All Forum Posts by: Brian Bagdasarian

Assume "unlimited" as meaning that you didn't have to hunt for properties, but rather that you had an ongoing source. Think private MLS

I'm doing some research for an article on the real estate investor mindset. I'd love your insight:

If there were a consistent  supply of properly priced, properly qualified properties that met your investment model, how would that affect the scaling of your business over the next few years?

Would you:

(a) Stay the same as you are today

(b) look to scale 2x-3x from today

(c) look to scale 3x or more

Assume that financing/money isn't an issue for this situation (I know it is in real life, but its out of scope for the question)

Thanks in advance!

A little late to the party here, but we actually use both. The tools are similar, but Realeflow has some added functionality that we use, mainly with it's direct mail features. Realeflow sends via a SaaS platform called "Lob", and you would have to do significant volume directly with Lob to beat the Realeflow pricing. Propstream absolutely has better data features, and we primarily use that as our data source, and then move properties from Propstream into Realeflow (there are some steps in between as well, as we also use ATTOM and a few other resources for data as well).

I had a similar situation a few years back, when I relocated from Switzerland back to the states. As @Chris B. said, you should have been filing your tax returns even though you were overseas. The FEIE allows you to exclude up to $105,900 per year as a benefit to expats. If you were making more than that you would owe taxes on the remainder. Lenders want to see your income, not your net earnings (depending on the situation). The other option is to speak to a local credit union, and see if they can work with you via story-based lending, which is a CU mandate. 

Artificial Intelligence Engineer

@Christine Humphrey - Strong data will help you overcome a lot of your fears (but not all of them). Knowing your numbers, how much they can vary, and then adding 20% (at least) on top should cover most of your risk. Will you probably lose money somewhere along the way - yes. The sooner that you're able to accept that as a reality, the sooner you can become comfortable with it. I don't mean losing to the point of failure. Losing money could be a cost overrun, or a bad tenant that you need to evict. Building a strong team around you will help mitigate much of your risk. Find a good handyman, a good contractor, a good contract law attorney, and a good CPA. It's worth spending the time to build and fund those relationships, as they will prove invaluable when things go sideways.

In the Northeast I tend to see percentage of rent (5%-10% depending on market). There are usually some one-off fees as well, depending on the company. A lot of the variance has to do with the level of effort you're expecting from the management company. I also know of several landlords that started with a PM, and as they grew it made more sense to spin up their own PM company, for both themselves and others.

I think that Facebook and Insta are both viable options for advertising. You just need to be prepared to put in the effort to learn the ins and outs of this advertising channel. Would I rely on Facebook as my only channel - no. Does it serve a purpose, and have its place in our marketing stack - absolutely. 

I feel like staffing up in any manner (VA or otherwise) is more of a scale-up activity, rather than a launch activity. If you've dialed in your model, it shouldn't take more than a few minutes to run the numbers on a deal, at least enough to get a gut check. Remember - you need to be able to teach your VA the processes you need them to carry out. If you don't have those totally figured out yourself, you'll be in a less than ideal situation.

What model (BRRR, fix and flip, etc.) are you considering?