All Forum Posts by: Abel Curiel

 anytime!

And @Bruce Woodruff makes a great point. You will see income a lot sooner as an inspector vs. being an agent. Having both licenses could come in very handy so long as you're OK with the fees/costs.

 Hey Jake!

The answer depends on which avenue you believe will give you the best chance to reach your income goal AND which avenue you believe will give you the most opportunity.

Both options will require you to run it as a business vs. a part-time job. Furthermore, you'd want to look at these options as sales and marketing businesses vs. a realtor/inspector business.

Agents market and sell to prospective buyers, sellers, and investors.

Most inspectors market and sell to Agents.

Think about who you'd want to spend your time marketing and selling to.

With your investment experience, chances are you've already connected with a number of agents AND you've had your share of conversations with property owners and other buyers.

Which group can you envision yourself spending 2-3 hours each day marketing and selling to?

The lowest barrier of entry may come from being an agent. You already have relationships (friends, fam, co-workers, neighbors, former classmates, etc.) with people who own property or want to own property soon. This would likely be your highest quality source of leads/clients as you get started since these people already know and trust you.

On the flip side, you may already have agent contacts who know and trust you and would consider recommending you to their clients as an inspector.

There are 2 challenges I see here:
1. Agents already have their trusted team of inspectors, attorney/title, lenders, etc. Getting your first opportunity with these agents will take time and consistent follow-up... aka you'll need to be top of mind AND ready to go the minute they need you bc their preferred inspector(s) are unavailable.
2. Agents are reluctant to recommend an inspector who is NEW and who they have not yet worked with in that capacity.

Hope this helps!

Abel

Hey @Mitchell Gunlock,

What are you looking to accomplish? I see this is posted in the house-hack forum so I'll make the assumption that you want to owner-occupy your next investment.

To work more hands-on, you'll want to spend time searching for deals, analyzing deals, and networking/building a team.

Before your property search, I'd recommend speaking with a lender to find out how much you'll qualify for. This will help direct your search to the right areas, property types and price point.

If you're purchasing all-cash, skip that step.

Depending on your goal and preferred timeline for closing, the majority of your time should be spent searching for and analyzing deals.

Searching: Look at public listing sites; connect with an investor friendly agent and choose 1 to work with who can search MLS and off-market inventory; for additional off-market options, consider growing your own database of wholesalers and homeowners

Analyzing: Your agent can send comps and you can also search public listing sites for sold homes. In your analysis, look at local rental apartments to determine income potential of any properties of interest. The BP rental estimator tool is pretty good as well and is usually within about a 5-7% margin of error. Agents may also have macro data on historical data, local median sale prices, absorption rate, etc to help with your analyses and projections.

Networking/build a team: Attend local meetups, virtual meetups and stay active on forums like this.

A lot of this will be done in front of a PC unfortunately but if you cut out the noise, you'll be able to maximize your time.

Lastly, something that has helped me tremendously with respect to focus and improving efficiency is the pommodor technique. 

These are all surface-level recommendations. The deeper issue behind analysis paralysis may be some underlying fear, hesitation, and/or anxiety that you have to uncover and work through. This is very common so don't feel discouraged by maybe having to do some "inner work" or whatever you want to call it.

Hope this helps!

Abel

Hello Dennis and welcome to the BP forums,

You'll get some great insights on this post from experienced wholesalers in and out of your target market. 

In the meantime, I'd recommend using the search function and set up keyword alerts to find other questions on land wholesaling, best investment strategies, and any other topics of interest.

Excited to hear what you and your son have in the works, all the best!

Abel

 Hey @David Nathanson!

If you're looking to educate young professionals on the benefits of house-hacking in Brooklyn, I'd do 2 things:

1. Show a breakdown of how it helped you. Your testimonial can be the most powerful evidence/message/value proposition.
How much were you able to save monthly by househacking vs. renting or owning a single family property?
How much equity did you build, on average, each year you've held onto it?
How much money did you save by self managing and how did the experience make you a better landlord?
Share other lessons, anecdotes, and challenges that would be helpful with this audience.

