All Forum Posts by: Sebastian Marroquin

Hello everyone! I hope that you and all your loved ones are staying safe and staying away from the chaos. 

** Follow the link above : (Additional location details): to register with your email and you will get an email back with the zoom link for weds! 

you can copy and paste this to your search bar:

https://docs.google.com/forms/...    (copy it and input your email in the google form).  If you have any questions send me a message on here! 

(I put a physical address so that we have local people/ investors in the meeting!) 

I am putting this event together for you all on ZOOM - virtually! We will talk a little bit about the market and what we are seeing out there. My office has 200 agents and have closed hundreds of transactions since January. 

We will take a look at what a duplex is going for in areas like Pasadena, Altadena, and areas around us and comparing them to buying a single family home and converting the garage into the second unit (ADU).

Lets learn some quick tips on how to assess them and what to look for. 

Should you buy now or wait? Are interest rates going up or down? Is the Real Estate market crashing? Lets discuss what is happening, How to assess some homes, how to cash flow in LA county, and how to plan for the future! 

My name is Sebastian and I am here to help! 

Go back to why you got into escrow in the first place? (was this a deal that had positive cash flow- after all overhead was considered?) 

1. What was the plan for the home: keep long term? Flip? 

2. How long will the renovation process be (if flipping)? or to get rent ready? 

This market will not be like 2008 and it will rebound. Timing the market is never good and a percentage of sellers on the market will panic and accept lower offers (probably fixers, FSBO, sellers with bad agents or rookie agents).

Pay attention to interest rates and the over all market. We are officially in a shifting market and you have to be prepared to make a move when the time is right. 

You should : 

1. Choose and understand the market you want to buy in

2. Know the over all numbers for that market (i.e. demand, what homes values are, rental values for 1,2,3,4 bedrooms), what pockets are good, what pockets are average, what are great pockets. 

3. have a good lender and know your options for lending products 

** The more you know- the faster you will be able to assess a property, and the faster you can snatch it up. 

Example: Altadena or Pasadena CA: most fixers are going for above $650k (1000 to 1200 sq ft 2 or 3 bedrooms) in good pockets. 

As time goes on: That property will drop to $625k to $600k : If you can get it for $575k or $550k (where rents stay at a good price): then that property starts becoming a great deal. 

Do your homework: Pay attention and get ready to take action and don't panic. 

See everyone soon: we will be leaving starbucks about 15/20 mins after (arriving at 11am ) 

If you are late: text me and I'll send you the address to where we are. 

See you there! 

Sorry- there was a glitch: This EVENT WILL BE HELD ON FEB. 29TH SATURDAY 

Its that time again! Home Crawl #2 on Saturday at 11am on Feb. 29th! Want to know if you can cash flow in California? In expensive cities like, Pasadena, Altadena, alhambra? etc Come check it out!

We had about 38 people at our first home crawl and people left with some very valuable information!

We will meet at Starbucks in Pasadena (see address above) and we will go to 3 to 4 homes and assess them to see if they would be a good rental properties!

Homes out here are really expensive and a lot of people have to put 20% to 50% as a down payment to break even or to cash flow. Can you put down 5% to 10% and cash flow? How? What would you need to do? That's what we will find out there. If you came last time, its ok! The more you hear the info, the more you assess homes, the more comfortable you will be and that will allow you to make good decisions when buying!

See you here. Sebastian with True Home | Keller Williams Realty

Just food for thought: you either have: 

1. the money 

2. The experience and knowledge or 

3. the DEAL / property 

(I say keep going! and think, which one do I have or which one can I get?) 

You have to have one of the 3 to do something. I've had multiple people say to me: Sebastian, can you teach me how to do it? Where to get the deal and get me someone that has the funds to make it happen? 

My answer is : What are you bringing to the table? 

This is in no way a dig... but I know that if you want to be successful, you have to put yourself in a position to win. 

Cheers and good luck 

Its that time again! Home Crawl #2 on Saturday at 11am on Feb. 29th! Want to know if you can cash flow in California? In expensive cities like, Pasadena, Altadena, alhambra? etc Come check it out! 

We had about 38 people at our first home crawl and people left with some very valuable information! 

We will meet at Starbucks in Pasadena (see address above) and we will go to 3 to 4 homes and assess them to see if they would be a good rental properties! 

Homes out here are really expensive and a lot of people have to put 20% to 50% as a down payment to break even or to cash flow. Can you put down 5% to 10% and cash flow? How? What would you need to do? That's what we will find out there. If you came last time, its ok! The more you hear the info, the more you assess homes, the more comfortable you will be and that will allow you to make good decisions when buying! 

