All Forum Posts by: Aaron Norris

@Kent Harris maybe look at this a different way. It's about opportunity costs. JV partnerships will typically cost you 50% of the profit on a deal. Not only that, you've got another party in the transactions dictating their wants, needs, and desires. A partner could bring more skills to the table and help but sometimes that's not the case. Is it worth giving up 50%?

Raising money is also a job. Is your time best spent chasing money or finding and doing deals. What's it worth to you. Opportunity costs, right? Not only that, hard money allows you to leverage the money you have and do more that one deal at a time. It's the investor method of diversifying risk. You're not locked up in only one deal. 

When you're raising money on your own through friends and family, you just need to make sure you're doing it correctly. And, hopefully, it does not cause issues. Some private money sources will want to be very hands-on in the transaction. Especially if they've never funded a real estate rehab in the past. What is it worth to you to not have that be an issue? 

Yes, I'm a hard money lender. But, these are just some of the reasons professional real estate investors choose hard money over chasing partnerships and private money on their own. It's about freedom and focusing more on deals.

Agree @Aaron Mazzrillo. Also, if someone else gets burned by a referral it magically comes back to bite you! 

Have to say I was in Indianapolis last year for the first time at a conference and was really impressed with Downtown. Of course, while I was there, I was checking out the Realtor.com app and was really surprised to see the wide disparity on pricing. Just outside the city, it was possible to buy rentals around the $100k mark. Albeit older and obviously needing some help, I was pretty impressed my the mix downtown and don't rule out some good things ahead. I like any city with a distinct downtown with things to do. I'm not ruling out these tech companies doing satellite office in some of these secondary or tertiary MSAs that have more affordable housing and ways for these young pros to live and actually afford to have a family. 

Hi @Matt Turcutto welcome to BP. You'll be happy to know OC has a ton of local real estate clubs as well that are really great for plugging in with local actually doing the business. You're not alone on the mailer front. Since I own rentals I get them. I get the same yellow letter all the time. I'm sure other equity sellers do as well. It's very competitive and I think it has to be part of your method but if you're going to attack with mailers, it's a numbers and follow-up game. The people I know who are successful at mailers are consistent and the don't do one-and-done campaigns. Some send a number of mailers of different shapes/forms to very targeted lists. I know others who have ditched mail altogether and now do door knocking,  cold calling, and paid ads (SEM). 

Hi Pati, there are a ton of companies that specialize in the self-directed space and it really gives you the flexibility to invest in a ton of different things. I do notes and rentals in my self-directed IRA. If you're getting started, just really do your homework so you understand disqualified and prohibited transactions. Also, definitely know who you can and can not work with inside the account. You can even do loans inside the account but I always tell people to find a CPA who understand real estate investors first so you understand the full ramifications of the transactions you're looking to do. have fun!

I'm preparing for a radio interview today with a company that does chatbots for real estate. I know several investors using custom-built software for tracking and offer writing, they use CRM and other technology for lead gen and follow up, but I don't know of anyone here in California using AI-based tech for lead gen and follow up in the investor or Realtor space?

Any feedback on companies you've worked with? Happy with the ROI? What was your favorite feature?

I recently had a walk through for one and it was pretty cool. It allows a consumer to do lots of questioning that would typically take up a lot of Realtor time. The bot gives answers based on data from the MLS. It also allows potential buyers to select houses during searches that they want to see and that gets forwarded to the Realtor for follow up.

The user experience was much better than I was expecting and I can definitely see this will take off in the next two years, especially as major Realtor brands buy into the technology. AND, especially as more integration occurs. That's the big disconnect for me right now. I have too many tech that's disparate and I'm working overtime getting to get them all to talk to each other. My favorite is building the integration only to have one of them update and the connect breaks! 

If you've got some personal experience with chatbots, would you message me? Thanks a million. 

Here is that story: https://www.cnet.com/news/san-francisco-limits-airbnb-rentals-to-60-days-a-year/ 

Catch what San Francisco just did?

"The city's Board of Supervisors ruled late Tuesday night that hosts can rent out their houses and apartments on the home-rental marketplace for only 60 days per calendar year."

The mayor does have veto power over this. it's been interesting to watch the different cities and their take on it. Even in LA, seems like West Hollywood is very anti-Airbnb while Los Angeles downtown seems like they just want to make sure they get the hotel taxes. 

When I was in Italy this year, I spoke to a local about vacation rentals. He said in Venice, there are only 50,000 full-time habitants. Down from 200,000 I believe because housing has all been turned to vacation rentals. That's a shift! And a third comp you can't ignore. 

I like your approach. My best friend just bought a house in Los Angeles because they spent some time writing a letter and they sold his family, and in return, they sold him the house. 

I also just had a Realtor send me a mailer to a specific neighborhood where I own a rental saying she was desperately looking for a single-story condo and her buyers were having a hard time buying and if I had any leads. It was a really nice letter and I loved she went the extra mile for her client. I called her back and gave her details on a few of the properties in the neighborhood that might be for sale.

On the last example, her approach was to say she was looking in the neighborhood. Not necessarily that she was looking to buy my house. I didn't feel threatened like I was going to get sold on the phone when I called. Sometimes neighbors, like me, will rat out other neighbors because they are sucky neighbors. They might not be willing to sell their own house but will be more than happy to give you the details on the rental next door because it's a pain. 

I'd love to understand if you've broken up your list from owner occupied and non-owner occupied. I think the style of letter could be very different. I think it would be OK to do a "non investory" kind of letter. I think you get a leg up because you actually want to live in the house. That's just me. If anything, I would at least test it out.