All Forum Posts by: Jack Bobeck

@Nick Gray Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life. The money for RE investing is there, hire a property manager, get a good lawyer, CPA, Realtor, build your team and let them all do their thing, while you do your own thing in the career you love. 

Best of luck to you! 

@Dolly La Salle "I wanted to join a REIA because many people have success stories after going to REIA meetings. I am really looking for a mentor and a group of RE Investors where I can meet face to face. I live in Germany, but will travel to the states to invest and meet with people."

Are you investing in any properties in Germany? In your backyard? You don't need success stories out of a JaxREIA meeting to be successful investing in your backyard. In fact, investing in Germany is easier for you, since, well, you live there. A Real Estate Investment Association is a group of like-minded investors getting together to share their ideas and news and information with each other to help each of them with their real estate.

I say save your money, look in your city or towns for people who own a lot of real estate. Ask the store owners, call the owners, do the work to find the people who own and ask them your questions, perhaps they can mentor you as well. You can build a new business offering solutions to Yankees wanting to buy property in Germany. There are 1000s of things you can do there, which we cannot here. The last thing you need to do is get on a plane to attend a "trade show" of other investors hawking their 'wares' and solutions. The Trade Show is a great money maker for the JaxREIA and is another way the vendors can touch the members and discuss their latest products/solutions. 

I like JaxREIA, I used to teach classes there and learned a bunch from great people there. I met alot of great people, but no mentor. You don't need a mentor, you need experiences. You need to fail, get up and get back to the path. You need to learn on your own. It sounds scary, its not, you can do it and do it well, but you do not ever need a mentor to take the step. Find people in your area with a like-minded attitude on real estate and build it. 

I love Germany, we recently were in Cologne and saw the great Cathedral and local pubs. We have traveled the Danube and the Rhine rivers. Its a great country with really nice people. You have a great leader in Angela Merkel, and a great business climate. Best of luck to you! 

JaxREIA is a great local organization with many wonderful people. But honestly, you will meet better people, better investors and network a lot better here on BP. I am not selling BP, but it is always here, the REIA meets once a month and then the guru comes in on Saturday and the REIA makes money off the "packages" purchased. So I always tell people to leave their wallet at home at the meetings. You can learn all you need to know here on BP.

@Shalom Afraimian If you have the time to be a "realtor" and an "investor", go for it. For me, its all about time and the cost for the time. Look at your cost per hour and then that or 3rd parties, if you think you get a better return doing all this stuff yourself, go for it, otherwise, outsource it. 

Having worked with 2 contracts on a property and all the BS that goes on with the negotiations, I am happy to have a seller's agent, it allows me to focus on funding, business, and new projects. At some point you will outsource all the trivial stuff, and that is when it costs you more to do the "stuff", than it does to outsource and focus on your core business. 

Best of luck to you! 

NEFAR has the most current data in the link I posted. What is the source of your data? Can we see it? Its not formatting properly on the post. 

Leslie - September data? The only public data is that from Aug 2018.

What is most intriguing are the ATTOM reports on another site about the best flipping and rental markets in NE Florida. Wages (+2.6%) are not growing as fast as appreciation (+6.0%), so home affordability is becoming more of an issue for first time buyers. 

@Mike Bitette The house I purchased from Auctions.com had a lien on it from the City, for not cutting the grass. You can get out of it with the City by showing improvements made to the house in and above the value of the lien. After all, improvements improve the tax base too. 

Get the title search done, see if there are any other costs on the property. Most auction sites are bank owned properties, so they will have paid the property taxes, there should not be back taxes, unless the property is part of an IRS tax issue. You will get a Special Warranty Deed, which holds the bank, the auction site and all those affiliates harmless in case your deal goes south after you take possession. The Auction sites are clearing houses for the banks as easier ways for them to sell lots of properties than to have REO programs for each bank. Best of luck to you.

@Josh Hackett - My current loan provider quoted me 29k in fees for the purchase of a duplex that was listed at 379k here in Florida. So I figure that is pretty much in line with them. I was doing a Fannie Mae 3.5% down product, so I have some other fees in there too, but worth it to not have to put so much down, to me at least. 

@Doug Pretorius - Forget the agent, call the broker. If the agent is the broker, well, you have a dead end. But the Broker is the one that the agent reports to, so its worth a shot, if you have a house you really want. 

Days on Market - If a house just comes on the market or is under the average DOM for an area, you may want to wait, contact the agents of expired listings. The seller may be highly motivated to sell. There are many ways to get the list of expireds. Use a service like Spokeo to get the number of the seller and call them directly then. 

@Christopher Phillips is right, there are many really shaky agents in the systems now. Many who have little to no training and are only in RE until the next crash. In our area, we have seen crazy growth of agents, and the MLS will say one thing and do another, because each agent is a $500 a year meal ticket and you are talking about millions of dollars in revenue. Money talks.

Best of luck to you!