All Forum Posts by: Troy DeLong

@Byoung Bae  Welcome to BP! 

I think your goal of getting your first RE investment for around $50k is doable as long as you plan to leverage debt (Loan). I currently have eight out-of-state investor clients that I've worked with in the past (some on more than one purchase) and they were all attracted to the Lansing, MI area for it's affordability and steady cashflow. 

To answer some of your questions:

1. What should be the number first step after picking a market? I am looking at listings online, running my numbers. Many of them barely hit the "1% rule". - You should hop on a phone call with some agents in the market you are interested in and ask about the area, their experience, to run some numbers with you and then even do some virtual tours with you of some active listings. 

2. Assuming I purchased a property, how do I find renters? Do I lean 100% on the property manager to find renters? How do I know the vacancy rate / how long it took to find renters for comparable properties? This would be one of the most important inputs for "running your numbers". - Vacancy rate & rent amount all depends on the market and neighborhood you're in. Some of my clients manage their own rentals (even when they live in another state) and simply have a local handyman to do repairs and showings. My other clients rely 100% on a Property Manager. Platforms like Zillow, FB Marketplace, Avail, and other PM softwares do great with rental listings. 

3. Many suggest to "build a team" for out of state investor (e.g. realor, PM, handyman, etc). How do I go about doing this? Who is the most important member/first I should focus on? - You do this by exactly what you're doing here. By ASKING! You've already completed the first step. I'm may be biased (because I'm an agent), but a Realtor will be your most important team member to start off because we are usually the most networked and have Property Manager, Lender and Handyman recommendations for you already. 

I hope this helps! As always, I'd be more than happy to hop on a call with you to go more in depth on this topic if you'd like. 

- Troy 

@Ivan Castanon  I may be biased, but I recommend you look into the Lansing, MI market. Our average market price for a solid 1-4 unit rental is around the $150k - $175k range. Not a ton of appreciation, but cash flow is steady and easily attainable. 

I'm more than happy to have a call / Zoom with you to discuss a little more in depth! 

@Lolo Druff  Exactly what Jeff said above. I'm out of Lansing, MI and we are a great market for cash flowing, $150k - $200k type 2-4 unit properties. The tenant pools are great, as we are the State capital, we have two MAJOR hospitals, government jobs, large developments happening (out-of-state union workers), MSU, Lansing Community College, and so on. 

Our Brokerage runs the largest REI networking group in Lansing. I'd be more than happy to jump on a Zoom call / phone call with you to discuss more and answer any questions you have!

- Troy 

@Lauren Cutchen Absolutely! 

So, if you're looking to email your investor clients to try and raise funds, I'll have to warn you that it could very easily get your account shut down almost instantly with Mailchimp. 

We LOVED using them for our Wholesale deals, but with our FIRST private lender email, they sent us the following with zero warning...

**************************
"Hi there,

Thank you for reaching out. We appreciate your interest in MailChimp, however with ISPs and email filters becoming more and more sensitive, unfortunately, the risk associated with the account is too great for us to support sending. We do have to ask that a new vendor be found for your email delivery needs.

This isn't an issue of the legitimacy of your business. As a bulk-delivery service, we have to protect the deliverability of all our customers.

We appreciate your understanding in this matter."
**************************

After requesting a review and reversal of this twice, they landed us with a final blow of shutting our account down. We met ALL of the criteria for our private money lenders being 'Friends & Family' and they all have agreed to receive email communications from us. So, at the end of the day we have zero idea as to was truly caused this... 

- Troy 

What platform are you using for email marketing campaigns? We built a BEAUTIFUL Mailchimp account and sent out half a dozen Wholesale properties, only to get flagged and our account 'Deactivated' after sending one 'Private Lender' email campaign. 

Let's hear who you use and why you recommend them or don't. Thanks all! 

- Troy 

@Chris Seveney & @Corby Goade 

All great feedback. Thank you! 

 Thank you very much for the insight Autumn! Those are some great questions to ask and the clear communication up front is definitely key. 

For any of you medium to high volume flippers, I'm curious as to how you compensate your Project Managers. Our team is shooting for 24 Flips this year (and on-schedule so far) and we're struggling with our Project Manager. The original plan was to be 100% commission, based on metrics like net profit after the flip is sold, size ($) of the remodel, finishing on-time and under-budget, etc.

Meeting our average profit per flip and doing 24 / year, our PM has the potential to make around $72,000 / year. This is 1099 and the schedule is SUPER flexible. Pros and Cons of this compensation plan are...

* We could lose money on a project, or make twice our planned profit. 
* The amount of hours spent managing could vary, based on size of remodel and number of contractors involved (10 hours or 80 hours, paid the same).
* The house could sit on-market a while, meaning the PM doesn't take a commission for 6-9 months on that project. 

I'm hoping to get some feedback. What is everyone else doing for Project Management? Compensation, full vs. part time PM's, number of PM's, duties & responsibilities, etc. Thanks in advance! 

- Troy 

What do you / they mean 'Loan insurance'? Like PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance) you get with a traditional loan? Are they talking about a Lender's Policy for Title? I have never heard of a private money lender or hard money lender requiring "Loan Insurance".

@Julie Vose I sure do. I'f you'd like to send me an email, I'd be more than happy to send the City of Lansing info your way. 

TroyDeLong.Biz ('at' sign) gmail.com