational opportunities. I believe long-term this will give me the greatest upside in terms of:

1. Potential earnings as a long term agent/broker
2. Knowledge of what homes are worth in my area, specifically what buyers will pay and when properties are complete bargains.
3. Work along side the most successful agents. (as they say, birds of a feather flock together)

This should set me up nicely down the road for my future goals of owning multiple triplexes in the area / rehabbing properties on the side. I've spoken to many successful rehab investors in my neighborhood and most started as agents/brokers and than began supplementing their income with rehabs and buy and holds.

More great replys here...

Chris, after spending about a year trying to make it as a full-time real estate investor wholesaling properties in my area, I came to the conclusion that I needed much more money to get started.

Over that year I networked with 100's of local RE investors/ RE professionals and I found that many of the most successful ones started off as agents and brokers in the residential sector, and used their vast networks and knowledge of the area, which they developed over years, to segue into investing. I plan to go a similiar route. In terms of a niche, I was thinking residential home buying...

Kevin and RealtyMan, I couldn't agree more. In my 26 years I've found that I can read all I want about a topic, but it's just not the same as digging in and DOING. I'm all for building on past experiences from those that have come before me, but at the same time, I have learned much more from making my own mistakes (and doing things the right way too!) and self-correcting along the way. Great thoughts guys!!

Thanks guys. Appreciate your replys!

So I've decided to become a RE agent. I should have my license before the beginning of December. Now I plan to bust my butt and hit the ground running, but I had a couple of questions on RE certifications:

1. When does it make sense to start getting RE certifications? In the beginning? Should I focus on closing deals and go after certifications later on?

2. Which certifications should I go after first? I was looking at the list of all certifications and there's about 100 in varying areas (international, vacation homes, home staging, buyer rep, etc.) with some overlapping, for example buyer's rep certifications. Are there any "must have's"? Are certain certifications more credible? Obviously the areas I'm interested in working will dictate this to an extent...

3. For the experienced RE agents, how much have you learned in these courses vs real world work? In my past careers I've always found the hands on knowledge far and away surpassed anything I learned in classes.

Thanks!

Sage