All Forum Posts by: Lucas Thomas

Not at all. 

Real estate agents don't have to be a part of NAR.

Buyers and sellers don't have to use real estate agents. 

Everything is negotiable. 

If those brokerages want to leave NAR. They can, but they don't get access to MLS because its exclusively NARs property.

If they want, they can create their own association with its own rules and own listing service. Its a free country. 

NAR, realtors, and the MLS are one of the best systems to buy and sell real estate anywhere in the world.

As someone who has bought and sold property overseas, I can assure you. I wish NAR, realtors, and the MLS existed over there. They don't.

Which means there is no MLS, No Zillow, no listing aggregate websites. Nothing.

Its just listings you have to find manually by going to individual websites, real estate companies, etc.. You have to call or visit each one to get their listings. Then you have to coordinate with different people with little to no professional background or even background checks. Which can make the process more dangerous.  

The issue I have with the premise is that Zillow and all the aggregate sites would not exist without MLS. The ease of buying and selling real estate wouldn't exist without NAR and MLS.

Either way, this is like someone suing attorneys for charging a base of $250 an hour as "That's what they charge" and then a jury finding the attorneys liable for price-fixing. The whole thing is silly. 

Because NAR doesn't price-fix the 3rd question is moot.

Get your license. 

Best job in the world.

You need to get your hands in the guts of the business as soon as you can and soak up as much knowledge as possible like a sponge from anyone in the business who doesn't suck. 

People always ask me how I got into the business, and I tell them. 

I bought a crackhead house and became a landlord. 

I managed it like a puzzle to be solved until it was greatly profitable. Then I bought another. Then another. Then I got my real estate license to help investors buy crackhouses and landlord them. 

No one taught me how to be a landlord in these areas. I just got my hands dirty on one and rinse wash and repeat. 

So find a mentor or get into a house-hack (Low capital investment.)

Your in Indy!? 

Then you should have plenty of landlord opportunities abound.

What type of investors are you representing? 

Hello!

Have you considered doing investor classes? 

My bread and butter is and always will be Landlords. 

I usually convert all my clients into landlords. 

The way I build my landlord base is by teaching investor classes and converting people into landlords. 

I used to run my own property management company as well, so if you go that route, you can become the source of sources for all their investment needs like I do. 

Buy, lease, manage, or sell. I prefer refinance to sell as why would you kill the goose that lays the golden eggs? But that's just me. 

Once you teach enough, you can speak for investor groups, etc.

Hello!

I have been an exclusive investor agent for the last decade, usually representing landlords preferably. 

First off, what type of investors are you representing? Landlords, fix n' flippers, businesses, developers, etc.?

If its landlords, your market might be in a situation I like to call in the most professional verbiage possible, "TOAST."

As a landlord agent, I've had to move to other states to get my investors what they want, and have been forced out of 4 of them already by rising prices and the few I am left in, are slowly burning out. However, I'm a Cash-Flow Investment Agent. If your landlords, are "Equity Play" landlords, you have to find out more of what they want from their investment as equity plays can "break-even" and an Equity Play landlord is fine with that. Just have to identify what the best "Break-even" makes sense for them. 

If your working with fix n flippers, then you are going to have to become a wholesaler yourself and build a wholesale system. That is the only real way to find your fix n flippers deals if your wholesalers are eating all the profits and the MLS market is on fire.

If your representing a business investor, then your in luck as its a weird niche that is never really ON FIRE. I really like this niche because their isn't a lot of competition in the different industries. 

If your looking for a developer, then your going to have to cold-call some vacant landowners and FSBOs. Might get lucky. 

But basically, if your representing landlords, your market might be "TOAST". 

If your representing fix n flippers, you have to become a wholesaler and go after decrepit properties and outdated FSBOs. And there is a million wholesaler forums on here to see how those work. 

If your doing businesses or developers, just have to figure the niche out. 

Hope this helps. 

L. Thomas

Quote from @Taylor Nash:

Hello everyone! 

I am a realtor based out of Cleveland, OH and I have a client who is looking to lease a commercial space for his business. I don't have much experience with the entire process and want to know what's a typical commission % for this type of transaction? Also, am I paid a commission by my client or by the landlord since I am bringing a prospective tenant? Any help or advice would be great. 

Thank you for your assistance in advance! 

 Hello!

I have been an agent for the last decade and can help with this question. 

You should do a Buyer-Broker Agreement if that is the form they use in your state. 

