All Forum Posts by: Ryan Lesley

Hey @Dan J., 

I agree with both @Nathan Grabau and @Douglas Patterson said, what is their motivation for managing properties and are they good communicators. 

The other things I would add to that are, what do their fees look like? Are they nickel and diming me with admin fees and opening the filing cabinet fees? Also if I continue to bring them doors (or many doors) are they offering discounts/ better rates or are they sticking to flat rates. 

hope that helps and best of luck 🤝🍀
 

Hey @Luke Maas, 

your question is pretty subjective, since what makes a market worth investing in to someone is relative to a lot of factors such as their risk tolerance, acceptable ROI, investing goals, etc.

But the best people to answer that are going to be real estate professionals and investors that are active in the Kansas City market. So my suggestion would be to get on www.meetup.com and look for meetups that are going on focused on real estate investing. This way you can go and talk to people who are already doing deals and investing in that market and see what they have to say about it and see if the market meets your own investing goals. 

Something else you can do to get an idea of a markets investment potential is, if you're looking at doing Short Term or Medium Term rentals, go to www.AirDNA.com put in Kansas City, MO and look at the overview market report that they provide for free to see if there is good demand among other relevant metrics. 

hope that helps and best of luck on your investing journey 🤝🍀

Hey @Taylor Robertson, 

First off, sorry about the situation you've found yourself in. definitely throws a wrench in the plans, but as you have already said there may be some upside to the situation. 

Aside from all the things that the bank are requiring: inspection and reappraisal,  I would definitely re-run all your numbers once you find out if this will impact your insurance premiums. I'd also be interested in finding out how exactly the hold harmless agreement impacts your/their liability and what it entails. that alone may be enough reason for either backing out of the deal or seeing an adequate discount on the purchase price due to your increased risk.  

I would also check with your agent to see what built in provisions there are in the purchase contract that would, if you chose to do so, give you a legal way of backing out of the contract. I know here in Colorado buyers are given a plethora of outs, I'm just not familiar with Kansas contracts. In the end though I hope it works out for you one way or the other. best of luck 🤝🍀

Hey @Joval Mathai, 

Not sure where Zillow pulls its data, I know www.greatschools.org is one of the main websites that uses proficiency to grade schools (how well they score on the yearly assessment scores) and also some weight is given to the schools growth scores (how well they are at furthering students scores). there is an interesting article/video by vox on all this is if want to learn more: https://www.vox.com/videos/201...

hope that helps!
 

Hey @Nicole Muscarella, 

I haven't personally used them but Kiavi.com is an option that I have heard in hard money lending conversations a lot. There are other companies that are similar that you can check out as well. hope that helps and best of luck 🤝🍀 

Hey @Bing Carter,

like others have suggested, depending on your brokerage they may have a mentorship program already in place, I know my brokerage eXp Realty does. 

Also I would strongly suggest you find a good team that you can work with day to day and week to week to help you set goals and manage your time. Not to mention you will, again depending on your brokerage firm, realize some added benefits as opposed to going it alone as a solo agent like reduced cap limits. The trade off of extra commission splits for being on a team is going to be far outweighed by the education and support you will get as a brand new agent on a team. 

Hope that helps and best of luck with your real estate business 🤝🍀

Hey @Vannel Dzigba,

have you considered a hard money lender like www.kiavi.com or someone comparable?  

Hey @Jaston Robinson, 

I am also considering this for a current investment property that I am looking to purchase with my partner as well. Ill share what info I've come across so far, and hopefully others will chime in and confirm this. 

The feedback I have received so far is that you can but that you still have to take into consideration any splits (brokerage, team if applicable) and taxes on the commission. 

other than that my understanding is that, and I would speak with your lender and CPA about best option for applying it to the deal, you can use it a few different ways: lowering the purchase price by what your commission would be (after splits if applicable), using it to buy down interest rate and/or towards closing cost, or just pocket it and use it to fund your capex fund or towards any rehab. 

Again how you use it is going to depend on your tax situation, if there are any splits you have to consider, and what in the end makes the most sense and is the most advantageous to you for the deal. 

hope that helps and best of luck 🤝🍀

Hey @Henry Cruz, 

Welcome to the bigger pockets family and congrats on starting your real estate investing journey 🤝

my suggestion would be to go to your local REI meetups on www.meetup.com 

you're going to be around all types of people in the real estate investing realm (lenders, agents, flippers, investors, new-commers) and the meetups are fun and I always learn something new. Not to mention you can get a feel for a potential mentor better in person. 

here's a link to some events coming up soon in your area: https://www.meetup.com/find/?s...

hope that helps and best of luck on your journey 🤝🍀

This is a minor detail but depending on your market (Florida, California) where the AC is running pretty much non-stop, regularly changing out the air filters are key in prolonging the life of the AC unit - meaning less out of that Capex fund 😉

I've seen leases that require that the tenant change them out on a regular basis and I've also seen leases where the landlord puts a provision of a scheduled timeline that they or a handyman will schedule a time to stop by and replace it for them. the provision is much more common for the simple fact that a) you ensure that the filters are being replaced, and b) it gives you a chance to get an idea of how well they are maintaining the property. typical schedule is once a quarter. hope that helps 🤝