All Forum Posts by: Kevin Yoo

Cory Rogers
If you are coming to San Diego, contact me before you come into town. I will buy you lunch. It will be fun just picking each other's brain.

Ron Climer

Ron, you are also very right. There are times when I meet the rare person that just soaks up everything and I cannot stop myself from giving them everything I can to teach them. Because yes teaching someone is like a drug. It gives you a wonderful high. And everyone wants to talk a lot about what they are passionate about.

David Weiss,

I agree with you that taking action is very important, but I disapprove of your saying cancelling the contract if you cannot find a buyer. I am not saying you should not do that. Let me explain.

You post is very well written step by step on how to wholesale but I can tell it came from a seminar. Life just does not work that way. I disapprove of canceling contract and walking away for two reasons. If you do that a few times you will get a very bad reputation and you will find it harder to get a contract. Word will get around and you will not be taken seriously. It happened to me as a buyer and I am still trying to build a better reputation. Two, this kind of approach makes it harder for other buyers because you will put properties under contract for a price that is no good and no one will buy it from you because the purchase price is too high. You have then bidded up the pricing, making it harder for others. I know this because this happens every day in my market.

The better approach is to find someone who is a serious buyer and work to get them deals. You will learn what is a good deal and you will get your contracts honored. Once again, I offered this to several newbie wholesalers. I offered them POFs, EM deposit check, my corporate documents and they all turned me down. Maybe there is something wrong with me or my approach. Maybe I am too generous and no one is taking me seriously. I just don't know.

I cannot agree with Bill anymore. About half of the posts in BP is someone introducing themselves as a Newbie. Many of them are asking for help to get started. Sometimes they even ask if they should pay for and take specific courses. I did that because I go suckered into Guru fever. But much of what I learned I could not apply as the world just does not work like those Saturday hotel conference rooms.

So, my recommendations to all the newbies is don't ever pay several hundred dollars or certainly several thousand dollars to attend guru seminars. Do attend their free ones or attend the ones sponsored by REI clubs. Read as much as you can. But just as quickly and as with as much determination find someone to partner up with. I am not even sure you should be looking for a mentor. It would be best that it is someone that is more experienced than you are, but it does not matter because you have to learn on the job.

And I call it a partnership not a mentorship so that you understand you have to give something as well as get something. But what you will see is that if the partnership is a good one that it will turn into a mentorship. Spend as much time honing your skills at picking a good partner as you do learning to pick a good deal.

There are a lot of excellent investors on this site that do it solo. But they are for the most part small or it took them a long time to get big. Success comes from being able to work well with others. And if you join a team or build a team, your success should be easier and greater. You could also be hurt by others and many on this site have suffered from bad partnerships. But you should expect and go at it again and find a better partner.

Bill, what I do with newbies that I meet is I offer them partnerships by joining my team and then give them all the resources they need to succeed. It is amazing to me how often I get turned down.

Cory,

You are right. True genuine altruism even if it is a bit tainted with selfishness is rare. But I was just trying to point out that as much as you mourn the fact that people who selflessly give away time and knowledge are far and few between, I mourn the fact that when I generously try to give my time, knowledge, and money away to newbies, for reasons I do not understand they turn me away.

As for driving to meet people that were newbies, I have met three people in San Diego on BP online. I then set up time to meet with them in person. One of them works now for me full time and doing a great job. The other two have joint ventured with me and invested successfully in real estate projects with me.

Natasha and Cory,

I read your posting and had to respond. I admire both of your for being so determined to succeed in real estate. But I really felt the need to respond because I have experienced the other end of the problem you are talking about with no real mentors with genuine intentions.

I live in San Diego and have been actively investing in real estate for many years. I am no guru nor could be a great mentor. But I have many years of experience most of it filled with lessons learned from costly mistakes. I never gave up and currently have 3 active real estate companies. I am constantly looking for people to add to my team. I have hired four people to manage these companies. I have also pursued and asked several wholesalers and rehabbers in San Diego to join me. I offered computers, office space, and even salaries. I certainly was willing to give them all the knowledge and resources that I and my team had to help them succeed. But to no avail because many of these people would rather do it on their own. Perhaps, they turned me down because they really wanted to be their own bosses and I understand that.

But what you are asking for where someone would take their time and maybe even money to mentor you only for your benefit is somewhat selfish on your part. I wanted those I approached to succeed and was willing to give them my time and money to do so, but I wanted them on my team which is selfish on my part. My generosity does have a catch. And there must be people that will mentor without asking for anything back. But I am sure they are rare indeed. I have never found such a person myself in my real estate world.

I actually have a different twist to all this because my real job does not allow me to be full time real estate investor doing everything myself including finding the deal, fixing the property, finding the tenants, and property management. For the most part, I fund the deals.

So being in this situation, I find myself not investing in real estate. I find that I really invest in people. I find people that know what they are doing, that are trustworthy, and I either hire them, joint venture with them, lend them money, or whatever it takes to invest and get a good return. Right now, it is real estate but tomorrow it may be businesses or stocks. So, it comes down to finding the right individual and this leads me to the right deals. Many of them I found here on BP.

Mark,

Although I agree running any business let alone a brokerage firm should not be done passively at least at first, it can become a passive investment if done correctly.

Let me go back to your statement: "We are always looking for was to gain passive income in many differant areas of investing. ."

A business is an excellent way to get passive income. You have to at first build it up by working very hard at it. You also have to have a good team of people that you can leverage. Seems like you have that already. If you have the drive and the desire, I suggest you jump in and seize the opportunity. If you don't and have reservations, don't do this as you may hate it and most likely fail at it.

I have several businesses myself and this year started a construction company. I know nothing about construction and as of now it is losing money. But I know a lot about running businesses and I don't plan to fail. Even if I do, I will get up and shake off the dust and get back in the ring.

Good luck.

Bryan,

Better yet, use OPM. You will be over leveraged if you get a LOC because you will still be cash poor. I for one would do this deal with you and provide the cash needed in exchange for equity partnership if the numbers make sense. And on initial inspection, sounds like a good deal.

I recommend you put the numbers together and pitch this deal in Marketplace where BP investors can look at it and partner up with you.

Sam,

Here in San Diego, CA we know of agents that would actually push and get offers accepted that are actually lower than what we offer because they have a relationship with the buyer typically a rehabber that has performed well for them before.

You did not elaborate on your relationship to the listing agents on these properties. But I would suggest that speaking to them directly is where you should start. You could ask them why your offer was not accepted and how to improve your chances. In CA, deals are more likely to get accepted if you ask the listing agent to also represent you and get both commissions.

Relationships are as always key. Don't do anything illegal or shady but as you can see it is not your offer that is the problem here. It is most likely the agent and their relationship with the ultimate buyer.

Hung,

I am ashamed to admit that I did not see this change coming but it seemed like we were getting deals easily in early 2012 and then I woke up and could not get a deal to save my life in mid to late 2012. I thought of myself as an astute follower of the market but this change just came over me quickly. But I am sure in actuality there were signs everywhere and the change actually happened gradually. It is going to change again. I am trying very hard to see the signs better now and be more prepared. I think there will be a lot of properties that must come to market at some time and then we will have to change how we do business again.