Am I the only one struggling? Real Estate advice please!!!

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Am I the only one struggling? Real Estate advice please!!!

Nadine Delille
Wholesaler · NJ · Member since 2014 · 47 posts · 15 votes
Hello everyone, I need some advice please. I have been struggling to get into real estate investing. I've been reading a lot of articles, watching videos joined different real estate investor sites such as BP. Everywhere I look people make it sound so easy, but it is not at all especially if you don't have a lot of funds to invest. I spent money on programs to train me, been to meet ups for networking and still nothing. Initially I was starting with wholesaling b/c I have minimal to no funds to get started. So, I worked with some real estate agents to find distressed properties, found some cash buyers but still got no where, more so because the agents I worked with that claimed to be investor friendly knew nothing about wholesaling . Then I thought about rehabbing properties but not enough funds. When things didn't go as planned, I became discouraged and stopped trying for a while. After some time, I am back at it again because I am not going to give up! I just need help and some guaidance. I plan on moving out of my parents house and have been thinking about starting off with rentals or "house hacking" but I am unsure if that is the route to go.? Any experts or those that have struggled initially can you please share your experience and advice on what I should do to get the ball rolling. I really want to succeed in real estate investing. P.S. I am saving money too.
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Account Closed
Property Manager · Alpharetta, GA · Member since 2018 · 163 posts · 117 votes
8y

I'll be honest, I've had a pretty stressful time of it too lately. I have a great realtor, who understands investment property and to my knowledge exists solely in this space. We just cannot find the right deal.  It's frustrating, you want to throw the baby out with the bath water after each failed deal only to realize that changing at every obstacle is also not wise.

There are two things I already knew, but are worth mentioning. Well three.

1. Nothing is easy. Especially when you're learning. After ten years as a property manger I know a lot, but there is so much more to learn. Yes, at the end of the day money may have come through simple deliverable processes, but I doubt I'd ever call them easy. You have to understand that mistakes will be made and have planned accordingly.

2. Nice....and Business are not words that need to go together. Your realtor is either right for you or not right. Nice, good people skills, well connected, whatever....those don't matter if they don't understand what you're looking for. Friend, acquaintance, recommended by a friend...NOPE! Investment focused realtor or move on.

3. Personal analysis. There are million get rich quick videos on the internet. Some folks have copied those videos and made a fortune. Most have failed because of their work ethic. It's cliche, but the damn truth. If you're not willing to put in the work, then you need to find something else to do. Raising/Saving capital is a part of that. Making the connections, meeting quality contacts, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT....are all a part of that. It's very easy to read a website, but until you're truly sacrificing something to save capital, you're not really committed to this.

Number 3 is the hardest. Probably what makes my wife and I bicker more than anything in our marriage. The self reflection...you have to be able to say "Yeah, I suck at that."

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  • Paul DoCampo
    Specialist · ID · Member since 2015 · 121 posts · 53 votes
    8y
    @Nadine Delille I struggled as well for two years trying to get off the ground. Never got a deal. Get leads, got a contract , spent a lot of money on marketing but never a deal. My only advice is to pivot. Shift to low hanging fruit. That's what I did it and it was night and day. Getting into REI with no cash, no skill set, no experience is a hard business . There's easier ways to do it. And the hard-hit advice might be to wait until you have money to get into REI. Also, Find your strengths and leverage them early
    2Reply
  • Jim Vanhorn
    Investor · Roebling, NJ · Member since 2016 · 55 posts · 39 votes
    8y
    @Nadine Delille if you are finding deals, but lack the money. I would brrrr them with a personal loan then a heloc to pay the personal loan. Make sure you have a little extra over your rehab and holding expenses incase your rehab estimate is off. this will only work if you have good credit. Plan to have the heloc closed 6 - 9 months after purchase.
    1Reply
  • Stone Jin
    Rental Property Investor · Chandler AZ and Sylvania, OH · Member since 2009 · 708 posts · 561 votes
    8y

    @Nadine Delille I agree with @Sam Shueh, I would say a large majority of people with a realtor's license are not realtors full time.  Getting the license will first help educate you on real estate, second allow a mechanism for you to make money from real estate.  Even if you just buy your own house, the commissions that you would save would more than justify the cost of getting the license.  

