All Forum Posts by: Jeff Spicer

Fantastic and motivating story there Gino.  I have been planning and researching about investing in apartments and your post has pushed me into finally taking action.  I have started to reach out to others and letting everyone know that this is what I am doing.   I have set a goal to have 200 units by my birthday next year June 2nd 2017.  Thanks for letting me know that it is at least possible and now it is up to me to take the action necessary to make it my reality. 

I would likely take the cash flow.  $1,000 month plus as jerry points out depreciation and note pay down it is likely the better opition.  Even at $650 with a manager it might be a better deal than a cash out.  Really depends on what options and possible returns you can do with the $25k and amount of work and effort required to get the returns.

Hello Steven,

That would be a fantastic place to start from. I know you are looking for an answer of I would invest in this type of property, or something like that. However, if I were in your shoes I would not be looking to invest without first getting more income coming in. I would create a 5 year set of goals and work backwards from that. I would be very careful with your money until I had additional income coming in, and knew my market inside and out. Obviously, doing things like wholesalling, or becoming a real estate agent would be great ways to learn your market, find great deals, network and make connections, as well as, determine what type of investing you prefer all while making additional income.

Real Estate in my opinion is all about networking, marketing, and knowledge of the markets you are in. Once you know you can find deals, have connections in your market, figured out the type of investing you want to do, and have your 5 year goals defined this question should be very easy for you to answer.

If you just took 90 days and really networked with the real estate investors in your market and learn what they are doing that works in your market great deals will start finding you and you will know them when you see them. At first I would wholesale some deals to ensure I knew I could find an identify great deals. I would try to find a mentor that was doing what I was interested in doing in my market. I would also get a real estate license ( even for the education only). Then I would continue to network, study, and learn my market.

I am sure you would be far better off going this route than if you tried to invest in anything right now. This is not a race there will be great deals in the future. If you take just a little time to learn and network great deals will likely find you.

I wish you the best Steven!!

You have the time and resources that most never have starting out. I truly believe that if you do not rush into investing, but take just a little time to network and learn your market you have the potential to be one of the most successful investors in your market and even one of the more successful here on BP.

Ouch, good catch. You a right about looking at the fine print. Yeah the money pile did the samething for me. Wish they woud have been better opportunties that would have worked. I agree Networking and making connection is going to be the key. Hopefully Bryans contact will be able to work.

I would start with a search for 100% commission real estate brokers in austin.

When I did this there seems to be many avail options in texas to chose from.

http://eexecutiverealty.com/default.asp.pg-AgentFormsPage

And

http://texasrealtypros.com/100_PERCENT_COMMISSION_REAL_ESTATE_BROKER.ASPX

Were the first two I found that might work.

Texasrealtypros looks to be only $179 a year and $179 a transaction.

Eexecutivereality has 15 different plans so one might work for including one option that provides health and dental insurance.

Even though you only want them to broker deals there are still many options, benefits, etc... That a broker may offer. For example, connections, tools, marketing, and more.

I am looking at doing the samething right now, but only in illinois.

That sounds great thanks for setting this up George. I am looking forward to meet others in the area.

Hello Naveen,

If I had an out of state property that I was planning on renting out I would go with a reputable property management company in the area that has experience dealing with the type of property. I would want to know that the property and tenants were taking care of and that they would not hopefully just disappear one day if another deal or job came along. However, that is me and my personal preference.

As far as getting the property title in the LLC name, renting the property, and hiring the property management under the LLC that does sound like it might be a good idea that you could look into. However, I think you need to get a good real estate attorney on your team that has experiance in the state your property and LLC are in. I would have the attorney look over your unique situation. I would not think anyone of us here at BP will be able to help with this even if some here are attorneys. As they would need to know all the details of your situation to provide advice on this property, loan, and your LLC. Even if someone on BP gave you advice on what to do I would still recommend you work with a local real estate attorney to ensure everything was setup correctly. To me the risks are just not worth it. If a deal can not cover the costs of a good attorney then in my opinion it is not a good deal.

It does sound like you are doing great and asking the right questions, but it looks like to me that it is time to expand your team. I wish you the best with this property and your investing.

Hi Cameron,

That is a fantastic response rate. Your criteria seems to be highly effective. I would definitely continue your method. The handwritten personalized approach is unique and sets you a part. As you said most campaigns doing 100 letters are lucky to get 2 to 3 responses and even then the quality will be lower, and cost ten times more. Obviously you are spending more time upfront, but what you are doing is working. Who cares what others are doing what matters is what works for you. Once you have money coming in maybe you will need to switch to the shotgun method like others in order to scale, but I see nothing wrong with the snipper rifle approach you are using to get things going, and may be the only method you ever need given the response rate.

As far as the seller with an agent goes the agent fees come out of the purchase price thus if you can get the seller to discount the property to where the numbers work there is no reason everyone can not win. Also, could the deal work if the person you are selling to was also an agent? This way they could get a commission split by being your buyer agent. I am assuming you would do a double close for this to work. This is one reason I am look at getting my license as you could just as easily get a commission split vs profit for wholesaling. If there is no room and the numbers just can not work with the agent involved then this is likely something you just have to pass on as it is not what you are looking for at this time.

Keep up the great work Cameron at this rate you will find a deal that works for you it just may not be this property.

People rent for many reasons. There are many that just do not want the responsibility for the upkeep and maintenance and thus will pay rent to have someone take care of those things or feel they do not or can not afford to care care of them. There is a new generation come of age larger than the baby boomers and they need housing. The baby boomers are aging and many chose to no longer take care of a house or can no longer afford to.

Many now have temporary jobs as "consultants / contractors" in which the contract is renewed yearly. These consultants or contractors many times do not want to risk a mortgage as next year they may have to pick up and move to another location in order to stay employed and the last thing they want is to have to worry about selling a home and buying a new one or having two mortgage payments.

Then you have many that were burned in the housing market and just do not want to lose on purchasing a house again. Then there are the typical renters that you likely in-vision and of course still many other reasons why people chose to rent vs. buying a house.

Now weather the area you are looking at will be a good rental area or stay a good rental area or be flooded with too many units requires knowing the current area and then watching and keeping up with the trends. Even then there is no 100% guarantee. However, as long as, there are jobs available in the area I would image that there will always be a need for rentals.

My wife and I have discussed selling our home and just renting an apartment as we could get a better layout at close to half the cost (taking into account maintenance, taxes, etc...) allowing us to have more income to save and pay things off quicker as we are wanting to move out of the area. Thus, when we are ready to move on in a few years we would not need to worry about selling the house and we would have eliminated all of our debt (at least debt not used as leverage for investments) and increased our savings. Not to mention being able to free up our current equity for investing.

This was all before we were even looking at investing in real estate.

I am of course now trying to see if we would be better off purchasing an apartment complex instead of just renting. Owning a home to us is not really that important. We are looking at traveling especially overseas and are trying to prep things so that we are no longer tied to any one location.

Congratulations Charles,

That is a great first step and plan. I am defiantly looking at getting my license as well. I can see the value of having access to the MLS. I am looking at investing in the Chicago area and would love to network and work with you. I am especially looking for licensed professionals to work with in the area that understand investing. Once again congratulations Charles, and I hope we can work together in the future. At the very least I am looking forward to networking with you here on BP. I sent you a connection request with some more details.

Thanks,

Jeff