All Forum Posts by: Sarah T.

My post cut off, sorry. Was going to say I've been combing data for months using all those sites, Zillow, Realtor, Trulia... I know the MLS is the obvious first choice which is why I"m so pumped I can get a feed when I hook up with a realtor.

When I move I want to get a huge wall-sized map for my office area so I can get really crazy with it and learn the city inside and out.

Wow!! Thank you everyone for the thoughtful responses! Goodness this thread alone helped me formulate a great strategy for getting started.

I'm an OCD personality so I've been combing da

So, what y'all are in essence saying is that once I find a realtor, I can go ahead and get a feed based on my specific criteria NOW and also possibly gain access through a client portal to search the MLS myself?

I will be buying once our house here is sold, so I'm looking at 5 months max before I have cash in hand to buy my first rehab. Is five months too long to have access to the MLS as a client of a realtor?

Or should I wait until closer to the date to ask for this? I'd like as long as possible to analyze deals.. 

Originally posted by @Jeff West:

@Sarah T. 

If you find an agent that is used to working with investors, it may not be as big a deal as you think. (Local REI meetings are great for finding them) Most are used to it.

One method you could employ is to look online for anything you may be interested in or have your realtor send you every listing in your area with phrases such as "handyman special, fixer upper, tlc needed," etc. If any of them look promising, submit an offer low enough that you couldn't possibly lose money. Maybe not lowball, but low enough for serious wiggle room. Investors realtors are used to submitting lots of offers and with a digital signature you wont have to meet up for every one of them. Most offers, even if they are low ball won't be ignored and will at least be countered. Find the counters that look like they are willing to negotiate and then schedule to see the property, possibly with your contractor if you have one, so that they can give you a bid on what renovations will actually cost you.  

 Thank you @Jeff West! That make me feel a lot better about it!

@James Wise Thank you SO much!! Wonderful.

Totally, I agree. That's why I don't intend to put any realtor through that and felt hesitant when I read about it. Just trying to figure out what rehabbers did when they were looking for their first deal, if they scouted properties themselves before contacting a realtor, or had any other suggestions.

I want to work with a realtor only when I have a small realistic set of houses to view.

Question for you experienced rehabbers out there that work with realtors... I found a couple of realtors that look promising, but am worried that looking at such a large amount of houses won't be cool. I read about the "100 house" thing in J. Scott's book, and I want to look at as many as possible, but won't a realtor get pretty angry if you're dragging them to look at tons of properties and having them write up multiple low offers for home after home until one is accepted.... I mean they work on commission, I don't think I'd like that if I was a realtor... I think I'm going to just get my license eventually, but must work with a realtor for my first couple of deals.

So is there a workaround for this? I plan to drive my farm area once I move, get a feel for things, but aside from stalking houses alone and not getting to see much of the inside, how do those of you who work with realtors deal with this? I know it must be an issue...

I thought about contacting listing agents directly for some properties, but then I learned I'd run into a legal catch-22 where the listing agent would expect to represent me, etc... 

Thoughts? 

I had some of the exact same questions the other day, looking forward to people chiming in who have experience using it. Just wanted to add that I was testing it out the other night (five free times before you have to pay for membership), and the report kept using the same rehab budget for the analysis even when I tried to run a new report with a different figure. Not sure if there was something I was supposed to reset...

Fred T. As I mentioned in my post, I've been in the home building and real estate world since I was born and have studied this stuff for years, I've just never acted on my first deal. Pretty much the furthest thing from a whim, but thank you for the concern and good advice! I am currently vetting a team to put in place for my first purchase. Been analyzing the local market for a year. And have spreadsheets for rehab, holding costs etc. ready to go. If the deal does not make sense, I plan to find one that does. Thanks for your replies!

I think this is the right place to post this.... TL/DR for someone who doesn't care to read a life story of someone getting into real estate.

I'm glad I found BP... Wondering why I didn't find it years ago. I think real estate investing is my calling and it's always been this way. Real estate has been a family business for generations. My grandfather was a contractor. My uncle has a real estate agency and builds spec houses. My dad draws house plans and builds houses - himself - from scratch. He even mills his own lumber. I grew up around construction site after construction site. I love the smell of a framed up house and fresh drywall.

I have always been an entrepreneurial spirit... I remember using our very first home PC to print out a "magazine" (maybe I was about 7?). I packaged it and dropped it at the front door, then rang the doorbell. I think I was trying to trick my parents into buying a subscription. In junior high, I started a muffins and juice business with my friend; we went door to door and signed people up to receive fresh muffins and juice each Sunday morning. We actually made a little money doing that. I got that idea from a "kid business" book from the library - because apparently those were the kinds of books I checked out when everyone else was reading Babysitters Club books.

My roommate in early college had a father who was a real estate investor and a business owner. Through her, I got really into the real estate investing world. Was reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad at 18. Watched video courses about apartment investing. Drove around with my friend and her dad as he checked on his rental properties, collected payments, educated us. Went "driving for dollars" with her for a few months, looking for houses that appeared vacant... I remember sneaking to the side to look at the electric meters. Even went to the courthouse together to pull up property tax records. I was SO fired up. I have a memory of being maybe 19, Saturday night, sitting on the floor of our first apartment with a newspaper spread out, circling houses while my friends were out clubbing. So excited.

Waited tables all that time and went to college because, well, that's what you do, right? Got a useless liberal arts degree. Then I went to grad school and earned an MPA that I was totally unenthused about. Should have gone for the MBA, but hindsight is 20/20, as they say. 

All through college I started little businesses to make extra money on the side. I did the eBay thing. I bought liquidated inventory and resold it. Thought about doing storage units. Everything I did was to achieve the end goal of making enough for a down payment on a property to get started in real estate. All roads led there in my mind. That whole time. They still do, actually.

After graduation, I was offered a government job where I would be making a good starting salary, incremental raises, good benefits - but I would be stuck in a cubicle for the rest of my life. Didn't take it. Couldn't take it. It felt like death for me.

Guess the point of my post here is to introduce myself, and let young investors/would-be investors out there know that if you have the entrepreneurial spirit in you, don't ignore it and try to do what you think people expect of you when all the signs and your gut are pointing you down your own path. I wish I had pursued real estate much harder instead of focusing on college. Sometimes I kind of wish I had majored in construction.

But I'm planning to start investing for real, buying my first property to flip (!!!) this summer. I feel excited, like my life will open up and I'll have butterflies every day when I think about my future career in real estate investing. I'm not 18 anymore, far from it, but I'm still young enough to make this my livelihood. Thinking about that job I turned down, when I was considering it, it felt like the end. Guess that's how you know what you're destined to do.

Hope this helps someone.