All Forum Posts by: William Allen

Yeah, that is the hard part.  With occupied properties like that it can make it much more difficult.  I try to stick to the unoccupied houses when doing my search because it is possible for them to drag on for a long time with an upset occupant.  Good luck and I look forward to hearing the result. 

@Lily Boudon  

I started with a lead propellor site to try it out for a month.  It is a nice site and probably has everything you need to get started.  There is a BP discount and a lot of positive responses on the thread that was started a few weeks ago about it.  I can tell you that from my experience their customer service is outstanding!  They are very helpful and quick to respond which is great.  They also have great videos on the site about every facet of setting up your webpage which are very helpful.

I also read @Scott Costello blog post a couple days ago about lead carrot as I see a lot of those sites around too.  I recommend you check that out, it is on his webpage with the link in his profile.  I don't have any experience with that site so not very helpful there.  

After reading @Antonio Coleman blog posts and doing some marketing and SEO research on my own I decided to go with my own wordpress site.  What I didn't like about the two other sites was that it wasn't exactly what I wanted my site to look like and a lot of the sites out there already have similar content and the same look.  I wanted mine to stand out and be able to customize and expand the site more at my own pace.  Also, I wanted to make this decision now as I got started with my site instead of 6 months to a year later and start all over again.  The most important part to me was that I wanted to learn how to do it myself and spend some time now so I know what I am hiring out in the future and how easy/difficult of a task it is.  So, I jumped and it will be cheaper in the long run and I hope it will produce better results.  My wordpress site was $55 and I have spent about 6-8 hours on it so far.  There is the upfront cost of the domain name and monthly hosting but that is it along with my time which most will argue is worth more than the $50 a month you will pay for lead propellor.  However, once it is set up my time will be spent on SEO and blog posts to move up in the rankings which you would be doing with those sites anyway if you want them to rank highly.  

You can always change your mind later in the process but I wanted to learn that side of the business and start my site from scratch (really a wordpress template but all my own material).  Good luck with whatever you decide.

@Marion Dunn  I wrote a post on my experience here:

http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/41/topics/1459...

I also put up a more detailed post on how we did on another thread which you can probably find in my profile if you are interested.  Let me know if you have any specific questions about the auction site and closing.

@Naveen Desai how did things go on that property you were looking at?

@Brandon Turner and @Joshua Dorkin 

The thing I got out of this post was how professionally you both responded.  Thank you for continuing to provide a great site and allowing everyone to voice their opinions, I am more and more impressed with BP daily.  I'm still not sure about the podcast, after the first few minutes I changed it but now it is the only one I haven't heard so I will probably go back to it.  

@William Behm I bought a property from Homesearch.com and they paid all the admin fees even though it said they wouldn't in the contract. I paid for title insurance, my half of the transfer tax and recording charge. They covered everything else and it was very unexpected on my end as I had planned on paying all of that per the contract. They seemed to do whatever is customary in the location they are doing business and didn't question it when they got the HUD. I don't think they will all go like that but using my local title company sure helped. Good luck and if you have any specific questions about my experience let me know. The purchase I did was in Maryland for your reference.

@George Calbert Welcome to BP, there is tons of information on here and a lot of other active duty service members as well.  I am in the same boat as you, active duty Navy and looking to expand my real estate holdings to bring passive income to live off of after retirement.  Spend some time researching on here and ask questions as they come up.  I used the "search" function for a long time on here before I started posting questions.  Typically, most things need to know are on here somewhere.  I always wanted to get to Japan but haven't had the opportunity yet.  Good luck and let me know if you have any questions about investing from a distance.  I was stationed in England for a while with rental properties in the US.  

@Lyle Quillin 

I am active duty now and would like to give you some recommendations but I think we need more information.  For one, when you say "shipping out" what do you mean?  Do you know where you will be stationed?  What will you be doing in the air force and when will you deploy?  Are you interested in being a long distance landlord?  Can your wife/does your wife want to handle things while you are on deployment?  Will you continue to invest where you are now?  Do you have a good network to help you there while you are out of state or country (it sounds like you may with all the rehabbing you have been doing)?  What are your overall RE goals?  All of these things will come into play when making a decision of what to do with the cash.

I had a few primary residence turned into rentals while I was on deployment but didn't really get active until I was on shore duty and certain I wouldn't be deploying again.  I don't think my wife would be too happy with me if I dropped the business we have now on her while I was gone.  A good management company could help in that regard though if you have rentals.  

Look forward to your response and I think it is an honorable thing you are doing by serving your country.  

@Aaron Bates Welcome to BP, there is a lot of great information and resources on here so spend some time reading up and searching for past posts on Pensacola.  There are also some active forum members from the area.  

As you take the time to learn and research the area you could parlay your construction knowledge to partner up with a local investor who can help you with the area and flipping business.  By bringing something to the table that they need or aren't as experienced in will certainly help them with the rehab side and you with the local knowledge.  

Good luck and let me know if you have any questions on the area.  

@Travis Hamilton  This doesn't surprise me in that area.  I have been less than impressed with some of the service of the property managers and real estate agents in Pensacola over the past few years. 

But, the best part about this response rate is that once you get everything up and running down there, you can scoop up all these pissed off potential renters/buyers.  I'm glad you guys have decided on a location and are making the move.  Best of luck...

-Bill