All Forum Posts by: Sherry McQuage

Start learning, buying real estate in my 20's.  I got my real estate license in my late 20's, kept updated on continuing education, but only activated the license after all my kids started school.  If I/we had started buying investment properties (even 1 a decade) it would greatly have improved our financial wellbeing.

Learn from my regret.😁

Hello Jaden,

What is you background?  What type of financing are you planning to use?  Keep reading and learning here on Bigger Pockets and the sky is the limit for you.  

If you are interested in the Pinehurst, Sanford, Fayetteville, or nearby areas, give me a call.

Warm Regards,

Sherry

 I agree that licensed agents will rat you out, as they should (my opinion)...licensed agents have dedicated lots of money, time, and training to hold the real estate license.  It takes years for most agents to "start making money".  We take ethics classes, and continuing education classes, and constant training to stay up to date with rule changes.  We/I am a professional, and our fiduciary responsibility is to our clients.  We pay a percentage to our brokerages, have marketing and education expenses, and are self employed so we pay for our health insurance, gas, etc.  

In my local MLS (Mid Carolina Region MLS), wholesaling has left a bad taste in buyer/sellers minds, so the MLS is creating rules to basically prevent wholesaling. There's been too many instances of someone not understanding (or understanding and then getting mad) that wholesalers are selling the contract to buy and making money off "someone else's property".

Please either go get your real estate license so you can market it legally, or go ahead and close on buying the property.  

I don't know you, and you don't know me....too many people have gotten burnt/taken advantage of during a wholesale deal. I'm glad MLS's (and Z) are cracking down on "grey transactions" that come across as possibly predatory deals. Advertise the property on Craigslist or other sites if you must. Most buyers and sellers are vulnerable because they don't buy/sell real estate frequently; licensed agents (me) take pride in "guiding and protecting" clients from transactions that can go wrong.

Regardless, you are putting yourself at risk of getting sued by trying to market a property without a real estate license, a valid listing agreement, or being the owner of record.  Here's where one might ask, why are you doing it this way?  Your answer might be enlightening.

PS---you mentioned that your mentor has been doing creative deals for 30 years....It is possible that the rules have changed and he/she has not.  Just because one "gets away with" something, doesn't necessarily mean it's ok.

I recently worked with 2 different investors who each bought an investment property using a hard money lender.  I know the interest rates were a bit higher than a conventional loan, but it allowed them to buy a "fixer upper"....they plan to update the property as soon as possible.  One investor plans to flip it (sell it as soon as it's fixed up), the other investor plans to rent it out.  I anticipate the second investor will refinance the property once it's fixed up and rentable.  

From what I can tell, it lets investors buy a property that probably wouldn't qualify for a conventional loan (these properties were...not livable).  These investors have a project or 2 under their belts, and Hard Money let them leverage what money they did have, and expand their portfolios.

A local lender came to my market center in the last year and talked about this....is there a box you can check when filling out an application that can let you "opt out" of the credit bureaus selling your information?

@Nicholas L.

I agree with Nicholas….whether a real estate agent says its a good time to buy or not, you (the investor) need to do your due diligence. Check to see how many STR properties are in the area you are looking in, find out (or look at their calendars) to see about how often they are booked and at what rate…run the numbers!

An agent can provide information and guidance…an investor is still in charge of making the decision to buy or not.

If you abdicate your responsibility to do your due diligence, then you lose the right to complain. It’s your money, it’s your responsibility to check as best you can to see if a property will likely perform as you hoped. There is no “easy button”, that’s why we all learn from every transaction.

There are thousands of commercials that claim to make you “lose weight by taking this supplement “ or “you”ll make thousands of dollars a week after buying my course “…please don’t be so quick to believe everything someone says, fact check!!!

Best to you…

 Hello Faris,

Any book published by Bigger Pockets is a great start.  Also, listen to podcasts and when a guest mentions a book that inspired them, go buy it (I buy on Audible so I can listen while I walk my dog or drive).  Won't be long and you'll have an awesome library to learn from.

 I'm not familiar with CT...here in NC, if a buyer agent is experienced and knows their market, they should pick up on when a property is "under-priced" to get more attention.  This might work in a strong sellers market, or it might make people wonder what is wrong with the property to be priced so low (and then don't bother to go see it).

While I like to price my listings in the middle range of what I think the market will pay, there are (for now) still lots of new agents that don't realize when you've priced low to hopefully start a bidding war.  They end up wasting time showing property that their client won't have a chance of getting, and waste time writing up offers that won't get considered, and their buyer clients get their hopes up and then dashed.

Consider pricing your listing at the middle, or slightly lower than middle, of what you think it should sell for....instead of pricing it drastically below what you think it will sell for.

The market can change overnight sometimes.  Has this pricing really low strategy worked for you in the past?

Best to you!

You have to just commit to doing the lead generation 5-6 days a week (social posts, door knocking, talk to people you know, talk to people you don't know, host open houses for agents in your office, drive for FSBO's, etc) until you have planted so many "seeds" that they result in business. I bought leads from Realtor.com for a year...2 panned out into closed transactions, so I guess I broke even. I will not ever buy leads from the company that rhymes with "willow" because they aren't looking out for agents...at all.

Necessity is the mother of invention!  Take massive action, and eventually it pays off.  Without buying leads.

 That might work if your listing is a very desirable one...what happens if it sits on the market 30+ days?