All Forum Posts by: Dave Van Horn

Hi @Account Closed

Many of the top agents I know have a lot of things in common. When I was working in a brokerage I realized pretty quickly that 20% of the agents did about 80% of the work. So the trick is to find those 20% and find out everything that they do.

Some of the things I've found among good agents (and have striven to implement myself) are:

1.) Have a specialty. A jack of all trades, master of none is definitely the philosophy I've seen with many unsuccessful realtors.It only took me 15 years to find my specialty! But then again, I didn't know that was what I should be looking for. But trust me, when I look at the first 15 years compared to the following 15, there's no comparison.

2.) What differentiates you from everyone else? How can you provide value? My specialty was investor buyers. I found I had built a good network over the years and could offer my buyers quality resources, vendors, etc. quickly (whether it was lenders, insurance agents, IRA companies, etc.). I also offered property management so I could manage properties I sold, and had a portfolio of other investment properties of my own to sell as well as a knowledge of my friend's properties that they were looking to sell. Eventually many of my buyers bought properties site unseen. So if you educate your buyers and tee up everything they could need, you become a #1 Realtor in their book.

3.) Be good at time management and responsiveness is key. This almost goes without saying except that it needs to be said. Not enough Realtors I've met over the years could maximize the use of their time. Many of them were stuck doing "busy" work that could be done by an assistant or VA.

4.) Build a business based on referrals. I would spend the majority of my marketing budget on on my current customers rather than new people. This is because your current customer base is your sales force, they end up doing the best form of marketing for you - word of mouth.

I'm sure there are other points I've left out but the above were the first 4 to come to mind.

Best,

Dave

Hi @Shane Jeanfreau,

Underwriting is strict as it is, so officially assuming someone's mortgage requires bank approval which is much easier said than done.

What I've done is acquired properties subject-to the original mortgage: the difference being, I don't have to ask the bank if I can do it, I just do it. That's the beauty of subject-to, you don't have to qualify for the mortgage.

I actually wrote an article about Subject-To awhile back that you might appreciate:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2016/07/0...

Best,

Dave

Hi @Will Daiss,

You can attend the first meeting free! After which point you would need a membership.

I would think Dual is for a couple's membership.

Best,

Dave

Hi @Bernard Braithwaite,

Welcome to BP! I'm also in the note business. I highly recommend checking out the Tax Liens, Notes, Paper, & Cash Flows Discussion 

Lots of like minded investors there! Plus a great forum to ask questions and get more info.

Best,

Dave

I'm a little biased, being a big fan of Episode 28! lol

But I am a big fan of my friend Brian Adams' podcast episode 135 - Raising Money to Buy 1000 Apartment Units. His story and method are one of the best I've heard, illustrating one of my favorite types of investment deals (large commercial).

Sure thing, @Eric Casey. Happy to help.

You're right, there are a lot of factors at play. I think a lot depends on personal preference, how risk averse you are, your overall goals, etc. But personally, I think you want to buy as many positive cashflowing properties as possible as quick as possible in the beginning (and I'm talking cashflow after PITI - principle, interest, taxes, and insurance). To to put it bluntly: the less money you spend on any one down payment, the more you'll have to purchase other properties.

So for example, if I were you and I bought a $100K property with FHA financing (3-3.5% down) + closing costs (typically around $8K), all in it might run me $9K to $11K total (depending on the taxes). Then, let's say instead of a conventional loan, I purchased another $100K home with an owner occupied loan - which I believe ranges from 5 to 10% down (aka $5K to $10K) + closing costs, totaling roughly $13K - $18K. So altogether that would mean I bought two cashflowing properties each worth $100K, spending (roughly) at most $29K total out of pocket. Doing it this way, in my opinion, is much better than spending a minimum of $20K + closing costs out of pocket with a conventional mortgage for only one property.

And at the end of the day I would have double the appreciation, double the write offs, double the cash flow, etc. If I were starting out, I've essentially doubled my net worth, all with less money out of pocket.

Best,

Dave

Loving Note Camp so far! Only had a chance throughout the busy work day to catch a few speakers but I really enjoyed @Kevin Cordell, @Brecht Palombo, Greg Reid, Randy Rodenhouse, and Alex Goldovsky.

Looking forward to seeing many more this weekend, and speaking myself Saturday morning. Hope to see other BPers on the call!

Hi @Will Daiss,

Welcome to the site!

I'm also based around Philly, investing in property locally and running a company that operates nationwide. If you ever have any questions about the area or investing, always happy to help.

And if you haven't already, I always recommend joining local Real Estate networking groups. One of the closest to your area that I would definitely suggest would be Diversified Investors Group (DIG). Their main meeting is in Horsham PA with sub-group meetings elsewhere throughout the area.

I've made a ton of great connections through there and learned a ton over the years from their education.

Best,

Dave

Hi @Matthew Cheeseman,

Congrats on joining BP.

I've been investing in Delaware County for close to 30 years now. If you haven't already, you should definitely check out DPI (Delco Property Investors). 

http://delcopropertyinvestors.com/

Great place to meet local investors in the area.

Best,

Dave

Hi @Eric Casey

You could buy a SFR with a conventional mortgage for a rental, but it's usually going to require a significant down payment (i.e. 20-30% down) and having this additional mortgage could mess with your debt-to-income ratio when applying for the FHA loan. Your only other option to get a lower rate when purchasing a SFR with traditional financing would be as an owner occupant. This may also impact your FHA loan application - mainly because lenders usually like to see home-buyers moving up rather than down. So it probably wouldn't make much sense to the lender if you went from where you live now to a SFR home then to a single unit in a multi-unit property. Believe it or not, this story of your move is important to the FHA financing process than many people think.

I would talk to a lender and get there suggestions. It sounds like it may be worth waiting the 9 months.

I'd also suggest thinking about non-traditional financing to acquire properties or income. So for instance, if you want to make money in Real Estate in this 9 month period you could do a quick flip or wholesale a deal. And if you wanted to get a lot of the same benefits of owning a rental, you could do a lease option deal. Or if you wanted to still acquire property to rent out, you could acquire a property subject-to someone else's mortgage (basically walking into their mortgage) or JV with someone.

Hope this helps.

Best of luck.

- Dave