All Forum Posts by: Tony Leighty

Hello all,

Since I'm just starting out, I wanted to reach out to industry professionals and get their first hand advice and ultimately hope to get a mentor in the process.  Turns out a friend of my sister is an investor in Florida and she mentioned that I reached out to him to pick his brain and see if he was willing to help me learn the ropes.  Sure enough I emailed him and he was more than willing to help stating he'd be happy to get me going in the right direction.   However, I want to be prepared on the call and have a couple questions I'd like to ask but wanted to get everyone's take, what questions would you ask to someone that could potentially jump start your career in real estate investing?

Thanks in advance!

@Everyone :)  

Thanks for the great advice and life experience.  I didn't know when posting the topic that it would get this great of a response.  It's an awesome thing what can happen when a bunch of people with the same positivity and overall perspective get together and share their experiences.  1+1=3  (Synergy)

@Hattie Dizmond  Yes I actually was listening to that podcast on the way to work this morning.  Good stuff as always. 

@Joe Villeneuve  Thanks for your input! You're completely right "Most people would rather follow the failures, because they are in the majority, than the successful, because they are not the majority"  I'm going to use this quote for my own motivation, if you don't mind :)

@Mitch Stanley I've actually heard that snippet of content about the crabs as well.  I found it to be a great analogy of home some people operate in their lives, professionally as well as personally.

@Rusty Thompson  I'm in the same boat as you brother.  I was a licensed Agent back when I was 22 and didn't get much support from anyone.  I put it on the shelf because of the same reasons as you mentioned.  After going back to school and getting a 9-5 I've done some soul searching and found out that it's not quite for me.  The second I decided to pursue RE again, I've had a laser guided focus.  

@Chris Adams  Thanks for your input.  I agree with you.  I think most people that have that perspective either are close minded or not educated to how to properly go about the business.  I'll admit, I'm green to the business as well.  That's why I made it a point in my game plan to take until the beginning of 2015 to educate myself as much as possible before jumping into it.  I just bought "The Millionaire Real Estate Investor" by Gary Keller.  I heard great reviews and can't wait to read it.  I plan on reading 3 or 4 more books by the end of the year.

Hi Gang,

I wanted to get everyone's take on this.  I'm not one to generally take to heart what other people say that are either a) not in my shoes or b) don't have words of wisdom from prior experience but I've been running into this a lot.  

Whenever I mention to someone that I'm educating myself into real estate investing and plan to make my move at the beginning of the year, I get a good amount of negative responses, basically saying it's an unwise decision.  This is not only from people outside of the business but some people that have done it.  I'm not one to get deterred easily but more often than not when you get that sort of response, ones natural reaction is to second guess.  

My question is how does/has everyone handled this "barrier to entry" for someone starting off.  Any words of wisdom or prior experiences that you've encountered that could be beneficial is much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Thanks a lot.  That offered a good bit of clarification.

Thanks for your input @Christina R. 

Ok.  I get the assignment of interest concept.  However lack of experience prohibits me from knowing all extraneous fees that go along with the transaction.  So as a wholesaler in Md. you get the seller under contract, with disclosure that you intend on assigning it to another person, than market the property and find a cash buyer, and transfer the interest to them.  Where and what fees take place?  You said the fee is negotiable, in your experience, how do you go about negotiating that fee and what exactly is it called?

Forgive my remedial questions, for some reason I don't feel like I'm envisioning this process fully in my head and at this point, it's all I really have to go off of :)

Thanks!

Does anyone have any insight into Wholesaling in Maryland?

I was doing my homework and looking around the site but can't find this.  A rehabber I know said he didn't want to get into wholesaling because the taxes and fees are too much and not worth it.  I want to disagree with him but know enough about it yet and  I wanted to get the members on this site's input who practice in Maryland.  

Thanks!

@Paul Timmins  

Thanks so much for the response.  You sort of confirmed my thinking on the subject, just wanted to get someones opinion that has experience in the matter.

As a new investor, I'm trying to gather as much info as possible before I jump into the wild.  Reading these posts have been great but as I get further into the notion of wholesaling the natural question has popped into my head.  Why would an investor want to buy from a wholesaler at a marked up price, why wouldn't they just buy from the source?  What benefits does buying from a wholesaler provide?  Save in time/sanity?  

Sorry if this sounds like a remedial question but I'm curious as to the answer.

Thanks in advance!

Ray,

I was reading this earlier and found it to be pretty a pretty good read.  It's mostly about negotiating so I think it could apply to what you're talking about.  

http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2010/03/24/7-tips-for-better-real-estate-negotiation/

Good luck!