All Forum Posts by: Dakoda Spencer

Hey BP family,

I have recently decided that I would like to look into becoming an agent. I would like some specific advice as to how this works. I am looking into becoming licensed in West Virginia and Maryland.  

I would love as much detail as you can give me. If you lay it out in a step-by-step method, I would greatly appreciate it! All feedback is welcome and encouraged!

Thanks all!

-Dakoda

Excellent @Account Closed, thank you! I appreciate your sound advice! You've given me some very actionable suggestions and that's what I like to get. :)

@Jeff Brown, no problem. I look forward to learning with you. You are in the right place. I have paid a lot of money for courses and they are worthless in comparison in the quality content that you learn here on BP. Soak up everything you can, attend all the webinars, listen to all the podcasts, read as many forums, and talk to as many people you can. Definitely find some local investors to link up with and talk to. Find some agents that are willing to help you and maybe walk you through some things that seem unclear. As call around to some local banks once you know what to ask for. Look around BP and find out when there are local meetups there in Hagerstown for investors. I went to one in Frederick and it was great. I plan to come to the ones in Hagerstown as well, if life permits it. See you around! 

I would like to have a good GC, but I'm willing to talk to other people of course. @James MacKinnon

Hey @James MacKinnon, thanks for the offer. I will keep you in mind. Do you know of anyone I could use in the Morgantown area?

Hey @Account Closed, again, thank you so much for your input. 

Sorry for some of the confusion. Let me clear that up. I am looking at several different properties with different exit strategies in mind. The one out of my area I would like to wholesale using an assignment of contract. I'm still not sure how my state (WV) views this, but that's a question for a different post.

When I was asking about getting an appraisal, I had some propertie in mind. Properties that I am running the numbers on as a flip. 

What do I have to do to get an appraisal done on a house I want to flip?

As far as the communication with the seller about the wholesaling deal, I have talked to the seller and let them know that I would be turning around and selling it to an investor. They own the property free and clear and just want to get rid of the place since they have moved to a new location.

I haven't heard of an agent helping in buying houses that are for sale by owner. Would I just pay them a fee for that? 

Thanks!

Hey @Jeff Brown, I just looked through some of your numbers. I'm curios how you are coming up with some of the numbers. Have you confirmed the vacancy rate, cap ex, repairs, insurance, and property tax? I'd suggest doing more research on those before you consider this deal further. I also noticed that you didn't include property management into the expenses. Even if you are the one who will be doing the prop. man. I would suggest adding the expense in there so that you may pass that off in the future and still have good cash flow. 

A 5% for vacancy and Cap Ex seems low. That said, I don't know your area so I can't really say it's wrong. I know the more cash flow a property brings in, the lower the cap ex is needed.

$30k sounds like a low amount for repairs. I know even when just looking at a small duplex I have upwards to $25k in repairs depending on the house. 

I don't know where you are getting your numbers for the loan but I think 3.5% interest isn't going to be realistic for this property. 3.5% interest is the lowest I've seen, but only on a FHA loan, which this wouldn't qualify for if it's for a property with over 5 or more units (5 or more units is considered commercial). Financing makes or breaks deals.

You didn't say how you came up with the down payment but that looks way too low. That's only .05% of the purchase price. The banks I have talked to asks for a 25% down payment. That's just the banks I have talked to and you may have found a seller willing to do seller financing.

All of this is what I know and may not be completely accurate. I too am learning and looking for my first deal. I hope all this help. Sorry if I didn't answer too much. I think you need to do a lot more research on the property before you go too much further with it. 

I would also suggest filling out the rest of your profile here on BP. Most people will take you more serious if you fill out all that you can. I know that when I go to look at your profile and don't see things, it makes me think you aren't serious about real estate investing (REI). If you have any more questions, just send me a message and I'd love to help further. Please mention my name if you want me to respond here again so I get a notification.

@Account Closed mentioned). 

Since it is for sale by owner, I assume having a buyer's agent won't really make sense since they won't benefit from it. 

This house is a little too far from my area so I would rather just wholesale the deal instead of taking it on as my first flip. Are there any other contracts I could use that wouldn't be as in depth as the one from an agent? I know that it is so in depth for a reason and I don't want to cut corners. That said, are there any others that would make it more simple for both the seller and I? Again, I plan on wholesaling this property. 

You mentioned that the bank will have an appraisal done to check the value of the property. Can you give me more detail about that? Can I have an appraisal done on a house just for myself? Is there a way for an appraiser to tell me what a house will appraise for after a rehab? Not sure if that is something that can happen. I'm not too confident in my ability to gauge the ARV so I'm looking for alternative methods to confirm those numbers. I ask this question with the BRRRR strategy in mind. I want to make sure I can refinance to pull out enough to pay off any private or hard money lenders.

Thanks!

@Rosston Smith, the only way I can run the comps in on zillow since I don't have access to the MLS. I'm not finding many houses similar to it that is close to it.

@James Triano, I sent you a message. Please check it out and PM me. Thanks. 

Could someone please lay out to me in very easy English how to get a property under contract? 

Here's my situation: I am talking to a homeowner that is interested in a cash offer of 70%. I have other forums posts searching for WV agents willing to assist me in pulling comps and also searching for a contractor to walk properties with me. After I come up with what my maximum allowable offer, how do I give that to the seller? Do I simply email the contract to the seller, have them sign it and mail/email it back to me? How do I come up with the contract that I send the seller? 

If you could, please explain it as if it was a flow chart. That's just how I understand things. 

Thanks, Dakoda