All Forum Posts by: John E.

Hey Guys, I've got a quick question... Well sort of.

I've always thought thought you could only wholesale to an end buyer purchasing with all cash. Well a RE Youtuber recently told me that you can in fact wholesale to an end buyer (possibly retail) with conventional financing. His answer to "How?" was " Release your equitable interest for a fee on the closing statement".

What exactly does this mean when wholesaling/ assigning contracts? Have any of y'all had experience with these sort of wholesale transactions?

Thanks in advance guys! I love what you guys do for newbies like me!

~John Elmenhe

Hey @Muju Hussain ! I live in Falls Chruch, Va, so I'm not to far from you. It's great to see that you've found BP because it's been an integral component of my RE investing education!

My buddy @Paul Timmins from Boston has given you some stellar advice on how to best utilize BP! I followed a lot of advice from Paul when I joined BP a few months ago and I couldn't agree more with what he recommends for you to do.

Wish you the best investing in the DMV area. You'll be getting a colleague request from me in your inbox right now- be ready for that. LOL! I'd love to network and grow my business with you.

Happy Investing Muju!

I doubt you're wasting your time @Broderick Wolf! The one BIG piece of advice I've gotten on finding a mentor is to offer him/her something of value or to be of service to them. It's good that you're looking at it from their perspective as this will be an integral component to finding the right guy or gal to take you under their wing.

Always remember that business is the art of adding value or helping people more so than making a quick buck (well, at least I think it is). Whether your finding a prospective mentor that you can be of service to or helping a motivated seller in a wholesale deal, it's all about solving someone's problem or enriching their life in some way.

Make sure to check out the BP podcasts. Almost all (if not all) detail how XYZ investor got started and a lot of times that was through a mentor of some sort.

Hopefully the whole "How may I help you?" approach works for you in finding a mentor and in your future successes in real estate.

Talk to you soon!- John

I'd really like to thank @Joshua Dorkin for bringing the BP community together and making it a free resource that anyone can utilize to learn about RE investing.

I'd also like to thank @Brandon Turner for tag teaming with Josh on all of the podcasts thus far. You guys and your guests have contributed ENORMOUSLY to my real estate investing education and I always can't wait to hear the next episode each week!

I'm also forever indebted to all of those that have answered the questions that I have had and questions others have already inquired about that were on my mind.

In a world sometimes filled with schemes, greed, bad contractors, and "gurus", the biggerpockets community shows in my mind that individual RE investors from all walks of life have truly found a place where they can congregate, learn, teach, and grow from one another as one collective body of people- all for FREE!

Happy Investing BPers!

@Jimmy Moncrief Sure no problem! I've been leveraging Evernote on my phone via the software's mobile phone app. The software is modeled after David Allen's book Getting Things Done. The premise is this- although the mind is incredible in many regards, it STINKS at keeping track of incoming tasks and getting them done. The Evernote app comes to your rescue by providing you with a means of recording all things you want/have to get done by taking a quick photo, recording the task as a note, providing a reminder, audio recording, and SO much more.

These tasks are then tagged based on a few key questions: When? Where? With whom? What?

An example of this would be noticing your garage is dirty in the morning and creating an "evernote" so that you remember to clean it. The title of the "evernote" may be "Clean the Garage" and it could be tagged with: Kids (With Whom?). Cleaning (What?). Later (When?). @Home (Where?).

Whenever I plan on doing something I make sure to get that idea or plan into the app so that I can get it done later based on the tag-based parameters I have set.

The way in which I utilize the app is fairly simple- tagging anything that comes up for later completion. The app can do SO much more, including being hooked up with your email and archiving your emails so that you remain on top of things.

I learned how to use the system by going to thesecretweapon.com where all of the uses of the app are detailed with great insight in a marvelous video series.

It changed my life and hopefully it can help you too!

Thinks for the post @Jimmy Moncrief ! I already leverage Evernote for the time management aspect and now I've learned yet another cool use for the software. Thanks Bud!

Disclaimer: I am by NO MEANS an expert on duplex investing and I'm still just a newbie.

One of my favorite business quotes is that of Warren Buffett: “It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.”

I feel like this is very applicable in the RE investing business, as you often find ridiculously cheap properties in WAR ZONES that seem to offer cap rates WELL above what one should expect (can I get a "Detroit" anyone?) . By this I mean exactly what @Dave Savage said when he described properties with cap rates that APPEAR to be 20-30%. I also share the sentiment of one of my favorite colleagues @Michael Siekerka concerning investing in strong rental markets such as St. Louis.

It's probably better to get a modest cap rate in a better neighborhood at a FAIR price where the demographic trends seem to be working in your favor. I.E~ Jobs, money, people flow in. Crime and other negative factors are flowing out.

But hey... What do I know? :/

@Corinne Alconera I think you'll LOVE BP! I joined bigger pockets in February so that I can learn as much about RE investing and implement it after I turn 18.

Check out the Ultimate beginners guide and considering you're interest in creative financing, I think you would love @Ben Leybovich and his podcast (#14) on how he is creatively generating passive cash flow. He's awesome!

My favorite part of BP is the podcast section due to all of the great advice and insight you can gather from people making it happen everyday!

The gut feeling tells me that red states= Landlord with blue states= Tenant. Can anyone provide a list? Bonus: Is investing in pro tenant states all that difficult aside from additional expenses? BTW- Happy early Mother's Day to all the moms out there on BP!!

@Steven Hamilton II Thanks for all of the advice! I definitely don't want to act as a GC. If I don't spend as much time doing the work do I then pay myself less or is it the opposite?

@Daniel DiGiacomo Living Wage sounds like a good idea, but what is a living wage? I've heard a lot of people say that minimum wage isn't enough to live off of and I think I can concur on that one, but how exactly do you define that Daniel? Is it enough to cover my basic living expenses?

@Jerry W. That 50% of net profit as earned income and letting the rest pass through, right? Thanks for the response!

@Account Closed I'm about to read the article right now- Thanks for the response!

Thanks to everyone else that responded!~ JE