All Forum Posts by: Stephen Lee

What virtual assistant or combination of virtual assistants have 10x'ed your business? What do you have them do for you that allows your business to grow? Part time or full time, Anything business from wholesaling, construction, property management, flipping, real estate sales, or anything else! I have one now just doing data entry of incoming leads and have used others in the past for various tasks but nothing regular. Just wanted brainstorm to get an idea of how others have leveraged their time through using VA's.

This is an opportunity for huge growth in the real estate industry! Perfect for anyone interested in Real Estate Sales, Property Management, Flipping Houses, Wholesaling/Acquisitions, Income-Producing Rental Properties, or Construction.

THE COMPANY: Harborside Homebuyers is a real estate investing firm that opened in 2015. We provide various services including property management, large scale construction, and real estate sales. In addition to those services, Harborside Homebuyers owns and manages a rental portfolio and inventory of fix-and-flip properties. Our office is in Millersville, MD.

THE POSITION: This position will give you the opportunity to grow along with the business. The position will allow for a lot of freedom; perfect for problem-solvers and fast learners. The ability to manage others and experience with Excel is necessary.

Pay starts at $12.50/hr over a flexible 40 hours a week but is negotiable to increase with prior experience. Pay increases over time based on production. Commission structured pay also available with bonuses.

Must be comfortable and personable while: COLD CALLING, SHOWING PROPERTIES TO POTENTIAL TENANTS, and WORKING IN ALL PARTS OF BALTIMORE CITY

APPLICATION PROCESS: Email your resume and cover letter to [email protected]. Please include the following in your cover letter: any experience/knowledge related to the position (including books you may have read), your 1-year goals, 10-year goals, and what you’re most and least looking forward to with this position. We are looking for someone to start as soon as possible so don’t miss this opportunity!

What do you Simplisafe users usually do for installs? The issue for me is that I don't want to be running around messing with alarm systems which gives me a couple of options:

1. Install it first thing before/right after closing-
pro- instant protection for everything to come
cons- when they do electric, it'll be going on and off, the base will get moved around, I think it'll just trigger a ton of false alarms/will be non-functional half of the time. also will have to take sensors down for drywall and paint

2. Install when electric and drywall are done-
pro- quick(ish) protection for appliances and other things that come after drywall and electric
cons- The main issue with this is that the furnace, windows, plumbing, and anything else in there before the drywall and paint are both done becomes fair game and is unprotected

I also struggle with- do I leave it in or take it out the day of closing on the sale?
leave it- don't have to deal with taking it down (touch up paint, time to go out and get it), but obviously costs $300 or so when I have to buy a new one
take it- saves the money but I have to take the time to go get it and if the paint peels off when taking it down, I have to touch it up or get someone to come and touch it up

I would suggest highly looking into any class that costs that much. You can get 1 on 1 coaching from big players in this area for under $200 an hour. coaching is generally much better than classes. it's tailored directly towards you and holds you much more accountable to take action if you're doing 1 on 1 coaching every 2 weeks. Generally, these classes love to boast about the rehabs that they bought for 600k, put 150k into, and sold for 1mil and made 250k off of. That's all great sounding but it boils down to just a sales tactic. Put those numbers in a realistic calculator and they look a lot different with lending in place. 140k of money in just to squeeze out a $62k profit. Not close to a good deal in my opinion. Big DC numbers tend to rope newer people in but don't realistically pan out for newer investors.

With all of that being said, take extreme caution. BUT, I don't know Mr. Ragland, I don't know specifics about his program, and I don't know anything about his business. If he has a proven track record in practicing what he preaches, it may be a good arrangement. He is a licensed broker, that can be good or bad. It proves legitimacy in the field of real estate sales, but being a broker has nothing to do with actually investing. Another metric to look at is if his students usually go on to actually do deals. You see the success stories but I'd inquire the percentage of people who took the program who made back at least what they paid. If they don't know the answer to that, they don't care about the content of the course or the value it provides. That's the true metric of whether or not it's successful in my opinion.

How is this one coming along? Looking at the worst case scenario in those numbers it looks like a very thin deal... hopefully they ended up being a little better than you thought at first glance. 

My suggestions:

I would have a mentor take a look at your numbers to get the ranges more specific. 41k+20k+closing costs at a 120k ARV with 1300 in rent is a good rental, 41k+40k+closing costs at an 80k ARV with 1100 in rent is not very good.

Switch banks. You want a bank that is geared towards your needs. No reason to keep your money with a bank that is having such ridiculous issues and having you drive around for paperwork

Always offer cash. It's easier for everybody so you'll have more offers getting accepted.

@Alexander Spira 88k a unit is pretty high, you can find a better deal in my opinion

Hey @James Bowerman. I've been getting most of my deals from wholesalers and auctions recently but haven't done one in AA county for a couple of months

@Ned Carey @Keith Thompson Thank you both. Very informative to someone flirting with the idea of pulling the trigger at auction this summer. I'm an experienced rehabber and landlord and that half of me doesn't want to take the risk when I have a system that works and I'm still finding deals and the other half of me wants to see what I may be missing out on. 

@Arin Akopian you learn by doing. I had no idea what I was doing 2 and a half years ago when I bought my first flip, I had no idea what I was doing a year and a half ago when I bought my first rental. When I buy my first tax lien, I can't imagine I'll have much of an idea what I'm doing either but I'm sure I'll figure it out pretty quick! Take action and buy one!

They are the absolute worst. They recently shut off my power in a flip property and, without a sump pump, flooded the basement because I "made alterations to the main line to the house." My crew has no desire to get electrocuted so I knew for a fact that that wasn't true, and they know that that line is BGE's responsibility. But I'm stuck eating the 20k in damages between the carrying costs of the property during the months it was off and having to re-do a fully finished 2-week old basement. BGE is the worst thing about investing in Baltimore. I love the "thank you for choosing BGE" that they give you after you wait on hold for 45 minutes to be told they can't fix a problem that they caused... I wish we actually had a choice