All Forum Posts by: Dev Horn

Ditto to what J Scott just said. You and 10,000 other people are watching MLS. No wonder you are not finding any deals.

Best bet is to use marketing/advertising to establish awareness & generate (exclusive) contact from someone that is motivated but not listed (and a house that is not "retail ready"). Unfortunately, the dynamics of this business are similar to most others - marketing takes an up-front investment and consistent contact with your target audience. But those that execute this well are snapping up the best REI properties before you ever see them on the MLS.

Wishing you much success, Tim Sughrue!

Really appreciate the honesty in your post, Marc Cesar. There are more people like you than you may realize. Probably 95% of the people that learn about this business never do a single deal.

Think about what YOU bring to the table and network with others that are more experienced - tell them how you can help them make more $$. Can you help find deals? Manage contractors? Manage rentals? Find a way to get involved before you have to take on too much risk. It's the risk that scares people (stating the obvious). If you can help someone that you can learn from, you'll get valuable experience (and $ too, I'm not suggesting volunteer work here) that will help you when it's time to do deals on your own.

Is real estate investment as simple as it seems?

The concepts are relatively simple. The reality is there's a lot risk involved. The complexity often comes as a result of things you did not know, or assumed to be different.

Best of luck in your endeavors!

Andrew Baisley - you mentioned mobile homes as a possible way to get started and I don't think I heard anyone offer this advice:

OMG - DON'T DO THAT!

Stick to SFRs. Mobile homes are more like cars - they DEPRECIATE as they get older and the best way to REHAB one is with a bulldozer.

I'm trying to imagine the chaos of living in a 5 BDRM house with FOUR RENTERS sharing 1 kitchen, the living areas, and 2 or 3 bathrooms. Sounds kind of like a frat house. I hope you're not making too many assumptions of how great that might be. This sounds like one of those scenarios that only works if all the stars align perfectly.

Why don't you just rent an apartment and use your available cash/credit to buy, rehab, rent and sell affordable single-family homes of the 3/2/2 variety?

To me, the loan is secondary to the strategy, and I'd really think hard about that strategy - just to preserve your sanity.

Wish you the BEST!

Hi Carrie Collyer! After you consume that, you should consider the 2 new books by "J Scott" that Bigger Pockets is featuring. They are like textbooks for this business:

http://www.biggerpockets.com/flippingbook

Best $29-49 you'll spend on your REI education!

Listsource is a good provider, but any list will get old. You can work with an account exec there to get a good rate on a new list, and then they can refresh your list a few months later at a reduced cost. I have an AE there that I can refer you to if you'd like.

Are you conducting a study of some sort?

If the listing agent is going to take both sides of the commission, you're better off with a buyer's agent on your side. But I have bought from the listing agent before & paid 1-2% less by negotiating a lower commission.

Generally speaking, you want to have a single RE agent that is working for you, keeping an eye for deals, etc. But finding deals via the MLS is tough since there are so many eyeballs on it (lots of competition)...

We always do that - "May I ask, how did you hear about us?"
You'll be surprised - sometime you'll hear "My sister saw one of your signs and told me about it." Or you'll find out someone put your direct mail piece on their frig 3 months ago and just decided to call.

If they do say "I saw one of your signs." we'll follow up with "Do you recall where you saw it?". A lot of times that can tell you "I saw it on the corner near Home Depot...".

Tracking with Google or Twilio numbers is great, but unless you put a different number on each sign, you may be better off just asking. We log their responses on a spreadsheet and then make sure to repeat what worked the last time...

Best of luck Alvin Grier!