All Forum Posts by: Frank Wong

Hi James,

If you decide not to go the new construction route then the deal becomes a lot more complicated then just signing people in at the builder's sales office.   Now you have specific contracts to use disclosures to review a whole different process than new home construction.   If you are doing 1 deal and its a resale home.  You are better off partnering with an experienced agent and have that agent or broker give you a referral fee. 

Michael,

You can do it.  It won't consume a lot of time.  Proper screening and good condition property should save you a lot of time. See how it goes with self-manage and switch if you don't have time.

James,

Should go get E/O insurance. If its one deal and family no need to set up a DBA. For new builders, you need to visit the sales office with them on your first visit. You should have a business card. Just have your name and contact info and put Broker. Have license number etc. That's it. You sign them in once and sign a referral agreement cooperating agent commission form.

Hi Raul,

Your title was Advice to your 20-year-old self.  I would tell myself, don't rush and jump into something you are not ready.  Number one thing is to increase your income and sales skills not buying a property.   Be patient and wait.  The money is made not rushing into things but sitting observing and striking when the right deal presents itself. 

The end goal is not the prize, the journey is.  Good luck

I am old school.  I like dead equity.  Once I have it paid off I know I can sleep real good.  I am not going to take on debt to leverage to get more debt.   Do I want to get 20 houses netting me $200 a door?  I have to worry about 20 properties with loans.   I rather have 5 homes paid off that will net me the same.   I am also not against pulling cash out if the right opportunity is available. Like Jay mention in his PHX example.  If I see something like that.  I will surely pull cash to buy those up. 

Dead equity gives you tremendous holding power.

Thanks for the tag, I'm a maybe.

Hi Tyler,

I think if you find the right deal and your mentor will cover the costs after the down payment I say go for it.  The two key parts are finding the right deal where the number make sense and second that you have a partner to help with costs. The biggest mistake with new investors is underestimating their reserves.  They jump into a deal and 1yr down the road they realize they need money for XYZ.  Love the idea of finding a place to rent while in college and renting the rest to your friends or other students.

Good Luck

Hi Yonah,

I agree with Alex you will need to do both at the same time but I suggest you start doing your research before you speak with a broker.  This way you can be well prepared on the areas you are interested.  The broker can then give you feedback and you can know if this broker knows what he is talking about.   

This is how you can start once you figured out a state and city you want o invest in.

Set your pricing parameters on Zillow, for example, your max price is $125k, 3BR 2 bath, 1200sqft.  Now you can start reviewing houses that are available. Then review the schools attached to them (looking for C+ and better). Look at the close proximity to major city and transportation.   For rental amounts, I go to Craigslist and look at apartments.com.  I am trying to gauge what type of rents I can get for the house or duplex you are trying to buy. A lot of research can be done just by doing searches. 

Moral of the story is not to be over-leveraged.  It will be interesting to see how things play out. A seller's market to a balanced market is a good thing. It's not a bad thing that it goes to a buyer's market as long as it's not extreme.  

Personally, I think what we have is an overinflated stock market that resembles the 99-01 dot-com era. My area housing prices didn't crash during that period. I think the risk here is flipping high-end homes with high-interest hard money loans.  Properties may sit longer and prices that you forecast may not be there.

Hi Gabriel,

Your current strategy of flip 2 rent 1 can achieve the investor's goals, That is the strategy you know. Stick to what you know. Doing 7-10 flips as you said can increase their wealth by a significant amount. Use your past experience on your own flips to show them what the ROI can be implementing your strategy.