All Forum Posts by: Johnson H.

No problem! Sorry if I talked too much haha. Thanks for setting it up Sarah!

Just parked. I'm wearing a black north face jacket and black jeans.

Hi Sarah, I will be there. Hopefully I can find parking quickly, but if I am late please save me a seat, I need to eat!

You would write yourself a check and that would be the owners disbursment. It is better to keep the business account only for business. It makes reconciliations at tax time very easy when you have your personal and business expenses in separate accounts.

For Phoenix, I flew there three times, doing day trips each time and viewing 20+ homes in a day when I first started. Now, I go there annually to do inspections on my rentals and I personally inspected every house that I buy. I trust my own eyes more than others. For rehab, I would go there 2-3 times, to ensure everything was going smoothly. I have a decent PM in Phoenix. I don't have anything in Houston yet, but I can opine at the end of the year when I pick up a rental or more.

For viewing properties, it depends on how much you trust people. There is a podcast for one wholesaler that does not view any of his properties, I just can't do that. I like to buy right and I have peace of mind when I view the properties with my own eyes and I have not been burned with a bad buy yet. It's up to you on your own risk tolerance if you choose to view the property yourself versus having someone else view the property for you.

Sarah, you're going to make me go downtown on a holiday? Haha, I should be free. Keep us updated!

Hi Andrew, I live in San Francisco and invest out of state. You are right that the market out here is fierce and capital intensive. I got into the Phoenix market with rentals then did two flips last year after I was comfortable with the market. That meant that I traveled to Phoenix often and now to my new market of Houston. How comfortable do you think you will be with property that you can't reach unless you fly there? I think it is important for any good wholesaler to have MLS access. You cannot rely on zillow for comps. Good luck to you!

To answer your question from the prior page, signing up for wholesaler's updates and turnkey newsletters is fine. I work with multiple agents but I let them know I am doing so. I buy from the agent/wholesaler that brings me the deal so they get paid. Nothing wrong with working with just one agent who is good. I tend to find my own deals but some of the best have come from an agent that has a pocket listing.

With whatever investing you do in the future, whether its real estate, stocks, or just putting money in CD's, remember to have piece of mind and never over stretch yourself.

If you want, you can invest in your backyard, Fairfield, Sacramento, San Leandro, Modesto, and Fresno are some of the cheaper real estate areas in Northern California.

Hi @Andy Kaufman, I won't be able to make this meetup but please let me know when the next one will be!

Hi Bay Home,

Like yourself, I live in San Francisco and cash flow is hard to find around here. I started investing in Phoenix three years ago and now have moved on to Houston. Here are my two cents that you can take with a grain of sand with regards to investing out of state!

It's great that you want to now start in Atlanta. No need to sign any contracts just yet and no need to pay anyone upfront to find a deal. You will pay when you have a great deal under contract! First, you have to figure out where in Atlanta you want to invest it. It is a large sprawling area with good areas and bad areas. To figure out where I have done the following in no particular order.

1. Talk to property management firms and ask them where are the hot rental areas, what renters want in a house in terms of bedrooms, baths, garages, etc and good school districts.

2. Talk to real estate agents that own rental property what areas they like.

3. Talk to wholesalers and ask what their investors like.

4. Search the internet. I like the city-data.com forums as there are locals who invest and many people ask where to invest as well.

5. Talk to people on BiggerPockets that invest in the Atlanta area of course!

6. I like to invest in good school districts so figuring them out is a top priority using the city-data forum and Trulia.

7. Read about the local real estate news.

Then, once a few areas have been picked, I have done the following:

1. Sign up with every single wholesaler in the area I can find.

2. Research turnkey operators and review their numbers and try to beat them with wholesaler or MLS deals.

3. Create searches on Redfin with daily updates in the areas you want to invest in. If Redfin is not available, find an agent that can help you create the search and have those listings mailed to you.

4. Talk to agents and find the most investor friendly agent. (This is really hard) You will need them to make lots of offers, pull rental and sales comps, and drive to properties to help you take tons of pictures and give you an honest assessment of what needs to be repaired to make it rent ready.

5. Sign up with the local REI's to get their newsletters and member emails.

It's a lot of due diligence before even setting foot in a property, but it will help you better focus what you want to buy in terms of an area and price. After all this due diligence, I now know what renters want, what school districts are good, which part of cities have lots of evictions, and ballpark estimate of what a property in a certain location should rent for.

Just remember, its very easy to buy a house. Knowing what to buy is the hard part! If you want to get the best return on your money while sleeping soundly at night, take the time to do your due diligence. Good luck!