All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Greene

@Julian Michon you already have what it takes to be an asset to an investor who doesn't drive or direct market the areas you drive through. Birddogging will never die, just as real estate agents will never be scaled out because of all the new ways people think they can sell and buy houses. Many of the eager off-market sellers will always be older folks and SEO and PPC will never matter to them. Go to some local REI meetups, make some contacts. If you are always driving for work, will listen to what someone is looking for, and have been doing the research, you are in an ideal spot to birddog and learn and will be useful to someone who doesn't mail.

@Amelia McGee, I think that @Ralph Poirier nailed it. Parents as co-signers and sending in a cleaning company every two weeks to a month (also a semi-spy) are gold. If you are looking for MSU students, you could post just for graduate students at the school. The undergrads at MSU are actually very good tenants for the most part, but the graduate students are even better and there are many graduate programs there. I taught there for three years, graduate and undergraduate and you are safe with both if you follow the tips laid out.

@Roman Roy Barrett welcome to BP! Congratulations on starting your real estate investment journey. If you are in the market for blueberry pancakes, I know a guy who knows a guy where you can get them. There is also a coaching program on how to acquire blueberry pancakes and several webinars on the same. It seems like you are off to a great start.

Before you find the cash buyers, what's your pitch? What's your background? Do you have an off-market property acquisition system? What role do you want to play, just wholesaler? What expertise are you bringing to the table in finding properties? This is what they will want to know right away and better you have all of it pinned down so you don't lose a good opportunity when it comes alone.

Some MLS searches can search by cash purchases and you can use ListSource to build lists of all homes with no mortgages bought in the past year in a certain area. If you drive them or look on Zillow or the MLS, you will see which were flipped. Those are your local cash buyers.

@Steve Vaughan was that a riddle? If so, my answer is 7 and the doctor was the mom.

@Will C. Bro move #104 from the manual - Slide into the conversation after over 100 posts and try to hit the funny button to get some fist pounds and low fives. Shaka brah.

Uber/Lyft would never work for multiple showings in a day so you would need to hire a car service as @Russell Brazil said. Also, from the perspective of the buyers I don't think they would like it. Listing appointments you certainly could Uber, but starting out you are working mostly with buyers and I don't see it working at all unless you live in a big city where public transportation is the norm. I think in Philly you would need a car. Some agencies have agents start as Admins in the office and that could be an option as well.

If she owes $600, the bank isn't giving it to you ever for $480 and won't approve a short sale for that when the ARV is $1m. This is a lead that will waste your time over the long haul. It's good that the upset value is lower than the ARV, but you have to remember when there is default the bank is in charge. The seller can't sell to you, if a lis pendens has been filed, without bank approval and banks will want to run it out on the market for a short sale, then courthouse steps if that doesn't work, and then back in as an REO. If I missed something, let me know.

@Jay Hinrichs yeah of course. My snowflake ride wasn't the only example. I just did it all wrong and continually insisted I was right about everything and wouldn't listen to advice. I think that is really the dynamic of the snowflake investor - wants feedback, but only feedback that suits his or her vision. You see it in the forums a lot. I want to learn, but not if you tell me what I am doing is wrong. We've all done it, but if people can take a birds-eye view early and trust a friend or advisor, they can avoid a lot of the mistakes that we all made along the way.

@Gardy Saturne because the sellers have to organize a new place to go to and get moved AND because they are about to be foreclosed on, the bank doesn't want to wait for them to move so I am going to close first and lease back the property to them on a free Use & Occupancy Agreement so they can stay for free. They have been personally vetted by me and have no reason to holdover as I am paying more than they own the bank so they can have money to move as well. So I will close and then let them move and then renovate. In most cases you would do this for a fee, but it didn't make sense in this context for me.