All Forum Posts by: Stacy Spencer

I've purchased two wholesale properties through MLS. The agent doesn't make much money so I've noticed it tends to be younger, hungrier agents who will list these and not as much the experienced agents, but I also found experienced agents who focus only on investors and do this for the networking and longer-term relationships. In both of the MLS listings I purchased, the sale included commissions. One was a bank forclosure and it included 6% which was split between the listing agent and my agent. My other MLS wholesale was a flipper who listed and again 6% commissions were split between the listing agent and my agent. Technically the seller 'pays' in that the commissions were reduced from their proceeds - but of course they price it with that in mind. I hope that helps answer your question about wholesale properties on MLS.

Welcome, Corey and Congratulations on your new beginnings!  There are a lot of different options and choices for you.  My husband and I are relatively new to this ourselves and just have 5 properties so far.  We started out purchasing cash-flow properties and really don't plan to change that anytime soon.  We are dabbling with wholesale properties but we aren't true wholesalers - we only migrated to investing in "wholesale" properties with the intent of buying cheap, fixing up and then keeping it and renting it out.  We have been buying properties with long-term cash-flow potential because we're using this to create our early retirement and having our real estate provide an ongoing income so we don't have to spend down our retirement plans.  What we love about cash-flow properties is that you can get both instant gratification and longer-term gratification too; right after closing, we get a little extra income each month which we put aside for our next property.  We've initially invested in areas where the price to rent ratio is favorable.  We were able to purchase very low cost properties with high rents and so far all of our properties have or are projected to recoup our down payment in 1-4 years.  If you are curious to try this approach, I recommend starting with some research on "price to rent ratio" to see what areas provide good potential.  And then keep in mind that the prices are low for a reason.  We have a fabulous property manager who finds good tenants and helps us keep them.  Success or failure on rentals is greatly impacted by turnover and vacancy.   (You can find quite a bit just with some google searches -- for price to rent ratio in various markets, vacancy, etc..)  Even then, there are so many options on how to focus.  Many of our colleagues choose single family homes with a large number of bedrooms since those have lower turnover whereas we focus on multi-family properties which have higher turnover but we can often have a 50% vacancy and still turn a profit or at least pay all expenses.  As you research various options, take note on what sounds interesting and exciting to you vs. what doesn't; that will make the difference between this being "fun" or being "work".  Have fun!

LLC name approval can be tricky. For example, we found that New York didn't like "properties" to be in the name unless the company was for licensed realtors or a property manager. So in New York we dropped "properties" and added "NY" to our regular business name. In MO "Gateway" would be really popular so migrating away from that may help. Sometimes mixing the order up can help you use a name you want (instead of wholesale properties, make it properties wholesale) or you could try US instead of national or nationwide. Another clever option could be "coast to coast" instead of national or nationwide. Play around with alternative words or alternative order and you'll get a name you like or at least can live with. You can also go very generic. A colleague named his business after the first home he purchased with just the street number and name (e.g. 123 juniper enterprises, LLC). I agree it's nice to have a name that makes it clear what your business does, but you can also have a really creative name (or a really generic or even boring name) and then just ensure anywhere you post/print the name that you include a tagline that tells what you do. Good luck!

I was contacted by a company called American Wealth Financial. They indicate they can help me establish corporate credit for my LLC, more quickly navigate to an 80 Paydex score and also connect me with lenders who are more likely to provide unsecured loans to my business (and also help to quickly report credit to the top corporate credit reporting agencies.

Has anyone worked with them or a similar company?  Any good/bad experiences to share?

Aloha Folks!  I am a cash-flow real estate investor with several multi-family residential properties.  I live in Hawaii but my businesses are located in NY, TX and TN.  I have been purchasing low-to-mid-income (affordable) multi-family residential real estate from wholesalers as well as purchasing wholesale properties and fixing them up to rent.  My favorite investment so far was a bank foreclosure which I fixed up and then refinanced to purchase my next 5 properties - that was FUN!  I am still in the intense start-up/expansion phase with my business and this year plan to build-up my teams in TN and TX and purchase 5-10 additional properties.  I look forward to continuing to learn and develop my network as part of the BiggerPockets community.

Mahalo for welcoming me to the community,

Stacy