All Forum Posts by: Zachary Inman

It depends whether you're finding a house listed on the MLS (which is around 90% of all listings) or finding an off-market deal. The off-market deal is much simpler, you just go to your attorney (or an agent) and have them do the paperwork for a flat fee. If it's listed on the MLS, then it's going to be more of an uphill battle.

The listing agent doesn't have to give you the other side of the commission. They've already signed a listing contract. The seller could theoretically lower the purchase price and commission to reflect you "not using an agent" and cover closing costs, but that would be quite the hard sell.

From an ex-agent with currently no skin currently in the broker side, buyers who put in offers like this are often seen by listing agents as being way more work than they're worth. The listing agent is going to end up doing a lot of the transactional work anyway, and they would typically steer the seller towards an offer that is seen as "less risky" to close. Maybe you'd have a shot in a buyers market, but in today's seller's market, they have a lot of other attractive offers to choose from. 

@Dusty Eaton I don't personally, but I was the agent on several transactions involving barndos on rental/sale side. 

Hi @Dusty Eaton

One of your biggest drawbacks is a limited renter pool. There are certainly potential tenets out there, but not as many as a traditional condo or SF home. 

@Jacob Theado I think determining ways to add value to investors is your greatest asset. Bring them deals, have local connections, be able to negotiate better terms, etc. Most of these skills are gained through experience and expanding your network.

Also, an investor-friendly agent is different from a normal agent. Meaning, your business is going to be a lot of quantity of lower-cost deals rather than fewer, higher list price deals. This means it's going to be a lot more work on the front end to build your business, but investors are more consistent in deal flow than typical clients.

Hi @Nitesh Gandhi,

I've lived in Indy my entire life and you're buying into a wonderful market. Feel free to send me a DM with any questions. 

"Overpaying" is entirely relative. With the Bull market real estate has been experiencing for the next decade, everyone always thinks they're overpaying because the prices continue to appreciate. 

I think the actual NOI and downside risk factors are far more vital to underwriting than anyone's gut feelings about overpaying or underpaying.

Real estate meetup networking and asking for referrals

Yes, they are legit but the price depends on your deal flow/frequency. If you're only doing 1-2 a year, then it's probably not worth it. 

Thanks for sharing this @Jesse Rodriguez

Renovating properties is difficult, time-consuming, and certainly not for everyone. I know when I renovated my first property, I ran into more problems than I could count and had a hard deadline that made those weeks some of the most stressful of my life. I've been there.

Now I outsource most of my GC work and keep that in mind when underwriting deals. Also, I now work with a real estate syndication that has many physicians in the same boat - not enough time to invest actively, but still want passive real estate exposure. 

This is a great lesson to keep in mind moving forward about how to prioritize profit vs quality of life. 

It depends on whether you want the investment to lean more passive or active. If you decide to go the 3rd party PM route, then I would recommend not skimping on payment. There are plenty of cheap PMs out there, but a good one is worth every penny and will buy you back time (and headaches).