All Forum Posts by: James Hamling

@John Lewis to clarify and make sure I understand; 

Your a new agent, and in a brokerage where nobody knows development, just Ag, Rec and vacant land. Correct? 

Best advice I have is if your serious about being serious in the development space, change brokerages. 

Think of it this way; your saying your in a VW Bug car-club, and you'd like to do drag racing. Your in the wrong club. 

There is a hell of a lot to know. Utility infrastructure, local governance approvals and how to navigate the politics', soil engineering, EPA this n that, on and on and on. It's not something I could even begin to teach via a forum post. I could fill this whole thing with hours of reading JUST discussing and detailing the EPA aspect for wetland delineations, what the various types are, what each means, what can and can not be mitigated and how-to. 

Then another hour on soil corrections. 

If you want to work in this space, you need to get with a brokerage that specializes in this space. It is highly specialized and NOT for the "noob". Not unless have a good experienced mentor hand-holding through it all. 

@Joe S. 

By the very definition of "Networking" (the action or process of interacting with others to exchange information and develop professional or social contacts) I would say networking isn't just valuable, it's invaluable for a profession in Real Estate. 

Heck, it's at least half the work of being a Landlord/Investor, right. 

The issue, which I 100% agree with, is what "Networking Events" have become. 

I blame the "easy" culture of post gen-X that seems to only get worse with each progressive generation there after. It's a mindset that beg's the snake-oil-salesman to enter the picture. 

@Debra Orringer first and best advice I can give you is to greatly broaden your sources of information. 

It seems you've been with some considerable tunnel vision or limited information because the US population is not declining. Yes, the rate of growth is declining, which it naturally will by a function of math. A 10% increase to 100m population is 10 million people. At 350m population it's 35m, PER YEAR! 

So naturally the rate of increase declines as a population get's as massive as the US's, unlike say Portugal where there rate of population would surge up if Elon and his harem moved there. 

The US population GREW by over 3 million people last year. That's not a decline in population. 

Second; Investment Real Estate, and Real Estate for the matter, has ALWAYS changed and shifted over the years, decades and generations. There is literally nothing new about that. 

Great example, The Rust Belt. 

One can take a drive through ghost town after ghost town. Once booming towns now long being reclaimed by nature. Did the sky fall? No, it's that things changed. When coal was booming and surging in annual demand from the emerging market of such, so does all the economy around it. 

Think of the Yukon Gold Rush. Whole towns were erected to sell mining gear, food, rooms, gold pans and what not to those striking out. And then there was services for those vendors, and so on and so fourth. 

So when the Gold Rush fever ended, so did that entire feeding chain downstream. Boom towns became bust-towns and later ghost towns. 

Things are simply changing. There is BOOM towns out there now, yesterday and tomorrow. And those positioned in front of that, riding that wave will reap the rewards. 

And there is towns cycling down, that people are leaving, moving from, in various degrees. 

This has always been the case. Every state has towns of ever type and degree. 

The work, as an investor, is to peg which market is what. Which is growing, which is declining, which has LT stability and which doesn't. 

That's just the work of it. 

The fantasy that a person can just buy "a" property wherever and then use it to make money is just that, a fantasy. 

This stands true for literally any business; location Location LOCATION. 

Re-read what I wrote. 

It's about a net-0 differential.

If you own a property, mortgage costs $2k. 

If you rent it for $2,200. 

Rent a place for self at $2k mnth. 

Have $200 mnth in say PM fee's. 

That is a net-0 differential. 

Which if unsure about what to do, which way to go, it is a tactic to simply test the waters and "buy-time" to sort things out. 

People over last few years are consistently getting themselves in troubled waters by simply jumping straight into the deep end, assuming and hoping it will all work out, then finding self in a pinch when it doesn't. 

Ex: Buying a property to "try" STR. Should have started at arbitrage, leasing a place and trying it out to find if capable or not, thus GREATLY mitigating risk exposure.

Ex: Renting a primary while trying things out in leasing former property to find out IF one has the chop's to be a Landlord or not. 

Even at a minor in the red, say $100 or $200 mnth in the red, that's still worth-it as it's a fee for knowledge vs working from guesstimate, hope and assuming. 

Knowing vs hoping. 

@Joe S. to piggy-back on what @Nathan Gesner said; 

Military tenants and military life is not a singular thing, there is active duty, active reserve, lot's of variety in MOS and duty station, on and on. 

I suggest just having a conversation with them as to there MOS, what this Duty Station is for them. Often times one has a pretty good idea if there most likely to be there longer or if chances of transfer is high or low any time soon. 

Aside from that, I'd say generally military tenants are arguably about as good as they come. 

Unless there an 11B or 12B I generally have little fear of a surprise transfer/deployment in coming months. 

@Logan Privette Are you just looking for and talking with Real Estate Agents, hoping they will be a resource for investment properties? 