Usually for commercial, the seller pays a finder fee to the tenant's agent. Sometimes it is a flat rate or its a percentage rate. If its a flat rate finder fee, it will just say, $3,000 flat. If it is a percentage, it is a percentage of the entire income of the lease. So if for example, they are offering 3% commission. It means they are offering 3% of the ENTIRE Gross revenue of the lease. 

Because many commercial leases are several years long, the commissions can be very high. For example, if the tenant signs a 10 year lease at $2000 a month. 

You have to multiply 2000 by 12 = 24,000. 

Then multiple 24,000 by 10 = 240,000. 

You get a 3% commission on $240,000 which is $7,200. 

If the landlord isn't offering any commissions, then the tenant has to pay you and you negotiate that fee directly with them and it can be a flat-rate, a percentage of the lease amount, etc. 

This is usually how the commissions are structured, but MAY VARY BY STATE!

 

Hello!

Here are some suggestions for this tenant and for tenant screening in general:

Personal references are probably not going to work as why would they bad mouth him to his potential landlord?

He said retired military. Is he getting VA retirement or Disability? Any other form of income?

Did you do a full Application?

How much is the rent versus old rent ?

Why are they moving?

Did you call the former landlord and actually get a hold of them? Are they real and not a fake person?

Do they have a co-signer that you can go after if they don't pay up?

I ask all these questions as it's important to know if you have a FULL Application that you can make real decisions off of.

If you are stumped by any of my questions, you need go back and look at your application and get those answers.

Thank you!

L. Thomas

Quote from @Calvin Graves:

New investor here, looking to get started on flips and value add projects in the Denver area.

After spending many hours buried in property records searches and financial spreadsheets, I've determined the best way to move forward is to enlist an agent who caters specifically to buyers looking to capture value from rehabbing run down and distressed properties. Confident as I am in my ability to manage the projects, I simply don't have the depth of market knowledge or transaction experience to do my own deal sourcing (yet!). 

I intend to seek referrals at local investment community meetings, as well as my own network, but I want to make sure I find an agent who plays this particular game - rehabs, foreclosures, auctions, etc. 

To that end, does anyone have advice on what questions I should ask prospective agents? Specific experience I should seek out? Red flags to avoid?

Any pointers, or local referrals, are most welcome. Thanks!

What you're looking for is rare but not impossible.

But the only real question is this to your agent:

Have you done Fix N' Flips before and helped people do it before as their agent?

That's really the only agent I'd trust unless you have money for mistakes to be made. Especially if you're using hard money.

L. Thomas

Quote from @Justin Brown:

Hello everyone I was wondering if any of you guys know how to find cheaper deals that are not on market. The reason I am asking is because I live in Charlotte and my market is pretty expensive. So, with that said I feel like I should try to find some off market properties to see if I can find cheaper deals that way. I told this to one of my friends and he gave me the advice of looking up properties for rent on FB marketplace and Craigslist and calling those owners to see if they would be interested in selling their property. Do you guys think this is a good idea or do you think there is something else you would recommend me doing?

 That's a terrible idea.

You will cold call for one or two days and give up.

Wholesaling only works on people who are distressed or hate real estate agents and refuse to sell through one. But even these people are really hard to find.

Your best bet to finding off-market properties is to do what wholesalers do, and annoy the hell out anyone with a decrepit property or needs money now like a FSBO.

But wholesale deals won't really work with House Hacking as you need to buy the property with a loan and most wholesales aren't in good enough condition or the sellers won't sell to someone with a loan.

Best bet is to find a wholesaler real estate agent who has pocket listings. They know the system to talk the people into doing a loan.

I just got a triplex this way in Milwaukee...

L.Thomas

Quote from @Angela Toy:

My husband is leaving his old job so we're looking to rollover his retirement. Our CPA mentioned moving it to a Solo401k and using that money to buy properties (he has an LLC aside from his W-2 job). When I mentioned to Charles Schwab, they said they don't allow solo401k to purchase individual properties, only real estate investment funds. But I'm also seeing "self directed 401k" on the forums. What's the difference? How to best execute this? Thanks!

Hello!

The only Retirement Account that allows you to purchase Real Estate, Crypto, Businesses, or any Alternative Asset Class is going to be a Self-Directed IRA. Hence the "Self-Directed" part.

Its actually a really great tool for retirement, but they have a lot of Nuances to them. You will be to consult with Self-Directed IRA custodian who can help you with those Nuances. The one issue is that you can only purchase real estate "Cash" in general as most lenders won't let IRA's take out loans, but I've seen it done if the deal is right.

How much is in the retirement account?

L. Thomas