All Forum Posts by: Sean McDonnell

Most attorneys in my area will only charge around $500 for a cash purchase closing. The process is much easier and simpler without having to work with a lender. Other than that, you will get nickel and dimed a bit with various wire fees and prorated taxes but your closing costs can be kept fairly low. 

@Adrian Robinson There is a sweet meetup in Wilmington the first Tuesday of every month at Waterline Brewery at 7 PM and also a meetup in Surf City NC the second Tuesday of every month. They both provide a ton of networking opportunities! Good luck getting started man!

You should use your VA loan to purchase a property and house hack it.

@Manish Varma Have you read the book by David Greene Long Distance Real Estate Investing? It is a great resource to help investors. One  of the big points is to build your team in the area you want to invest. Most teams consist of an agent, property manager, contractor, lender,  and insurance agent. Good luck getting started!

@Amare Boyd I would recommend reading the book titled The Book on Rental Property Investing by Brandon Turner. It is a great read for building the knowledge foundation for REI.

What do you do for work? A lot of new investors, myself included, use the house hacking strategy to get the ball rolling and pick up a property for low downpayment. 

You should dive in man! I got a Premium membership after I only sold a few houses and it has been a game changer for my business. You also get other perks when you become a premium account holder. It will help if you are an investor yourself but you will likely be able to close a few deals a year through leads from BiggerPockets. 

Working for a builder could be a good way to get started. It will definitely give you a good introduction to the business but there will probably be a ceiling for your growth. If you are wanting to be a full time agent, I would at least go into it with a plan to branch out on your own eventually once you are comfortable. To echo @Nathan Gesner, joining a team can also be a great way to learn systems and get some experience. Good luck getting started!

If you are working with a real estate agent in your area, you can ask them to set up alerts for you within a given criteria. It is pretty simple and they can have the system send you new rentals when they hit the market so you can get a feel for the location/price. Not everyone uses the MLS to list rentals so another good option is just looking on Zillow. You can refine the search criteria and see how long properties have been on the market for. In an area where there is high demand for rentals, if a property has been on the market for over 30 days, it means the asking rent is too high or there is some issue with the property.

Congrats man! What a great first deal. What is your plan from here?