All Forum Posts by: Emily S.

Originally posted by @David Greene:

@Emily S.

I've been where you are before.  Believe it or not, I have loan companies that dismiss me or tell me they can do the loan then back out last second (one time when the mobile notary was on her way to have me sign loan docs to close the deal).  It can be super frustrating and make you want to quit.  Here are a few things I've learned along the way that may make it easier to swallow when you feel like people aren't taking you seriously.

1) People aren't against us, they are for themselves.  Knowing this, whenever someone seems like they don't want to help me, I ask myself what is in the deal for them.  The answer is usually nothing, and that's why they aren't being too helpful.  In order to solve this, a few things you can consider are:

A) cut them in on the deal.  If it's as good a deal as you think, other people are going to want to get involved in it too.

B) Find out how they are going to make money and commit to making sure they do, just as much as you commit to making money yourself.

C) Find out how much of their time you're taking and ask yourself if its fair to them or if they can expect to be compensated for it.  While I don't know the details surrounding your situation, one possibility is that you're not likely to qualify for the a loan with your debt-to-income situation and the mortgage broker doesn't want to keep working on your file if he knows you won't be able to get the loan.  Same goes for the agent.

D) While it's very frustrating having my time wasted or being blown off my people in the investment world, trust me, it happens on the agent side too.  Trust me, people have zero problem wasting my time as their agent or asking for 1000 comps just out of curiousity when they aren't serious about buying.  In order to protect myself, a lot of these people I have just tell no.  This may be what they perceive in you, or it's also entirely possible you are a great client but you are making them think you're not serious and they are labeling you like the other time wasters you've come across.

Now with all that being said, if I was you, I would ask myself if I am really in a situation right now to be able to close a deal, and if so, I would go communicate that very clearly to the different people you're working with.  One of the huge keys to success is making sure everyone else succeeds along with you. You'll find that the more people you're helping, the more they want to help you too.  Don't give up.  You make need to tweak your approach, or find different agent's and brokers, but if you do right by people and keep pushing, you'll get the ball rolling for sure.

 That's an impressive response. Thank you so much for taking the time to elaborate on all of that! 

And you're right, there's absolutely something they see (or don't see) that's preventing them from jumping on this train. I could make a stab at any one of them. I'll work on my presentation and potentially offering more involvement or partnership. Again, thanks for all your time on this thread.

Great questions! I was considering the same thing, but unfortunately my advisor could not assist with using it for real estate and of course had no one to refer me to. 

Is the LLC you mention specifically for the 401k or his current operating business?

@Jordas Reyes

Completely agree with you. This site has been invaluable! It's helpful to have access to all these cumulative years of experience when friends and family start questioning how low you have to make your offers in order to actually cash flow and not just make $100 more than the P&I. 

Even though it's brief, this thread has been really helpful to me as well. Thanks for all the input!

Hey @David Greene, you're right, I was a little vague. So far, it's been all of the above. I've let both inspectors and potential partners and contractors talk me out of deals. Looking back, they had no "numbers" reasons or "bad deal" reasons, they just thought it'd be "too hard" for me. Recently, it's been my agent and mortgage broker. When pressed, they'll admit that the deal is possible, but they practically wave their wrists at me, trying to get me to move along. I totally get that I don't have cash funds or experience, and that that can be frustrating for experienced real estate professionals. When I don't go away, they'll get it. 

And yep, that number is daunting, good word! Fortunately or unfortunately, the majority of it is federal and eligible for the very low monthly payments. Makes my overall debt:income not so bad as it would seem, but the debt never goes down. Not a long term viable option!

Yes! This! Thanks for being so encouraging.

To answer your original question, David, about hurdles for a fellow first timer -

1) Getting people to take me seriously. 

There's always a seasoning period in which a newcomer to a profession has to dig in and "prove" that they want it, I get that. I think some of it is good ol'-fashioned sexism, too. 

2) $275k in student debt. And that's lower than it used to be. 

I wouldn't trade my day job for all the gold coins in the world. But, because my profession's debt to salary ratio is very, very high, real estate will be my debt pay-down and discretionary income, preventing me from eventually loathing my (relatively) low-salary day job. Brilliant, if you ask me. 

@Mikael Winkler, did you decide what you wanted to do, replacement vs ACV on your fourplex? 

I'm not in central OH anymore (but did do my internship at OSU!), but was shocked at a recent quote of almost $400/month for a fourplex. Just curious what you ended up doing and if you'd be willing to share a ballpark figure for what you're expecting to pay. 

Originally posted by @David Oldenburg:

@Emily S.  Your welcome... Hi, I formed the group a little over a year ago, and it has grown to 600 members!  We meet the 1st Tuesday of the month at 6:30PM and focus on real estate investing, making money with real estate investing, and educating people in the many areas and ways to invest in real estate. The group is free, and we have awesome networking!  This next meeting with @Will Barnard will be a lot of fun :-) I hope to see you there.  Be sure to find me and say hi if you come...

 I will do just that! 

Thanks for the info! Sounds like there's a lot going on at this meetup. How often do you guys meet? 

I'll check out the listed website as well. 

@Tzvi Ausubel, I'm not sure of his exact territory. It's unlikely he goes out to the Lehigh Valley from Chester County, but his wife runs the office and is wonderful to talk to. Doesn't hurt to call and find out! If he doesn't head that way, he may be able to recommend someone who does. 

Tzvi Ausubel There's an excellent home inspector in Chester County, just southwest of Philadelphia. His name is Kevin Thompson, owner of The Green Valley Group. He books way out usually, and for good reason. Has a couple of guys working for him now, so I think can accommodate more pressing schedules. You can easily find him by googling the company name. Hope that helps!