All Forum Posts by: Dominic Jones

My best advice would be to narrow your search to a specific market in Michigan that you are most interested in networking in. I searched my town and other local towns around me and didn't have to go through as many inactives.

I also employ natural selection haha! It's been a quick tip on the podcast to get a photo up and I just skip over the people who do not have a photo. Not saying they aren't worth the time of clicking on and reading their profile but I just figured if they don't have time or want to put a photo up on here than they are probably not the type of person I want to do business with.

Hope this helps, although your suggestion would be nice to see.

Wow. I just started learning at the beginning of February. I went to two REIA's, one in the BWI area and another up here in York, my local market. I connected with a few investors here in my local area and all of a sudden I've been put on a hunt for referral fees. Which leads me to my 1st question... has anyone found themselves searching for referral fees and found themselves becoming a wholesaler?

That's exactly what I feel is happening to me right now. I do not have a problem with this since I'm one of the many people who have nothing to start out with and I feel as though this is a viable way to raise capital to help build my real estate business.

So here is what has happened and what I need advice about.

I meet with a local REI with 10+ years experience. He gives me his criteria and answers my questions in regards to what he is looking for, what I should do to start popping leads, etc. etc.

- I immediately go to the courthouse and purchase 38 pages of the pre-foreclosures (have yet to send the letters)

- I also have been shopping Craigslist in the local market and reaching out to sellers.

The first seller that has responded to me has decided to sell b/c his partner, who was the "hands on guy" has moved to another state in PA for a better opportunity and has left him with the 8 properties. One of which is a 4 unit.

Now, this guy sent me a table with the information about the properties and two rows of the table gave Zillow rent and zillow estimate (for the current sale price of the property).

I've already checked all of the local assessment data on the property and all of the estimates are almost double what he has paid for it. Since I've been around bigger pockets and learning and reading voraciously I haven't seen anyone really take Zillow seriously.

There is one property in there he described as a "crack house" that needs $6K work on it before it is rent ready. I'm thinking that this is the property I want to hone in on and that I can get him to sell for cheap // close to what he purchased it for.

I'm not going to leave the numbers here for sake of time, I'm just wondering what should be my next step? This is as far in a deal as I've gotten and I'm unsure what is the next proper step. Should I continue on to set up dates to see the properties?

If I do go and see the properties should I have one of the local REIA guys send a contractor to meet with me to give me prices on the repairs to help garner more leverage in negotiations?

BP Community, please help! 

Welcome to Bigger Pockets @Corey Weidenhammer. I also want to build up a portfolio of rental properties. I'm looking forward to getting my hands dirty in as many "local" places as possible. So even though I live in York, PA, I'm originally from Baltimore, MD so I am interested in networking down there and learning as best as I can about the industry from people no matter where they are located.

I've read that it is best to stay in your local market though since every county and state are different, I think you'll be best learning from out of town people but applying what you learn to the area that you plan on investing at.

That's not to say that you can't invest without physically being there, but that's a side I haven't researched a lot myself at all. 

@Christina R.

 Most definitely! Thanks for the encouragement. Will see you at the next meetup we both attend! 

Thoroughly enjoyed my first time at the BWI Meetup this past wednesday. It was very encouraging to even be in the same room with some BP legends @Ned Carey

 , @J Scott and others who I didn't even know were also a part of the BP community @Terry Royce, @Anil Samuel, @Christina R. , the main presentation from @Tony Taylor . I'm super excited just to be in the same room with this group, and so many others who have found success in real estate and are experienced in the field. Feel as though this is my first major step towards moving into the field and changing my associations. Look forward to working further with all of you! 

Thank you @Joshua Dorkin for creating this beautiful place and for assembling all the pieces to make it the best Real Estate community online! 

Ouch. That sucks man. You're really between a rock and a hard place. I don't have the experience as to what to do with the contract but my intuition from my customer service background just says to talk to the seller, explaining your difficulty finding an investor & request additional time. Something else that may help you is www.meetup.com I'm in a REI group in my area and it is very active. I see deals being sent via email all the time. I don't know how many get acted on, but I think this may be another avenue for you to try and market the deal at. Marketing is huge in real estate just like all other sales related industries and it seems like this may be where your weakness lies.

Darrion Harris just curious on what your decision on this property turned out to be. I'm new to this game as well and learning all the time so I like to see the full picture. Did you pull the trigger or pass on the deal? Ned has great insight and since he knows the market well, I believe his advice was solid. Cap rate is excellent and all, but what about the intangibles that the numbers can't tell you? I'm originally from Baltimore myself and even though I don't own any property yet, one thing I am very leery of when it comes to investing back in my city of birth is the quality of the neighborhood and character/value of the tenants.

I'm just curious as to what the 30 day time limit is for? Is that a short term goal you've set for yourself? What happens if you don't sell it in the next 24 hours?

Victoria Nellon I have similar questions as Marcia Maynard on this. You do not mention in your post your business structure. Since there are many different niches in the real estate industry the ambiguity of your post is requiring us to inquire for necessary background information. Look forward to your answers!