    Lastly if you read between the lines on all the feed back.  1)real estate is hard 2)everyone has a hard time with it 3)lots of people are in your position.  Why don't you figure out a way to provide value to those people as a realtor.  You yourself struggled to find a realtor that knows anything about a certain niche, that to me is just an opportunity for you to step and be that expert.

    1Reply
  • Elenis Camargo
    Property Manager · Jacksonville, FL · Member since 2018 · 514 posts · 470 votes
    8y
    @Alina Vengerov I see! If you’re from this area and your careers and families are here then of course you won’t want to leave. I hope you can find it! I’m sure there has to be something out there, even if it needs a major renovation it could be worth doing. I don’t see NY prices doing down any time soon or ever. They just seem to keep going up and up. I found a property manager to list the property which included pictures, listing, showings, tenant application and walk through. I manage it now that it’s been rented out again. It’s not too hard. I have connections now that I built over the past 8 months that help me when there’s an issue and if there’s a new issue (like now I need a bug guy) I just ask for referrals or I google companies that can help. I accept the rent payments on Cozy.co, which is free for me and for my tenants.
    1Reply
  • Nadine Delille
    OP
    Wholesaler · NJ · Member since 2014 · 47 posts · 15 votes
    8y
    @Stone Jin thanks for that. I am going to go for my real estate liscense. Very soon
    0Reply
  • Ibrahim Hughes
    Real Estate Consultant · Bloomfield, NJ · Member since 2010 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    8y
    There's a post on here that was originally posted maybe 10 years ago. I think I reposted it around 5 or 6 years ago. It's called 50 ways to find motivated sellers. Search for that list and pick two or three ways that you're going to be an expert in. Then dominate that space.
    1Reply
  • Jim Thomas
    Contractor · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2018 · 32 posts · 14 votes
    8y
    @Nadine Delille You need to build up some cash. The best way to do that (beside a job) is to accomplish some flips. Don't use an agent, you can't afford one. You have to find the deals yourself and you have to sell yourself. Simultaneous closings and assignments are your best friend. They are the only way to make safe money in real estate when your investment capital is limited.
    0Reply
  • Michael Fliderman
    Rental Property Investor · New York, NY · Member since 2017 · 15 posts · 4 votes
    8y

    @Alina Vengerov It is very possible to accomplish this on Long Island. However, its not easy to find the deal to do it. My wife and I bought a 2-family home in Seaford (great area) for just over $350,000. Put ~100k into it, it was a foreclosure and needed practically a full gut renovation. It is worth north of 600k now, also our tenants cover our PITI. We are essentially living for free besides utilities. The hard part is finding a large enough 2 family home, we looked almost 5 months before we found something.

    0Reply
  • Nadine Delille
    OP
    Wholesaler · NJ · Member since 2014 · 47 posts · 15 votes
    8y

    Thanks @Ibrahim Hughes, I will check it out. 

    0Reply
  • Alina Vengerov
    New to Real Estate · Jericho, NY · Member since 2015 · 20 posts · 4 votes
    8y

    @Michael Fliderman Seaford is very nice, my husband and I are currently renting in Jericho so we know the area. Did you find this property on the MLS? We've been looking for about a month and so far there doesn't seem to be many multi families on LI, in general, but almost none under $400k. Did you finance the rehab or pay out of pocket? That's amazing that your tenants cover your PITI, we're just looking to decrease our housing expenses, but getting rid of them altogether would obviously be ideal.

    0Reply
  • Michael Fliderman
    Rental Property Investor · New York, NY · Member since 2017 · 15 posts · 4 votes
    8y

    @Alina Vengerov We found the property on the MLS. I've seen very few multi-family properties up for sale in Nassau in the past year, I check almost daily for new listing. We paid out of pocket for the rehab (with a little help from in-laws), and also opened up a new Credit Card and used it for many of the material and some labor costs. Sending you a PM now, might be able to help you in your search.

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