All Forum Posts by: Bob Yon

Several asked that I post my experience with the course I purchased. This is lengthy, but hopefully it will help some other folks decide.

I purchased the package and even decided to attend his 2 day boot camp and buy his gold level mentoring program. The gold program included an extra 1/2 day at the camp and an extra seat, which is partly why I bought into that. My daughter attended the camp with me and I am hoping that she will be able to help with a lot of the marketing tasks. The gold program also includes a year or what he calls coaching calls that are done biweekly. And he will personally assist me in closing my first deal. All of that for what I consider to be a fairly reasonable cost.

Overall I am pretty impressed with the materials and the information. He does not teach just one acquisition method (SS, LO, Buy/hold, sub-to, etc.) Which is one of the main reasons I decided to buy from him in the first place.

His approach is that he teaches 30 different marketing strategies to reach motivated sellers. Then based on the details of the seller's financial situation you choose from one or more of 12 different acquisition strategies.

He ranks both the marketing and the acquisition strategies based on their effectiveness and I believe is pretty honest about which will work and which ones really don't work very often. He also lets you know pretty clearly which of the marketing strategies take time, money or both.

The package I got also included his Deal Analyzer software which to this newbie is pretty slick. You fill out a pretty thorough questionnaire regarding the property you are considering buying and it gives red, yellow, green guidance on which of the acquisition strategies are appropriate for the situation. And it recommends the max you should pay using each strategy. It also has a pro forma section that is quite helpful.

My one concern is that the course, of course, does not cover the specifics of the market in which I live and invest. I'm sure this rural market I live in is different than the Austin market of which he is such an expert. He does address some of my concerns in the course by cautioning to check such things as months of inventory which will alert you to a slow buyer's market and the potential of sitting on a property a long time. My concern may just be my hesitation on pulling the trigger on a less than sure thing deal.

However, I have two deals already in the works. First, I am partnering with someone from our local REI club to purchase a home for about 25K including repairs and expect to get $650-$700 in rent.

Second, I have a 2nd house under contract. (Well verbal contract until I can get my atty to write things up. I decided to get an atty to write up my first one since the contracts provided with the course are for Texas.) It is an older home (1940) that I am buying sub-to the existing $85K mtg. I have roughly estimated the repairs (with the help of the Deal Analyzer software) to be about$12K. I am going to be checking it out with my contractor this weekend. (I have a 90 day option.)

This is the sticky part and another place I think the course falls a little short. Estimating the ARV is TOUGH! The course basically says to have a good Realtor do the comps for you, but I'm very nervous about that as I don't have experience with a Realtor in the area yet.

So, I think the ARV should be in the $120k - $125k range.

I have not decided yet whether I will try to wholesale the deal to another investor, sell it with owner financing and wrap the mtg, or just do a mtg assignment and collect the assignment fee. All of which are techniques taught in the course.

Hopefully any one of which will more than cover the cost of what I spent on the package. :-)

I am talking to a fellow REI club member about partnering on a deal. I would like to know your opinion on what should be considered, and should be included in our agreement.

We are going to be purchasing a home for about $20k that we expect to rent for $650 - $700 / month. The house needs very little in repair. Less than $3K.

One of us will be providing the cash to make the purchase, the other will be doing all labor and managing the property.

I know we need to decide on the split of the rent, what our exit strategy will be and when. I expect that we will arrange an LLC for this property alone.

What else should be considered and agreed upon now? What do you think is an equitable split of the rents?

Any and all advice and comments are welcome and appreciated.

Tracy,

That is what I thought this business was all about. Just the way you describe it. At least I hope it is. That is what I am attempting to do. In fact, I have a property that I am buying for $85k sub2 with no money down to purchase it. Now, it will need about $12k in repairs, but then I hope to sell it for $120k - $125k. Unless of course I can find another investor who will give me cash for my sub2 contract.

To answer the original question, I have purchased several properties with "nothing down". My first home I purchased in 1978 with only enough to pay closing costs and fees and such and most of that was borrowed from family members.
When it came time to move to a new house, I refinanced the first, and used the cash from that to buy my 2nd house. I did the same thing 10 years later to get my third house. That house I sold for enough to pay cash for the one I am in now.
BTW, the first two houses I rented out for a period of time with some nice cash flow.
My first house that I bought just for investment was two years ago. I took out a mtg on my principle residence and used that to buy the rental.
So depending on your definition of "no money down" I could say that I have now bought 6 properties for no money down.

But only the one I am buying now probably qualifies for what you were thinking of.

I just attended his boot camp this past weekend. I am reasonably impressed. He is "real people". Very open and honest.
I am looking forward to putting the techniques taught to practice very soon. I even have a deal that I am working on with some advice from him right now.
I'll let you know how it goes.

Presumably a website/company that will help you find, analyze and market investment properties.

Anybody have any experience with them?

I heard about it at our local REI club and the website looks good. IF the data is current and timely it could help in marketing (direct mail lists) as well as doing CMAs, But, before I invest $100/mo. I'm curious what others here think.

Thanks,
Bob

Staging your leases means to make sure they do not both come due in the same month. That way you avoid having NO income between renters in any one unit.

Thanks for the feedback. After a brief "market survey" (I asked my Facebook friends) I decide to scrap the Hoot Owl name for now and have decided to go with New Dream Home Solutions.

However, I do have URL registered for Hoot Owl so I still may use it at some poing.

Thanks Bryan. You can let Phill know that your comments helped me decide to select his course over a couple of others.

I have not received the actual course yet but from the materials I've been able to see and hear online I think I am going to be quite pleased.
The Deal Analyzer software looks really good. It appears to be very thorough. I can't wait to dig into it further.
Thanks again,
Bob

Ok, this may be a little off topic, but I hope not too far.

I am starting a new "typical" RE investing company and have been working on a name for it. All my attempts at traditional type names (??? Home Solutions) seemed to be have the URL already taken, and of course I'll need a website.

So..... then the idea came (I'm not sure from where, it was pretty late) for "Hoot Owl Homes". I guess the idea came from the fact that owls in some circles represent wisdom.

What do you think? Was I just up too late and need to start over? Does a name not really matter all that much? Is it OK to have a little fun with the name?

Any thoughts and suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks,
Bob

I'm currently listening to "The Richest Man in Babylon".