All Forum Posts by: James York

@Jack Fernandes I do what you’re referring to.  I am a broker and sell to/for others. This is the majority of my activity as a broker.  When I buy something for myself, I expect to receive the advertised commission from the seller and have never (except one bank owned) had someone take issue with it. When I sell something I own, I typically “pay” my broker self for representing my investor self. There is another layer to this. My firm gets a split of my commissions and every firm differs on how personal transactions are split. I keep 100% sometimes and pay some to my firm sometimes. It’s my opinion that unless you intend to take up brokerage as an additional source of income, it’s not a good idea. Doing it to save/make the commissions isn’t a good plan in my opinion. 

@David de Luna that may well explain the recent lack of activity, but I also left messages and emails 5 weeks ago that were never answered. 

I’m curious what others have experienced. I’m planning to list 4 homes for section 8 because they’re paying a little better than market rate. A friend has submitted his to the section 8 office with almost no communication. This is not very promising to me. It seems they’d do anything to fill the needs they have, but I can’t get a call back from the program director. 

@Ben McMahon the “Uber” and “airbnb” of the industry are pulling back right now. They don’t have a client’s best interest in mind. Not saying every agent does, but I do believe most do. 

@Chris Seveney and @Greg Dickerson in writing this may look like an argument to your point, but it’s not. Just trying to clarify. Are you suggesting that someone who has $3m investment also has an annual income of $3m? This doesn’t seem right. I’m trying to learn where I need to get myself to in order to get in to the properties I want. 25% Down payment and reserves isn’t a problem for me at $1m. Appreciate the advice!

I’m interested in multi family in the $1-1.5m range. One lender said I don’t have the personal income to support this (150-160k). I haven’t dug in to this yet or called other lenders, but I’m curious what other people’s income was when they were first approved for loans over $1M. I know partners are an option, but not one I want to use right now. 

@JD Martin your “Burger King was eating out” comment brings back memories! We went through a rough time when McDonald’s had throwback pricing on hamburgers. 25 cents each and the 4 of us shared a coke. Dad brought a pack of cheese because cheese burgers were $1 or 2. We thought ramen noodles with chicken added in was a treat. These were character building years and experiences I wouldn’t trade for anything. 

@John Cameron I can’t speak for the ATL market, but I am a broker in NC and would not entertain an offer I felt was just a place holder. A lot of people may disagree, but I think it’s bad business to make offers you don’t intend to keep. If you truly find something in due diligence that couldn’t have been reasonably identified beforehand, that’s reasonable cause for renegotiation. Simply looking for more desirable terms is not. 

I just called. I’m caller 1,237 and my estimated wait time is 2 hours 15 minutes...

@David H. you seem to have some pretty good info. I’ve got 4 lots I was preparing to build rentals on. Is this something I could utilize or is that not an acceptable use of the funds? My thought is it keeps construction workers employed now and tenants housed in a few months when they’re done. Can I just apply and be 100% honest and see what they say?