2. Share info that already exists on BP and Youtube. Tons of videos, blogs, and forums related to house hacking. 
@Jon Schwartz also has an awesome calculator you and your target audience can download. The calculator breaks down the differences between house-hacking a multi-fam, occupying a single-fam, AND renting.

Hello @Yvonne Wang,

The scope of work should include the following:

- Basic info: Property address, client name, contractor's contact info, address, license#'s, signed general/operating agreement b/w contractor and client

- Specification of repairs: Repair item, Quantity of items needed, total & per unit cost of items, taxes (if applicable), Completion hours, title of the person responsible for the repair item, written summary describing the work

- Add'l info: Schedule of repairs, additional payment schedule details i.e. disbursement schedule, method of disbursement, deposits, holdback amounts, etc.

The screenshot below highlights a couple of repair items. The total contract is 20+ pages, which I cannot share due to the personal information contained in it.

Hope this helps!

 If you don't have an agreement with either one of them, select the one who you think would be the best fit to represent you. If you aren't sure who to choose from, ask each of them for a meeting/consultation to break down your goals, the market, and the acquisition process.

Once you've selected one, have them draft the offer for you and take it from there.

The best agents are responsive, knowledgeable on the local market, have a strong supporting team (i.e. lenders, title, inspectors, title, etc.), and know how to put together a deal.

@Michael K Gallagher mentioned, you'd want to clarify whether or not your agent is also representing the seller. If they are, their fiduciary responsibility may be to the seller, not you.

Hello @Sa'Mara Roberts,

This is a tough situation to be in, but it seems you're being forced to file a partition. 

*This is not legal advice!*

If your aunt was cooperative, you may have been able to form some formal operating agreement... although I am not sure how that operating agreement would hold up in your state.

1. Although I am not a legal expert and am not familiar with Michigan state laws, I think a partition could be helpful if it leads to pleading your case in front of a judge who can ultimately decide. This is better than not speaking with your aunt, letting the problem linger and likely worsen.

From my experience, in New York, the ultimate decision will depend on many factors and Liberal judges (as told to me by others with way more experience in these matters) can rule in favor of someone with a sob story. i.e. Your aunt does not want to agree to sell the house b/c of a partition since it will leave her daughter out on the streets.

Gather the paperwork you have and speak with a reputable attorney with experience in these matters. BiggerPockets' search option is a good start if you want to speak with people in the community.

2. In an ideal situation, you and your aunt would each pay back your fair share to your grandmother or each other. i.e. each of you share X% of your sale profits to your Grandma OR you and your aunt split the past expenses (taxes, other holding costs, renovation, expenses, etc.) with your grandmother and pay her back. 

Your attorney should be able to help with this as they will likely want to get an itemized list of projected past expenses.

3. You can look into civil court or housing court to find out more about the process. 

Here in New York, it's kind of up in the air. 

While you can file a partition suit independently, some may strongly recommend working with an attorney for a faster/more efficient process. I've also spoken to attorneys who say that judges have more sympathy for people who represent themselves in these kinds of matters.

I'd say look into how you can do it yourself AND speak to multiple attorneys for their input (most first consultations are complimentary) THEN decide how to move forward with the partition.

All the best!

Abel

Hey Scott! 

Shooting you a PM!

@Tony P.

Millionaire RE agent by Gary Keller is another good one. David Greene’s books are great resources as well.

I made about 35K my last PT year. Just under 100K my first full year and over 200K my 2nd full year.

Huge piece of advice someone gave me as I transitioned to FT, do not count commission until the deal closes. Instead, focus on improving your skillset, helping more clients at a high level and implementing systems in your business.

Theres a lot more on the topic so I’d recommend searching past forum posts on getting started as an agent.

Happy to chat as well.