All Forum Posts by: Sebastian Gast

The bottom line is that your local MLS rules all. Realtor.com is decent too though.

For such a small house, I would think a shed would be a nice feature to store stuff in order to not crowd the house.  That's just me.  I would follow the suit with the rest of the neighborhood... maybe that area doesn't care for outdoor storage space.

Find highly rated contractors on Zillow, Homeadvisor, or Angie's List but still do your own due diligence with any of them.  Ask and learn about the previous or current jobs that they have done or are working on and see if those meet your standards.

@Todd Curtis The reason I have a VA is because of 4 Hour Workweek too! I am obsessed with the idea of outsourcing. I agree, LOTS of time has to be taken to get your instructions down to the point where just about anybody can pick them up and follow them. It is worth the time investment though. The only thing I have my VA do right now is pull leads off of Craigslist. I am hoping to train another (or the same one) to pull MLS leads in the future and do some basic evaluating/filtering. I got my VA from oDesk, and there are tons of them also available on elance. Both those sites are the biggest players in the VA space. I have not used a VA to take phone calls. I am hesitant of this because of the language barrier, plus I think there is a lot to be said by taking calls with a charismatic and personal tone. You can hire English speaking VAs and highly qualified VAs... but you will spend some major coin on them ($30+/hour) instead of $3-5/hour.

Good question, curious to hear what people say. I've had decent luck with homeadvisor.com (it's free). They screen all their contractors and have great ratings although I think they are priced a little high.

The podcasts are excellent but I only started listening to them until recently.  I will make sure I catch #37! Great suggestion, thanks! @Chris K. 

I have been struggling to find the kick in the pants I need to continue grinding on my real estate business.  The early stages are an uphill battle and I have thought about giving up multiple times.  Does anybody have any motivational videos or speeches that can help someone power through times of doubt and frustration? I'll start! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgmVOuLgFB0

Great advice everyone! Short and sweet and totally resonates with me.  Thanks for getting this started BJ.

There are slight variations of the following question but they are a bit dated and I'd like to ask again.  I am located in Houston Texas.  What is the big difference between a title officer or title company and an attorney? What can one do that the other can't? When should I use one instead of the other? I have heard that title officers can do a lot of things an attorney does but for cheaper (they don't charge by the hour), but in some cases an attorney is required.

I'll take the unpopular opinion and say that if a "guru" or initial investment is going to light a fire under your feet and force you to take action, DO IT! The cost of not taking any action is way too great.  Paying 5k to push you to do a deal that you would have never done before (and end up earning at LEAST the same 5k) is worth it.  

However, if you are self motivated and committed and are ready to leap into action without any additional convincing, stay away from gurus.  You will find most answers you seek along your journey on BiggerPockets.