All Forum Posts by: Kenneth Estes

My general take is this. If you really want to be a real estate investor, do what is going to help you reach that goal the quickest.

In this case it sounds like the limiting factor is capital. Work on getting enough capital to buy an investment property. If you think the best way to do that is as a real estate agent, then be a real estate agent. If you think it's as the Chief's Mascot, then be the Chief's Mascot.

Once you have the capital (or get close) then set your investment criteria and scour the market to find what you want. As a buyer, you probably should enlist a buyers agent anyways, who should have all that experience you expected to get by becoming an agent yourself.

IMHO, any contractor who is looking for business should be comfortable giving bids on jobs. Part of the business is knowing you're not going to get every job.

I feel that paying him sets the relationship off on the wrong foot. He's now got money for doing nothing other than offering an opinion, which he was going to have to do anyways before he accepted the job.

Maybe drive and spring for gas money?

My two cents:

In my experience, you're a bit too small to get much out of building an extensive network at the moment. A meaningful network only comes when you've seen them in action and know if you're going to be able to work together. Since this is only your first rental property, that's not an option.

To your question "should I get a real estate license." If you are only looking to buy properties, no. I just recently got mine, but I've got an investment group a couple of hundred units and the the only reason I got it was for tax purposes. If you're not going to be an agent, save your money and time.

To your question about what type of job you should look for. You clearly know what you want to be, a real estate investor. Any job that isn't that doesn't sound like it will excite you (correct me if I'm wrong). In which case, it doesn't matter.

You'll get plenty of real life experience as you go down this road. Do the job you enjoy the most and which best helps fund your growing enterprise.

I feel your pain and hate the things.

But they work.

I'm a real estate investor and we have our crews drive around in trucks with hand painted "we buy houses call 574-xxx-xxxx." You wouldn't believe how many calls we get.

I'm guessing you're a real estate agent? In which case your target audience is at least twice mine (buyers and sellers) so I've got to imagine it'll work for you.

The downside is, like you said, it'll feel like you made a Faustian pact.

Yes, this is doable. When the state sells a tax lien they're just selling the debt they have on the property. If the property owner doesn't make good on the debt in a certain amount of time (varies by location) then you can foreclose against the property.

Once you've foreclosed you'll want to get a quiet title and title insurance just in case there are any other liens on the property.

When that's done, you can talk about getting a mortgage at the current market value.

That being said, tax liens can get pretty hairy and you'll want to do a lot of research on how it works in your county and state.

An introductory book I found useful was "the 16% solution" by Moskowitz.