All Forum Posts by: Josh Dotzler

Dustin Skelton I've actually recently separated from the Air Force and living in Omaha right now. I'd be happy to network with you and see how we can help each other. Feel free to PM me and let me know about the deals you have in mind, I may be able to help you out.

I'll join the club, I'm very interested. How do I get my hands on a copy?

Awesome article, thanks for posting it!

David Tower it sounds like the owners are in a tough situation... the bottom line is still the numbers, right? What is the ARV of the house? If it is more than $140k, maybe you could take this off their hands for $110k and lease option it to the current tenants. If they can't get financing you can still sell it at market value for a $30k profit. You could clear up a lot of skepticism by stating that you've already pulled comps and this house is worth $150k... but until then, proceed with caution. I've been following your posts on the other forum, your determination is motivating. I hope this one works for you, good luck man!

James, you are right in that it does seem like they might be greedy asking for 50% on 5 deals... maybe just one or two deals or up to a certain profit. Also, while biggerpockets is a great tool, nobody here has a vested interest in the success of a fellow member, but a coach paid on the profit of a deal does. The coach gets a measly $5k if the student is a complete failure, that's hardly "funding" any deals, but if they are able to help the student succeed on a few different deals and avoid costly mistakes, I think it could be worth it. Again, a key piece of information that is missing is whether or not this coach's students have been successful. If their students have turned into a James Vermillion, a Brian Hoyt, a Karen M, etc... I'd pay $5k and 50% on a deal or two. Just my 2 cents, trying to give perspective from a newbie and not an experienced investor who already knows the ins and outs of the business.

An, I wouldn't dismiss this coach so quickly. Half the people that just posted on your question have previously said that instead of paying for a "coach" you should just find a mentor and simply work for free for that person... to me that seems like you are giving that mentor just as much. It depends on how you value your time and effort. Talk with their students, see if they are for real. 1/2 of 5 deals is better than all of 0 deals (or worse). Good luck.

Cody Croslow is $8k for a coach too expensive? That is very subjective. I would consider it an investment... just like Ben pointed out, it could be an investment towards a down payment or towards a coach. Although I think he is way off base completely disregarding the potential benefits of coaching. Can you find a cheaper coach? Probably. What does the coach have to offer? Can he/she walk you through the entire process and help you avoid costly mistakes? Can he help you get a better response rate on your marketing, help you set up all the logistics and avoid headaches? Will they help assess your deals and confirm you aren't ruining your reputation by putting bad deals out there? I'd say it depends a lot on your current financial situation too. If you can spare the monthly bill for the coaching and still have plenty of $$ left to pay for marketing and every other expense, then you could easily justify the price tag. However, like Kyle said, this is an area where I wouldn't skim on the due diligence, make sure he can give you the names/numbers of successful and maybe even the unsuccessful clients he's had. Just my 2 cents, good luck.

Thanks for the update. How was your luck with the bandit signs? For your duplex you had under contract, did you simply not estimate the repair cost high enough? Good luck man, I hope the SFR works out.

Cameron Jarrett if he is an experienced real estate investor, he could probably tell you what the cap rate is for that type of property in your area. I would double check that cap rate with some other investors and see if it matches up. That is the formula Kurt was explaining. Take his current (NOT expected) net operating income and divide that by the cap rate he gives you. That is the max you should be comfortable paying. Obviously you are looking for deals so it would be nice to get a higher cap rate than what everybody else is buying for. You would also expect a higher cap rate based on the "risk" of your investment. You can find all the information you need here on BP, but a book I read recently that really helped me evaluate the numbers is called "What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow... And 36 Other Key Financial Measures" by Frank Gallinelli. It costs $12, and is extremely dry, but it has a ton of good info. Good luck!

Brandon, I'm no expert in the area, so I would get in contact with somebody who has done it before. But from what I've seen (online) you have to have around 30% equity in the property and 6 months of mortgage payments saved up to count the income from the property towards qualifying for your next home... even then I think they only count a max of 75% of the income towards qualifying. Once you get to that point you could easily post on here and all the experts will let you know what the current rules are.

There is a whole forum on here dedicated to wholesaling, it's great. The great thing about wholesaling is the relative lack of risk. You can start finding properties and evaluating deals, but assigning or double closing on the property before you actually have to take the risk of rehabbing/selling the property at market value. Obviously you are still going to have to commit some money to marketing, but this is a lot less than the potential loss from a bad rehab.

I would search on Amazon for books explaining how to evaluate properties first. You need to know what your rehabber/landlord buyer is looking for in order to wholesale to them. There are a lot of posts on here that explain what the rehabbers/landlords are looking for too... and how much they can't stand uneducated "wannabe" wholesalers. Make sure you're not one of them! After you know what they're looking for you can start figuring out how you can help them find it, and put a little money in your pocket. If you want to buy books on wholesaling, there aren't many out there, but the ones you find are a quick read ($1-$5 on kindle)... Most of them are gurus advertising for their programs, but they still give out some good info. Again, there are a ton of posts on here regarding the whole process, but sometimes it can be tough to find step-by-step instruction on here so you could find a few books to fill in the blanks. Hope this helps! And thanks for your service, what is your career field? I was prior Air Force myself.