All Forum Posts by: Tonghong Chen

Hey guys, I am closing a rental property and would like to use MYND as my property management company. Curious if anyone working with them can refer me so that we both get a $300 bonus? Thanks in advance.

Please DM if you'd like to refer.

Quote from @Brenden Mitchum:

Hey @Tonghong Chen, welcome to the BP community!

I would say it really depends on the agent and your conversation with them. If you come right out the gate asking for them to take a 33% pay cut when closing deals with you, 9/10 agents will say no. That 1/10 agent is not who you want to be working with. However, if you are truly doing as much work as you suggest, that's what I would start out with. If you can show them that their time is better spent with you than another client, they will be happy to work with you. 

However, from the information you have given me, I would honestly pass on working with you (and I work in Atlanta). 

In your last comment you say investors submit the offers and do the due diligence themselves yet on your list of expectations you clearly state this would be mostly the responsibility of the agent. In fact, your list of expectations tell me, as an agent, that I will be doing 90% of the work in this transaction. That is absolutely fine by me, but no way in a million years I'm going to do that for 2/3rds my typical rate. 

By the way, I have multiple repeat, investor clients. Would they complain if I handed them 1% of my commission? Probably not. Would they ever ask me to? No, because they value me as a vital member of their team. The moment a client starts talking about saving money by cutting my commission, they begin to lose my trust. Just as the same would be true if I asked you to take worse returns so that I could get more commission than is typically expected (regardless of my reasonings). 

Like most things in life, you get what you pay for. Pay your team members well and as you would want to be paid if you were in their shoes.  

Also, remember that BP is a fantastic tool to find those team members. With this post, you likely killed your shot at finding a great investor-friendly agent in Indy using these forums. 

thank you for commenting! I agree with you in general, but I would like to second the part “1/10 agent is not who you want to be working with”, as my agent partner with 1% rebate in Atlanta is doing a great job. But I get the point that BiggerPocket is not the right place to source discounted agency service, so I wouldn’t go further.

Quote from @Alicia Marks:

Are you buying on MLS? I would likely say no.

Thanks for replying. Yes I am buying on MLS (Zillow, Realtor.com, etc).

I was primarily investing in Atlanta metro (suburb), where 1% rebate is kinda common. I live in NYC and used to live in Bay Area, where 2% rebate is also pretty common. Yet not sure how Indy’s market work. 

To my understanding, 1% rebate is reasonable as we investors usually do due diligence by ourselves and present the offer to agents directly, so we request less time and engagement from agent comparing with normal buyers.

Curious if anyone can recommend a buyer agent in Indy willing to give 1% rebate? Just started looking into the market  and plan to build a $1M+ portfolio through time. Therefore look forward to a long-term relationship 🙂

Main Expectations is as below:

- before offer, get seller disclosure and rent restriction info (if there's an HOA)

- during offer, draft and present offer to seller

- during contract, coordinate with bank, inspector, property manager etc to facilitate the process 

- when approaching closing date, represent me to do a final walk-through and take pictures/videos

I am primarily targeting house priced at $170k-$300k that’s in good condition, so risk of deals should be in general pretty low.

Hey guys, I am planning to make my 1st rental property investment in Spring, Texas. However, I have 0 experience with mortgages, and curious to learn what are the caveats ("things that could break") when dealing with mortgages.

The main question I have is: how do you usually compare offers by different lenders, in addition to the rate they provide.

Side note: so far I got a 3.875% fixed-30-year no-point mortgage from Chase. Would also like to have some advice on how can I evaluate if this is a good deal, and how/where to find better deals with a lower rate or smaller risk (if there's any)?

Cheers!

@Joshua Durrin Thanks for sharing the experience! I haven't made any offer yet as I just got start learning the process (including applying for my first mortgage). But will definitely share my story on BP if I decide to go through

Originally posted by @Neil Aggarwal:

I took a look at their site.  I did not spend a lot of time, but make sure they are doing the calculations correctly.  Many times, they do the most optimistic calculations and/or ignore the cost of your funds.  Make sure you understand everything.  Also, do your own evaluation of the properties, do not take their numbers without checking.

Thanks for the tips! Since the properties are occupied and have a current rent, the gross yield seems generally be reliable, along with other statistics easy to find online such as property tax. However, as a noob and out-of-side investor, I have little idea on how to calculate the accurate maintenance/repair fees and capital expenture. Do you happen to have any tips on calculating this two items? Huge thanks!

Hey real estate experts! I am a young IT professional from SF Bay Area thinking about my first real estate (and out-of-state) investment thanks to the current low rate. I am very interested in DFW and Austin market, as I see they have the potential to become the next Silicon Valley.

My current job requires tremendous commitment and therefore would prefer to have a very passive investment even if it means lower ROI. I researched a couple of turn-key options online and found the one-stop service by Roofstock looks quite interesting.

Curious if anyone could criticize the two Dallas properties posted on Roofstock (links below), such as the location/price/ROI, and/or provide alternative suggestion on passive investment in DFW/Austin area? Thanks!

https://www.roofstock.com/inve...

https://www.roofstock.com/inve...