All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Hi all,

I'm located in Rochester, NY and interested in REO properties. I'm looking for an agent who can set me up to get updates as things go on the market. I'm primarily interested in SFH but will consider MFH in the right location, as my family would be living there.

Thanks!

Josh

Hey @Alan Diamond , if you haven't already heard of it, you should check out FFREIA.  The first two meetings are free and it's a great place to connect with people.

Sounds like a neat idea to try out.  I'm no marketing expert, but I think the success of that would depend heavily on repetition, which would get expensive.  From the perspective of someone going out for the night for some drinks, if I'm not in the market for an agent for any reason, I would think 'oh that's nice of him, woohoo free drinks' and then forget his name.  I think you'd need a way to get those people in your database for follow up, otherwise by the time they need you in their life they're going to forget who you were.  Maybe have them fill out a quick contact form in exchange for free drink tokens or something?  Maybe that would be a turnoff for some people?  I don't know, just thinking out loud (on keyboard?) here...

I'm currently looking into the same thing. Probably going to try part time first, feel things out, help other agents where I can, etc. If it works out I'll consider fulltime. If nothing else I'll still have MLS access. As far as taking on your own clients while holding down another job, personally I would be fully transparent up front rather than try to hide it from them.

You can get recent sales data for your area on sites like Zillow.  You could also find an investor friendly agent who can run comps for you.

Ok I wrote those out as bullet points but it looks like they didn't show up that way.  Sorry ha.

@Shannon Sadik Welcome to BP!  You're in the right place, you'll find a wealth of information here.

As for the property, I don't think your return would great here at this price, especially with all the fixes/upgrades on top.  But you can probably expect higher appreciation.  Other areas will cash flow better but may not increase in value much, but it sounds like you're willing to sacrifice some return for a nice home in a nice neighborhood.  If you check out rentometer.com, you can plug in the address and # bedrooms and it'll give you a general range that would be reasonable in the area based on recent rentals.  Are you working with a local agent at all or just browsing online so far?

Some things to consider:

• Are you doing your own management or hiring a company?  If your own, I would at least factor in the cost of hiring it out so that you can be prepared to do that if you find yourself miserable doing it yourself.
• Are the utilities separate or all together?  If together, the landlord is responsible for the whole house.  If separate, you can charge the tenant for their portion.
• Make sure you also factor in reserves for maintenance, capital expenses, and periods of vacancy.
• These are large units, which can be nice to allow you to charge a higher rent, but you're also marketing to a smaller pool of renters.  I would say in Fairport you're probably going to be focusing on families, because I don't see many 20 somethings wanting to go in on a rental in that area.  So not only mainly families, but families that need 5 bedrooms, which narrows your market even further.  You may have lower turnover, but when you do, it might sit a little longer than average.  Add to that the fact that it's a 5/1 and it's an even tougher place to market, so that second bathroom becomes more crucial.
• Even if you reach a point where you move out and rent both sides, your return might not be great.  If you plan on being there for a while and making it a home, then maybe that doesn't matter to you anyways.  But then again, plans change :)

@Freddie Chipres

Just retagging Freddie, I don't think it worked on the last post.

@Rick H.

@Rick H.

Yea vacant is what I meant, bad wording on my part. It occurred to me that I had noticed this house vacant a couple years ago as well, (I've walked by it near our neighborhood) and hadn't thought much of it at the time because I wasn't involved in REI yet. I guess that's why I said abandoned (essentially), because there's been what appears to be no attempt to sell or rent or live in the place for some time. I'm going to knock on some neighbors doors today and see if I can get some info out of them.

Good point on the 'why'. It all comes down to solving other people's problems right? So I just need to find a way to pitch a solution.

Quick side note:

I don't really get how this happens in the first place. I guess it could come down to any kind of personal situation. But if the property has been abandoned, but the owner continues paying the mortgage and taxes (or appears to be), why don't they just sell the place? Obviously if they still want it for some reason then they wouldn't sell, so this question assumes they don't want the property.