Or are you actually drilling down to ONLY seek out and connect with "Pro" Investment Real Estate Agents? 

There is an ocean of difference between the two, but way to commonly, and wrongly, people assume any of the first are also the second. 

There is over 22k licensed R.E. Agents in the market. Of that, there is maybe, MAYBE 100 who are actual REAL-DEAL "Pro" Investment Real Estate Agents. 

Probably 2k who will say have some investment properties themself. (No, that does not make them any kind of expert, pro or even good at it). 

Keep in mind more then 70% of agents do/did less then 4 transaction all year last year. And that's the norm actually. Most agents know little, do little, and last little. 

You need to start with deciding who your willing to work with, and by that I am saying what your willing to pay for. Yes, reality works even here, you get what you pay for. 

If you want an experienced FT "shark", be ready that your gonna have a commiserate fee structure to such and it's you who will have to earn there time, not the other way around. 

They will be laser focused, action-centric, and will expect nothing less from you. 

Now if you want "cheap" just accept the fact of the sacrifices to get that. There gonna be newer, novice, not really know much and just be focused on helping you buy something, anything, and it won't necessarily make sense as an investment, that'll be on you to know. 

There going to be more so a functionary, your gonna have to dig up the potentials, hey you can't get mad at a cat for not playing fetch. 

After choosing who your willing to work with, formulate your interview questions to match. And actually interview people for fit, not just for readiness to earn a commission. 

Last note, I have no idea what you mean by a "very active agent", an agent either get's results or doesn't, end of story. 

I made a phone call and hammered out a deal in 15 minutes, does that make me not "very active"? Or connected? Which is more important? I know which is more profitable. 

Running around like a goof-ball to show a bazillion properties or submit offer after low-ball offer is "very active" but also wildly unproductive and does nothing for results. 

"It's a matter of knowing how to swing the stick while simultaneously offering them a carrot."

Should be a sign over every/any PM's/Landlords desk, viewed daily and remembered always. 

@John Lewis your dead wrong when it comes to Ag listings. 

It's ALL ABOUT who you know, being known, and word of mouth. BIG TIME. 

I will be brutally honest; if your not a farm-kid yourself, you probably got better odd's of getting to the moon by lighting your fart's than you do of breaking in as a listing agent in Ag. 

Farm-kid myself, I know. 

Threshing show, auctions, cattle auctions, these are how you get involved in the community and rub elbows. From there, you will need to earn some respect because without that nobody worth a dang is going to put a drop of thought into what you have to say. 

Most selling Ag are not doing it for happy reasons. It's something that requires an understanding and empathy. 

The end of a generational legacy is all but never a happy time regardless of the dollar amounts it brings. If you don't get this...... You'll just never get it, it's a farm-thing. 

In my experience most with large tracts of raw land are either farmers or East Coast funds of some sort. So we circle back to start or find a buyer who ok to buy at a premium. 

Other then that you have the Amish and Bill Gates, both of which are heavy on buying and not doing any selling I've heard of. 

And again, good luck getting Amish to deal with ya if your not a Farm-kid. And ideally speak some Dutch. Amish don't speak Dutch but it's a connecting language that shows respect and generally can muddle along until there comfortable enough to flip to English for you. 

I suggest you ask yourself if this is a career or a job. If a career and your serious, call the seed reps, go to the local co-op, get involved in the community. Seek to learn and help. Share what you do but NEVER push it. Just try to learn and help. Go offer to help during calving season, everybody can always use some help during calving. Ask to bail hay, anything just get involved and you'll start building the word of mouth and business will come to you. 

@Katie Lyon while what @Amanda Breck said is of course legally correct/true, up here in the "North Land" there is an additional piece of law that says Tenants have a right to "quiet enjoyment" or commonly called enjoyable use, of a rental property. 

It's not a law stating things can't be loud, but yeah loud obnoxious noises apply also. 

It's based around a tenant has a legal right to "peaceful possession and privacy" which now those waters of can a landlord do video recordings or not, is it an intrusion to privacy or not, get's a whole lot more murky. 

It's my understanding Iowa has the same/similar legal clause/right for tenants. 

So if tenant feels it's undue stress, undue invasion of privacy, who knows which way it would go. I could see a Judge asking why you want this monitoring, and from there it could be a matter of how has the Judges morning gone, lol. 

Now if it had been in lease to begin with, clearly disclosed, not in fine print on page bazillion but CLEARLY disclosed, I think you'd be a-ok. But without that, at minimum tenant could have ground to argue on if they chose to argue it put's some kind of undue stress on there "quiet enjoyment"..... 

Personally, sounds like really would rather have them gone so I'd just apologize that they must have had a change of heart about comfort with the security monitoring and I'd be willing to let them terminate lease early, no early termination fee's. 

I wouldn't even entertain the argument on it, I'd just offer to let them out of lease.