All Forum Posts by: William C.

Find new tenants. Or train these tenants to pay on time, and if they can't, then find new tenants that will.

I can assure you the agent is not the one holding you back. They don't get paid until it sells, right? Chances are the sellers are holding firm. Also, remember that a listing agents job, and even more importantly it's the fiduciary duty to have the sellers best interests in mind. So not accepting your offer $50k less than asking is not only what they are be paid to do, they are required to. I'm not saying it's not worth less, I'm just saying they are doing their job by trying to get the seller the most money they can. If I were their agent, I'd suggest reducing the price, maybe 10-20k to see what the market does. Then probably 30-40k and again seeing if any buyers bite, before I would just give in and accept your offer of $50k less. So I share this with you so you can maybe take the sellers perspective of how this deal is going down and how they might handle it moving forward. I'm not telling this to discourage you or change your price in anyway. You have you price, stand firm, but you can't fault them for having their price and doing the same. Let's all be honest here.....we make out money when we buy right, don't we? If we buy right that means the sellers are leaving money on the table, right? We don't do it maliciously, we do it a solve a problem they might have. If a seller doesn't have a problem, they have no reason to sell for less than they think it's worth, or for less than it is actually worth for that matter. I think you need to move on and find a seller with a bleeding neck instead of a sore thumb.

1 day. They are pre approved over the phone so I know they qualify unless they were lying. They already like the unit since they saw he great pictures online and asked to see it in person. I usually have multiple applications so it's a matter of choosing the best one and signing the lease. We provide complexity renovated units slightly above market value in a area with very small if non existent inventory, and we mostly rent to college students or professionals so their are more tenants than units. It comes down to product, location, price, supply and demand and then knowing how to pre qualify over the phone so only actual potential renters ever step foot in the unit.

Julie Marquez as far as I know zillow is not making money of the test platform to wholesale homes. They claim to be using it as a tool for agents to come in and show sellers they could actually get more if they listed with an agent. Without a brokers license. They cannot be paid to bring the 2 together. Although I read they acquired a few licenses in some of their acquisitions. @david Harrison zillows model is to get eyeballs on their sites. The are clearly crushing it. You can continue to say how bad they are but consumers are eating up what they are putting out. They made money by attracting buyers and sellers to their site, and then selling that information to agents. They claim the will never step between buyers and sellers and cut out agents, although they acquired DotLoop which is a transaction management platform which would only make sense to do if they plan on managing transaction in some form in the future. Otherwise I don't see what they would do with that software, other than maybe sell it back to agents like the lead. Lastly, they are here to stay, I hate to break it to you. This class action lawsuit won't even dent the armor, and they will only get bigger and maybe meaner from here on out. Sorry I forgot who said it but as far as boycotting Zillow since agents are funding the giant is the truth. Unfortunately it won't work. They're will always be agents willing to buy the leads. Boycotting will only drive down demand and lower the price for those who stick with it which will really only makes those agents stronger. While I don't think we need to rely on them in anyway to build a successful business, ignoring them would be a colossal mistake.

I don't think 30min is too far. Then again you'll need to answer that question. Can you find closer deals? Do you mind driving that far? Regarding the numbers...they look decent on paper, but I have no context to compare them to. What class is the neighborhood? Are you accounting for capex and vacancy, management....and everything else? Are you able to take a screen shot of the spreadsheet to share so everyone can see the inputs? The outputs are only as good as the numbers going in. 13% cash on cash is good, as long as its real. Lastly, how much would this home sell for if you listed it when complete? How much do you have into it. I might be able to tell whether it's a better flip than hold with most of the information I just asked for.

Ahhhh. Tax deferred, not tax free. Thanks for the clarification. Good stuff. I'll look into the book. Appreciation isn't really my game so I'm not sure I'll utilize the 1031 exchange the way you did but hopefully at some point and in some capacity.

@Michael Swan I have seen a few of your posts and your success really caught my attention.  It appears as though you have been cashing in equity from appreciating condos and 1031 exchanged them into apartment complexes.  All of this I understand.  What I can't seem to put my finger on which I've seen you post about, and then is also stated in your profile....how is the cash flow you receive from apartment buildings tax deferred? 

"They cash flow at approximately $120,000 per year. That is tax deferred"

Am I reading that correctly?  The government doesn't tax your rental income because it was the result of a 1031 exchange?  It has always been my understanding that the proceeds from the original sale were tax deferred.  For example you buy for $100k, and sell for $250k, normally you would pay taxes on the $150k capital gain, but not if you roll that into another purchase.  Are you saying that not only is that $150k tax deferred, buy any rental income collected from that new purchase moving forward is also NOT taxed by uncle sam?  Sign me up, that is truly an amazing revelation about how 1031 exchanges work.

Joshua D. No, I would not just go "use up" your $300k LOC asap. I'm sorry if I in someway implied you should do that. I'd actually do the opposite, and be very conservative about what you buy right now. The market is frothy, people are over paying for things, and it's not a good time to just go buying up properties to use up an LOC. I'd keep looking for deals like you've been doing and keep chugging along. Regarding the 80/20, the best explanation is in podcast 217 with Perry Marshall. It will blow your mind. Simply put though, if you own 100 properties, you would earn 80% of all your income, from just 20 of those properties. And the other 80 properties would only account for 20% of your income. Then inside of those 20 that are producing, there's another 80/20 rule. You'll earn 80% of 80%, or 64% of you income from just 4 properties. It's confusing, and mind boggling, yet freakishly accurate. It's proven to be true in almost all areas of life, you should really either google the Pareto principal, also known as the 80/20, or better yet listen to podcast 217. The point I was trying to make though was tracking your numbers on each property is so important. And according to this economic theory you can make much more money by working less by getting rid of the 80% of properties that's only produce 20% of the results. You can also use it to answer your question about whether to sell or hold. Isn't it going to be in the 80% or 20%? One other quick question, are all Of your properties local to your home town? Just curious what market your in. I'm north of Philadelphia, but have family in the Pittsburgh area. Best of luck.

David Garrison Zillow and Trulia which I'm assuming you know are owned by the same company captured 64% of all real estate web consumer traffic last year. To " not take them seriously" is a huge mistake. They are a pretty big deal, and not only are they here to stay, they are poking into area they never went before ( wholesaling). I honestly can't believe people aren't talking about this at all? I posted this thread the thinking it would top the charts of treading topics. I even searched the site to make sure no one had already mentioned it and the most recent thread I could find about zillow was from 2016. Maybe I come from a different perspective being an agent as well so my thoughts on the subject might be stronger than the typical investor. I think for a long time investors have avoided the Zillow shadow because of the generation that is typically selling a deferred maintenance home with equity is older on age. The internet isn't where they go for answers so they might not even know what Zillow means. I'd be willing to bet all the equity in the world that as our sellers begin to become "younger", or in other words as the generations change and our sellers become people who grew up on the internet, Zillow and sites like it will have a bigger impact on how we run our business's. I'm not in the least bit saying the sky is falling and everyone needs to be frightened. Im just trying to start a conversation about a website that owns 64% of the real estate internets eyeballs and they just started connecting sellers to wholesale offers. No one has any thoughts on the situation?

@Jeff B.yes of course, for fixed loans only.  OP mentioned a 30 year loan, which had me assuming residential fixed loan all along.