All Forum Posts by: Brian Briscoe

We prefer to use brokers for off-market properties...  their job is to gain and maintain relationships with property owners.  I can't help you directly with the buying list... but, I see you're in Greenville.  We have properties in Spartanburg, Columbia, and Pickens.  What is your buying criteria and investment strategy?

I'll add my 2 cents.  Investing passively in syndications seems to be a good fit.

@Taylor L. made some good points about defining your investment goals first...  BTW, Taylor is a syndicator and has a solid reputation.  I'm in DC - he's in Richmond.  I've never met him, but I know several people that speak highly of him.

@John Fortes is another syndicator that I trust.

I'd recommend talking with several syndicators to find someone you like that can help you meet your investing goals.

A few people also mentioned private lending... also worth looking in to.

@Danny Haddad

I agree with what @Don Konipol said -- if it's priced right, you'll have interest...  

@Sean McDonnell rightly points out that there may also be a marketing problem. It could be priced right, but not reaching the people that are looking to purchase.

Here's what I'll add... if you're trying to sell using owner financing, you're limiting your buyer pool to people who are interested in owner financing.  Most people looking for SF homes are going to be owner-occupants and they'll stick with what they know, which is traditional financing.   Additionally, their buyers' agent will counsel them to stick with traditional financing because it's what the buyers' agent knows.  There's just a high-level of perceived risk for regular buyers.

Most people looking for owner financing are investors, and they typically won't pay top dollar for a home.  So if you're insisting on owner financing, you will likely have to come down in price to attract the type of buyer that would accept owner financing vs. bank financing.

Or, it could just be your marketing and potential buyers just aren't seeing the house.

Question for you: why do you want to sell using owner financing?  What's the benefit for you, and is there another way to get you what you want?

Piling on to many similar responses...

I've been SFH landlord and renter many times in the past 20 years. In almost every case, the tenant has been responsible for mowing the lawn. We did own one investment property where the HOA did all the yard maintenance (condo). As a tenant, I was never provided a lawnmower. What's more, in one house we rented with a more strict HOA, we had the additional responsibility of making sure the entire yard was within suitable standards (mowing and edging the lawn, trimming bushes, removing weeds, etc.).

Whatever your policy, make sure it's in the lease.

In our apartment complexes, we do pay for the landscaping and maintenance of grounds.  It would be rather difficult deciding who mows or who mows what in an 80-unit building....

@Manny Awasom  Great seeing you online last night and @leslie's meetup.  Also very happy to see how much feedback you got on your post!!  

So, I happened to talk with a guy that's looking for stuff in Indianapolis today.  Saw this post, so I figured I'd hook the two of you up.  Email or text me and I'll make an introduction.

@Jonny Nila

You need to have your ducks in a row BEFORE making an offer. The financing is a huge part of any real estate transaction. Talk to lenders early and often. Make sure you understand loan requirements, fees, and timelines. Rates will fluctuate until you lock, but you should at least run the numbers with current rates (I usually do current rates plus a bit in cast they go up).

If you’ve bought and sold a dozen times, then you can maybe talk about getting a property before lining up financing. When you’re starting out, especially when you’re starting out, you should have a clear idea of what the financing will look like.

Oh, and if I call someone like a lender and ask a dozen questions, I immediately follow up by sending a $10 gift card (usually Starbucks) and thank them for their time.

Hmmm...  lots of interesting things here.  Especially the self-incrimination... and saying you did most of it as an F U to the landlord.  That's priceless.  Honestly, I don't even want to be helpful.

Sounds like it was a commercial property, which likely had a Triple-Net Lease... Just so you know, most NNN leases specify that the tenant is responsible for maintenance. If that's the case and your MIL had a NNN lease, then all your gripes about the landlord being negligent now turn into more evidence that the tenant was negligent.

@David New 

I said it was a few years ago, I think it was 2007-2008, so it's been a while. When I took the classes, I knew very little about real estate investing...  

Now, up front, in 2020, it's easier to get the same knowledge on blogs, vlogs, podcasts, etc., than it was 12 years ago...

The courses basically go through everything involved in real estate transactions.  It talks about valuations and different methods of arriving at value, it discusses lending market (to include secondary market), how you can hold title, how you can transfer title, title insurance, liens, classes of property, leases, landlord-tenant issues, etc.  

I think it really provided a baseline for future education and exposed me to how wide and varied real estate is.  For a creative mind, there's a lot of options besides the traditional seller selling and buyer buying... like subject-to, lease-options, master leases, etc.

I took it as a college course, so it was heavy on knowledge and light on practical application.  For the price I paid in 2008 it was a good value.  But, in 2020, there may be better options that focus on your investment strategy.  If you want to be a flipper, take a course for flippers; if you want to be a multifamily syndicator, take a course on that... etc. 

@Carey Lynch

I agree with @Brenden Mitchum - it depends on what your investment strategy is.  I've heard lots of flippers and wholesalers say that having the license increases their profits because they're also getting commissions on each sale.  If that's the route you're going, a license is useful.

Personally, I took most of the classes required to become a licensed realtor a few years back at a community college and the information has been very valuable to me as a real estate investor.  I never took the licensing test, though -- I invest in apartments and there's no benefit to being a licensed realtor for me with my chosen strategy. 

Bottom line - the classes were very valuable to me, but the license was not.

Few thoughts, and admittedly, at different points in my life, I'd have given very different answers.

I don't necessarily think it's a red flag.  I'd call it a yellow flag.  Here's why...  I'm military and have moved every 1-3 years for at least the past 20 years, so am frequently looking for new places to live.  When I was younger and my budget was tighter, I would have asked the same question.  My 24 year-old self living in 2020 would have logged on to any of the free credit report websites, printed out a report, and tried to save $35.  Alternatively, I remember moving from Japan to San Diego in 2006 with two kids - the rental market was so tight that PMs had many qualified applications to choose from on each house, so I had to write several $35 checks hoping they wouldn't all get processed and cashed at the same time...  It made me nervous and I asked every time if there was a way around the fee...  My credit at the time was 700+ (my wife's was higher). So, is it automatically a sign of someone with bad credit?  Not necessarily.  Could be that #1 Moving is expensive and all the fees add up.  2. Maybe it's someone who just grew up in a family where $35 was a big expense.  

Question: is their credit report verifiable? Can you call Experian, Transunion, etc. with their report number and verify its accuracy?

If I were still a "real estate hobbyist" (as my partner calls it) running small SF portfolio, I might show sympathy for the individual and at least look at their overall application package including income verification (but I would still call the credit reporting agency to verify accuracy).

Now that I'm running a multifamily business with a millions of investor dollars at risk (and if you treat your portfolio like a business), I stick to pre-established processes. 

**Note - I'm not calling people with small portfolios hobbyists...  I'm saying I treated my small SF portfolio like a hobby.