All Forum Posts by: Steven W.

I'm a newbie to commercial as well, so "pros" please chime in, but one way to look for commercial agent is to go on loopnet.com, look up the city where you are investing, and see who is posting properties that might be close in scale to what you are purchasing. Then contact them through the portal and try and set up a call. 

In my limited experience, sometimes they have contacted me back while other times, not so much....

Hi all. My wife and I have 14 SFHs scattered through Charlotte, Denver, Jacksonville, Birmingham and Hammond, IN. I am interested in pulling cash out from some of these properties and scaling up my portfolio to include higher dollar multifamily properties. My most successful SFH investments have been in what I would say are B-/C+ neighborhoods, and I'm looking to continue this with multifamilies. Are there agents out there in those cities that folks can recommend that are multifamily investors themselves? At the present, I have only one triplex, so I'm not as experienced with multifamilies but I am looking to change that.

I would love to hear from agents or from investors that have had good experiences with agents in those cities.

Thanks @Ronan Donnelly for this really well thought out and articulated list. It’s an excellent gut check for someone like me who is looking to expand his portfolio and move into multi-unit investing. I’ll be reminding myself of these on a regular basis!

Thanks @Adrien C. for the input. I think that my properties are probably in the 90 to 115K range by this point, though I haven't checked on their value in a bit. But I agree with you on taking advantage of the appreciation to use it now!

Hi @Joe Swanson, I know that this post is over a year old, but did you ever find a lender in Indiana? I have 3 small properties in Hammond that I purchased in cash and would like to finance.

Steven

 Thanks Tyler! I know that OKC is more diverse than just the oil industry, but it is a concern.I'm just trying to decide if it's worth keeping a single property in a market, or if I'd be better off in concentrating my investments in fewer markets.

Thanks for the response.

Steven

Hi everyone,

I wanted to see if I could connect with a RE agent/investor in OKC to discuss a SFR that I purchased in 2008 for 203K.

I'm trying to decide if I should continue to hold it or sell it. I'm feeling a bit jittery about the OKC market and its dependence on oil.

Any suggestions on folks on the ground would be very much appreciated.

Steven

Ned,

That's a good point about rehab costs. I like it because I don't have a firm handle on rehab costs and it does give me a sense of their credibility, but it's not essential.

Thanks for chiming in on this. I guess it makes a difference if you can visit the property or not. I'm an out of town buyer who relies on folks on the ground to scope out properties.

Steven

Hi everyone,

Recently, I posted an ad in the BP marketplace saying that I was looking for wholesalers to connect with in Jacksonville, FL, since I'm interested in purchasing SFRs (I own two at the moment) and perhaps small multi-families. I didn't have a lot of experience working with wholesalers before, and so here are some lessons that I learned after connecting with a large number of them. I hope that this helps folks:

1) Do send me detailed information about the property, including pictures (video walkthroughs where possible) of exterior and interior. Use technology (vflyer.com, youtube, etc.). Label the pictures so that I can really see how many bedrooms there are.

2) Do include your asking price, since I am not very good at mind reading.

3) Do provide an estimate of rehab costs. If you don't know, find someone who can help you with this. I'll verify this estimate with my own contractors, but I want to see that you know what you are talking about.

4) Do provide me with an ARV backed up with recent comps.

5) Make sure you understand what an investor is looking for--we are not looking for properties that when rehabbed will cost us retail price.

6) Take the time to listen to what a buyer is really looking for, in terms of price, location, size, etc., and then only send him/her those deals that at least come close to their criteria.

7) Do set up a time to talk to a potential buyer rather than calling him/her out of the blue.

8) Understand that building trust and credibility is your most important currency, not any one particular deal.

I'm sure that there are many that I missed. What would folks add/subtract from this list?

Steven

Hi all,

This is my first post in the pro forum (just ponied up this week!). I live and work in San Francisco, but a colleague of mine at Stanford lives in Visalia and works in Sanger (Central Valley towns). He is interested in starting in on real estate after a number of years out of the market.

We discussed his "re-entry" into real estate, and I suggested that he connect with a RE agent who really understands the needs of investors. I told him that I would see what I could find on BP, since he's not yet a member.

So, any suggestions or connections with RE agents that work these areas? Wholesaler contacts would be of value as well, though I do think that he's just at the exploratory phase.

Steven