See you here. Sebastian with True Home | Keller Williams Realty 

search for: 

foundation company in ______ city, state 

(get them out there and do an assessment) : then get the bid/ assessment and show it to 3 contractors (google contractor, or bigger pockets, or word of mouth referrals).  and see how much they would fix it for? 

Compare quotes from contractors to the foundation company: the foundation company will likely be more expensive but they specialize - so the assessment will be better. 

Only get licensed and bonded contractors 

(by the way.... where is your realtor? if you are not using a realtor... you are not leveraging relationships...) 

Realtor will likely know everything I am saying on here (unless they don't) and in that case get a better one. 

Use a buyer broker: to represent your best interest. 

(foundation company will be talking to a structural engineer : ask them to make sure: this way you get two for one). 

Say the foundation company says it is 25k to fix (making up numbers): go back to seller and show them bid and negotiate price or credits (then go to the contractor and see if they can do it for less). 

If costs are high- and seller does not want to budge... terminate contract. 

(wait to do all inspections and appraisals to request reduction in price or credits or repairs). 

Everyone on here is right :) really even me :) (except for the comment that said... you are too inexperienced to do it... you may be right now, but you sound intelligent enough to learn. 

What I mean by that is that you actually have a lot of options! That's the good news. First of all you need to know that you "can do it!" You have to believe it and you have to make a plan and take action. You are already asking better questions than people that are on their 3rd and 4th homes, so you are ahead of a lot of people. A couple of things: 

with 70k : you could probably buy something cash somewhere else and get 100% cash flow minus expenses. But do you actually want to is the question... 

It sounds like your market is a lot like our market in CA: prices are high and low inventory makes it extremely difficult. 

The problem is that a lot of buyers/investors want to hit a home run their first deal... and you may not or will not... 

Ask yourself: 

1- how conservative do you want to be? or what kind of risk are you ok with? 

2- what is your 1,3 and 5 and 10 year goal in real estate ? 

3- how stable is your job

4- do you have any other debt and expenses over all? (reduce overhead and save more). 

* the answers to these questions will enable you to choose a strategy and to draft a plan! 

Less risk: strategy 

See what you qualify for with a lender with your current situation? What about paying your student debt off completely and any other debt and how much do you qualify for now? (this is bc debt to income makes a difference with buying power and a lender can tell you these numbers). If you pay off 20k in student loans, sure you will have less cash to work with, but your buying power may go up by an extra 100k or more... and this way you may be able to leverage loans further (so you can put less of a down payment and therefore use less of your savings also!) 

Look into: getting an FHA loan (3.5% down) on a property (say a condo or town home): this is a marathon (if you choose to run one :) based on your answers to the questions above).

Look for a fixer condo: say condos are going for $400k renovated : you should be able to find one for $350k or even $300k (how do i know this? well, bc although I am not there... I bet you investors are finding them and flipping them, you just have to learn how to find them and get them). Trust me they are out there: even if you get one for say $375k as a fixer: then you put 10k to 15k and walk in with some equity! 

The math is this: you buy a condo for $400k : after 5 years - that condo will have appreciated to about $450k and the mortgage loan on it will have been paid down to about $340k (down by about 50k also): so in 5 years you will have about 100k equity on it. At that point you can choose to hold it or sell it and trade up. Wait a bit longer and refinance it or do a HELOC and buy a second home (now maybe a SFH/ SFR ) and again do a 3.5% down payment and do it all again.

At that point you will have saved money from wages and the equity from the first one, along with hopefully getting a higher salary: so you will qualify for more! and also have more experience owning property to now have one rental and one primary home. Do that every 2 to 5 years and become a millionaire by the time you retire. 

Theres more aggressive and risky methods : as you can see - i would need more time and space on here to explain... but you get the point. 

Flip condos, flip homes, buy 2plex , 3plex etc, look at for sale by owners, expireds, off market deals... etc 

** Look for a good realtor to help you and a lot of this would have come from them a long time ago. :) 

Do you want to leverage your money or not... do you want to buy and live in the property or not... do you want money yesterday or are you willing to wait a bit... You have been very conservative thus far so I don't see you doing anything hasty any time soon... but I could be wrong... 

Choose a focus, study it, learn from other investors, read books, visit different markets when you travel, and take action. 

Set a standard you want to follow and do it. :) 

Here to help if you needed. (no agenda as I am not licensed there... ) 

where is your property?