All Forum Posts by: Sebastian Gast

Welcome! You seem like you are on your way already and on the right track. PS, I believe there is a BiggerPockets meetup today in Midtown at Mongoose vs Cobra at 6:30pm.

Not to be a negative Nancy, but I am really struggling with the lack of professionalism that so many service oriented companies/businesses show.  They don't call when they say they are going to, they show up late, they don't follow instructions, they don't respect deadlines, etc.  I feel like I am running a babysitting business sometimes.  If I don't stay on them like white on rice, the tasks that I am PAYING them to do don't get done how I want them to.  If you believe in capitalism, then people like this shouldn't be in business for very long... so why are there so many of them out there and why do I feel like I have to weed through 100 businesses before I find somebody I can more or less depend on?

Crowd funding may be similar to peer-to-peer lending.  This podcast has briefly discusses P2P lending. If I remember correctly, they will only allow you to lend up to 35k at a time. Hard money may be the only way to go when you are first getting started. Just MAKE SURE there is enough margin on deals to stay profitable after all the HML fees.

Welcome to the site.  Get ready for the wild ride of the Houston hot market.  Lots of opportunity but lots of competition - make sure you get educated first.  What type of investing do you plan on starting out with?

There is such big bucks in full service online real estate providers, and I think they are just getting started.  For example, I just learned not too long ago that Redfin got into listing houses for 4.5% commission (or less).  Full CMAs are soon going to be at everybody's fingertips.  What is next? Full integration with local/county records? They are already public right? Could the old fashioned realtor be in trouble?

Welcome to the site.  Financing has always been a challenge for me too.  Hard money lenders will kill you in fees, but I would just find deals at first that will still leave room for profit then maybe find 2nd liens through aggressive networking if the 30% down is still too much cash.  You could give some equity to the 2nd lender (maybe a more experienced one that you can learn from?).  I would think that after a few deals and a lot of networking it becomes easier and easier to get private money to the point where your now high credibility may allow you to finance entire deals with other people's money.  I am not at this level yet but it is where I'd like to go.

Wholetailing is marketing to "retail" buyers or owner occupants (as opposed to investors) that are handy or would like to purchase at a discount and fix up their own place themselves. My question is, doesn't wholetailing limit you to cash buyers if you are not doing a double close? Does this limit the effectiveness of it since most homeowners get a loan?

I like the chess analogy! How did you manage to put no money down? Did you use private money up front then refi'd into a conventional?

Welcome! I grew up in Naperville. The market is still slow there but it is coming back. As you probably already know, it's great place to raise a family and has the best schools in Illinois. People want to live there!

Welcome in advance! It won't be hard to meet real estate investors in Houston... there are way too many of them right now! I would suggest you get on some wholesaler's e-mail lists so you start seeing the type of deals they send out. Also fill your calendar with REIA meetings you can find on meetup.com (there is a gazillion groups out there but only few meet regularly, and even fewer are really truly valuable, and even fewer are free). Message me if you are looking for something specific, but you should be able to find everything online. See you in Houston!