All Forum Posts by: Derek Faller

The price shown on RealtyTrac is probably the defaulted loan amount. It doesn't necessarily dictate what price the house will come on the MLS at. REOs will usually come on the market at current market value minus any repairs and/or maintenance that needs to be done to the house.

Zillow will give you ballpark rents but aren't totally accurate. Contact a local Property Manager, they can give you accurate rents on the ones that look good.

I am not a tax accountant, but to the best of my knowledge you would add the depreciation you have taken into your gains and pay capitol gains tax on that amount. So in your scenario you would pay capitol gains on $41k.

If you are buying another investment property you can roll the money over through a 1031 exchange and put off paying taxes until some point when you cash out.

I would double check with a CPA to get definate answer.

Does anyone have a property manager in the Minneapolis area that they would recommend? I am looking at some properties there and would like to get feed back from a good local property manager.

I wouldn't say you are stealing from the realtor since the seller will still technically be obligated to pay the realtors commission if you bought it instead of whomever had it under contract initially. That is unless they have a clause in the listing contract that would allow the house owner to not pay the commission if they find their own buyer. If you are working for a specific company doing some sort of inspections related to the house sale you may get complaints to your company from the realtors if it happens to them a lot.

Yes, I got my license through there and take my required hours of continued education from them. Taking the classes in person at a school are probably the best way to go, but if you don't have a class near you or you don't have the time to dedicate to a full time class then the online courses are good for that. The online ed classes have a moderator that you can call or e-mail with any questions you have about the course work and a through practice test. I didn't have any problem passing the exam after finishing my coursework.

I would recommend WWW.onlineed.com. They have state specific licensee courses and ongoing training. I am not sure if they provide training for every state, but you can check to see if they have course work for the state you are interested in being licensed in.

I would recommend reading the "Millionaire Real Estate Agent" by Gary Keller to get an idea of what you need to do to be the top local agent.

There are a lot of different strategies to getting clients and you need to adapt to ones that fit your personality. What works for some realtors doesn't work for others because it seems forced. The best way to get business though is through networking. Always keep networking.

I am not an expert on 1031s, but I believe you would have to wait 2 years. If you hold a property for less then two years it usually isn't considered an investment property as far as the government is concerned. That is why flips and rehabs don't qualify for the exchange.

I am not sure what companies are located where you are at or what fees and expenses all the companies charge, but if you have a Keller Williams up there they are usually pretty good for training and new agents.

Usually the bigger name companies will have good training programs for new agents. Regardless of what company you go with there will be some substantial start up fees and fees that the company generally won't pay for such as your license fees, Realtor membership, MLS fees and the big one advertising.

Go talk with as many of the companies that are up near you and see who offers you the most training and services. You should not expect to get a very good commission split initially, but since you won't be selling a ton right out of the gate the training and least amount of fees upfront will work out better for you.