All Forum Posts by: Tobias Falzone

Welcome!  Are you looking to pursue a particular strategy at this point?

Welcome, The seminars and meetings that are 'free' or cost more than $20 I do not find are worthwhile. There are no secrets in real estate. All the information in $1000 seminars is going to be available in some form around BP or from people you network with locally. There is a local Ogden REIA group that is excellent (nureia.org) if you are sticking closer to home, and there are a few larger groups in the salt lake area as well.

Be careful about over-improving properties.  There are a lot of upgrades that in some areas buyers want but won't pay you for.  Make sure to network with flippers or at least go to see their houses when they come up for sale to get a better idea of what works locally.

David Essuman is an excellent local agent in the area that can help you in that area.  I have known him for years and owns rental property.  Did you have any specific criteria you are looking for?  

Don't forget about the permitting process, which can be quite expensive out here.  School and Fire fees can be high, In el dorado hills I remember reading that permits and fees total around the 70k range, but there are other areas of Sacramento that can get down to 40k-ish per unit.    

I would love to meet a contractor that can build for 100$/ft.  I would say 150-200$/ft is more typical, but those numbers may already include the permitting process.

I would not ask agents to do CMA for most properties if your goal is to submit 100 offers hoping one sticks. They can always do that during the due diligence after the fact. I would recommend having each agent make a template offer where the only things they need to change is the address and the purchase price. That should significantly reduce the burden on the agent's time for submitting many offers. Be respectful of their time as much as you can be. You are saving them a lot of time by not having to show you tons of houses, but you need to make the relationship mutually beneficial.

Bad real estate advice will cost people in your network a lot of money. Don't feel like you are annoying people, you are helping them! If you are looking for investor clients, REIA meetings are a great place to start. You can also look at transactions in your area and pull records for flippers and other non-owner occupied investment properties and target those owners directly through phone or mail.

ROI for Agent marketing is a little different than it is for finding off market deals. The key I think is focusing on a ver small area first to get a foothold in the market and then consistently marketing. One agent in an area I used to live in would pay someone to drop a large calendar page every month with the real estate agent's contact info at the top. these efforts snowball over time. You won't see results immediately because on average it takes something like 7 interactions with a person or company before someone will consider using their services.

I would drop the hammer and inform them they are in violation of the lease and to cease and desist or face eviction.  I know in the Bay Area there are professional renters that rent out multiple apartments and turning them into AirBnB rentals for profit, flaunting local ordinances and causing significant liability risk to the landlords as well as degrading the properties they operate in.  Don't risk it!

Welcome to Bigger Pockets! I do recommend going to the local REIA meetings in Sacramento to network and find partners. Capital City Wealth Builders and the Roseville REIA meeting are my top recommendations for the area, but I've heard there are others.

Are you interested in flipping non-occupied properties, or do you plan on sticking to serial house hacking?

For traditional mortgages, the best rates will come from online lenders out of the carolinas (zillow mortgage search is what I have used).  I've used Sebonic a couple times for traditional lending as well as goodmortgage.  They can be a bit slow on their paperwork, but the rates are 1/2 - 1% lower than what I have been able to find locally, and for big loans that can translate to large savings.  Of course, the downside of the online folks is that they have a lot of turnover so you are not really forming long term connections with anyone, even at the same company.  If you are buying infrequently for the long term and easily qualify, then the temptation of saving $ on rates is quite high.

Sacramento is indeed very tight. Several out of area flipping companies have set up shop and it can be hard to find deals with enough meat on them to make it worth your while. If you take some time and go to one of the local REIA meetings you can still find wholesalers and contractors though.