All Forum Posts by: Storm S.

@Allen Maris actually the Santa Barbara mls has access to the entire county and the city of ventura. So any agent should have access to the whole county.

@Matt Jennissen probably not the most efficient or most successful but definitely the fastest, go buy some lottery tickets. Cash advance all your credit cards and cash out your entire life savings. You’re welcome for your millions. I’ll only take 20% for the great idea.

@Nitit Chartuprayoon

Location is the most important aspect when it comes to real estate investing, you can change the house but you can't change its location. when it comes to deciding what qualities to focus on, start with thinking about the demographics of the tenants that you plan on renting to, do you plan on renting to families or do you plan on renting to college students, military members, and so on? Once you've determined what demographic you plan on renting to, think about what that particular demographic looks for in housing and go from there. Once you've picked which location and potential properties work for you. Your going to want to find a below market value deal, most likely this will be an off-market fixer, you probably won't be able to buy something on the MLS and it still is a good deal, the real estate market is just too crazy right now. Also, because it is a fixer, and gaining equity through fixing it up will help insulate you in the event the market drops. Also, make sure you really have the numbers right and have a good margin of safety, most investors miss a lot of not so obvious costs in their calculations that eat away at there returns. Best of luck in finding a property to invest in. Real estate is the best investment out there.

@Jonathan R. You only mention having the sellers agent or dual listing agent bring you a property, there are agents such as myself who represent the buyer and go and find off market deals and have the seller represent themselves or use there own agent. So yes an agent can do bring you deeply discounted deals, and as far as commissions go either I can negotiate with the seller to pay my commission or we can reduce the purchase price and have the buyer pay my commission. Everything is fully disclosed unlike with a wholesaler where you don’t know how much they are making and I have a fiduciary duty to my client to get them the lowest price possible where as a wholesaler has the opposite interest.

If you looked up the law a mentioned you would see at least in California, the law is pretty direct and clear cut no loopholes. Unlicensed wholesaling is illegal in California. People don't get sued when the deal closes normally they get sued when the deal doesn't close, and they lose because they never had any intention of actually closing. The title company is not going to stop a transaction. People rob banks and don't get caught that doesn't make it legal. The way you go about making it legal is actually buying the property taking title and then selling the property. Assigning a purchase and sales contract as a business model requires the individual to be a licensed real estate broker in California. Here is the law again, Business and Professions Code section 10131 (b). Most states have enacted very similar laws. The only reason there are so many wholesalers out there is that people are misinformed and never actually go and check the law for themselves and some that do read the law refuse to accept that it's illegal because it doesn't sell their education courses.

 Regardless of if you had the dogs or not the carpet needed to be replaced anyways its past its useful life. I think a judge would rule in your favor.

@Marc Estepa I wouldn’t worry about fixing the carpet as it was basically fully depreciated when your lease started, there is nothing to collect on.

@Don Konipol in California are definition of real estate broker says that if you assign or sell any interest in a real estate contract (wholesaling) as a principle or an agent, eight or more times you need to be licensed. It’s in a Business and Professions Code section 10131 (b). If you regularly assign contracts in California you need to be a licensed broker.

@Sergio Aguinaga having equitable interest requires you to have intent to buy the property and consideration wholesalers don’t have that, also the definition of real estate broker supersedes that also making it illegal. Signing a contract without the intent of actually following through with it is the textbook definition of fraud. 

@Jonathan R. You do understand there is a whole world of commercial agents and agents who only work with investors. Wholesalers don’t bring anything new to the table. An agent can do everything a wholesaler does but more.