All Forum Posts by: Dustin P.

I've been to a few of their meetings. Personally, I don't think it's worth it. Take that 20k and apply it towards your first deal. If you make money, great! If you break even, consider a free education. If you lose a little, consider that as your payment for your education. 

You'll learn a lot more actually doing it than you will with any amount of education IMO

I'm also just not a fan of MLM in general. Why pay $20k when you can join a local REIA for a fraction of the cost and meet with wholesalers / realtors to funnel tons of leads your way?

If you're looking to stay local I think you could purchase 3-5 single family houses a year with that income (Depending on your expenses and where you are buying). $10,000 a month cash flow should definitely be doable by the 8 year point, and I think you'd see some nice appreciation as well. Midwest markets would work better for cash flow, but you'd have to invest out of state, which isn't for everyone

I'll echo @Charlie MacPherson in saying the more specific you get on your MLS searches the better. Especially in Phoenix where crossing a major road could mean a big jump in value, I would set up your searches not only by zip code but by cross streets as well.

Figure out your criteria (3 bed / 4 bed, at least 2 bath, 1200-1800 square feet, pool / no pool, single story / two story / doesn't matter, garage / carport / doesn't matter, maximum price point, short sale vs. no, etc) and then apply that criteria to the different areas you are looking in. I have done this to set up hundreds of separate MLS subscriptions for myself so that I can an e-mail immediately when one hits my area.

Key word searches are great too, although ironically I would say "Investor" is probably going to give you the most false alarms. Lots of agents like to throw that word around even if their list price does not match up with what an investor is looking for.

IMO I would definitely not look to throw all your cash into one property. Spread out your risk and use leverage.

I'll agree with @Pamela Sandberg that small MF are very overpriced right now. You can get cash flow with SF but I wouldn't expect to see more than a few hundred per month. Rents are on the rise though - my girlfriend lists rentals for a lot of my investors and she gets blown up with showing time requests and typically has a few applications in less than 48 hours.

Under 200k in Chandler like others said is going to be tough. I just bought one for $220k off market That should rent for around $1800 once I get the current tenant out, that's about as good as I think it gets right now in Chandler. There will definitely be appreciation and rents continue to rise however.

I did sell a house in Mesa today for $185k that was about 17 minutes from Intel. It would rent for around $1700 with some TLC. So the deals are out there but again definitely hard to come by. I do a lot of marketing and a lot of offers to find them.

I use American Title Service Agency in Mesa on Stapley Dr, no complaints

For what it's worth, a lot of properties in Phoenix have settling. There are very few properties I've seen where it's bad enough to need extensive work.

For the mold too, there are quick fixes where you can get rid of it and have the air tested for a fraction of the cost of what the mold remediation companies will charge (And they're just doing the same thing you would be)

Realtors are there to advise you but ultimately you shouldn't expect the realtor to push you into buying it. If you experienced issues down the road you would be on here blaming the realtor and saying how the inspector cautioned you against it, but the realtor told you to just buy it.

You have to get comfortable making these decisions on your own I guess is what I'm saying. Take all the information you can from the realtor / inspector / contractors and decide whether it's going to meet your needs or not.

In terms of looking for a realtor though, I will say that there are pros and cons to working with experienced vs. inexperienced.

Inexperienced realtors may take some coaching and won't be the greatest at negotiating right off the bat. However, you will likely be one of their better clients, so any deal they do come across is going straight to you.

Experienced realtors will have the coaching and the market knowledge down, but there will be a pecking order. An investor that has bought 10 deals with them and who they know is a solid closer is going to get the great deal before a newbie they've never worked with before who may back out at the last second.

Gotta weigh the pros vs. cons of both

Feel free to reach out if you need any help in the Phoenix market. It is very competitive right now and there are a LOT of wholesalers, just FYI. But values are going up steady and plenty of people are moving here

The easiest way to protect the deal is to close on it yourself, and then resell. You control everything on the buying side at that point.

If you can't do that, then I assume you are going to assign the deal (I don't know how Florida works in that regard). In that case you should let the seller know that you are going to be assigning this contract to an investor. But do not contact investors until you have it under contract, unless you just really have no clue and need them to help guide you.

Once you have it under contract then really nobody can go behind you, or at least would have to wait and see if you cancel the contract before they did. Personally I think that if someone goes behind you on a deal that you put together, that they never would have known about if you hadn't contacted them and gone over it, then that's not someone I would want to do business with. 

For estimating the repairs, I would contact a few general contractors in the area. Try to vet them first and make it clear you're looking for investor friendly pricing. A contractor should be able to give you a good idea of what needs to be done if you are unsure of how to estimate repairs yourself.

I think the brand is called Elements, it's similar to HD Lifeproof just a little cheaper, has the underlayment attached already and pretty thick material. Goes about $3.50/square foot installed and looks great. We'll see how long it lasts!