All Forum Posts by: Steve Milford

@Tommesa Mobley

Every property is perfect if we only had the money for it. My 2 cents, find the money first, then shop.

@Whitney Breedlove

Go for part-time imo, and then if you REALLY love it go full-time. Keep day job and reduce hours os the way yo go!

Personally, I hate leases. It's from being a renter for 10+ years, so I am MTM asap and only if renter requests a lease in first place. Initially, re raising rent, I felt bad for people from their stories, then my costs went up AND I had a few conversations with renters about how their budget was so tight. I don't initiate those conversations, but I hear why rent is high but then they tell me their cable is $300 because they subscribe to all the options, or they have little to no savings. etc. I can't control if they are bad with money, but I can control what I charge for rent. Now I raise rent $50-$100 mimimum every year. I verbally tell them it is coming up in 90 days, and then send them their letter. I bring it up when I am asking about maintenance. Now, they ask me, "Isn't this about the time we talk about a rent increase?" Lol, yep! Lesson learned, train them to your expectations. My area requires 60 days notice, but I like 90, because if they need to figure out new options, they can.

The simple answer is, unless this is a primary home, no lending is available because it is not within Fannie Mae guidelines. Google "Fannie Mae Matrix" and you will see it in black and white.

Hey Patty, I can coach you, feel free to reach out. I am licensed OR & WA, and call Vancouver home.

Like others have said, as you learn you will just want to start "doing it". Lol, it sounds funny to say that.
The biggest mindsets I see that are beneficial, 1) Be very organized and efficient, cut the busy-work. 2) Don't be afraid of the "No". 3) Be self-motivated. 4) There is no prescribed way, just work at what feels best for you. 

You will hear from lots of naysayers, just ignore them, they are just another "No." Lol

@James Hamilton

I'd prefer to learn in my backyard first. Far away problens are still problems after the sale.

FSBOs Sellers are a mixed bag. I work with a lot of them and I have to say most are quite unreasonable because they believe the kool-aid that media spits out to grab eyeballs; few look at raw data. Plus many times I find that they don't read the contract they are signing or make assumptions by what they read after searching on Google.

Is it possible to find a reasonable FSBO seller? Sure, but it just hasn't been my experience.

I.e. Most FSBO sellers see the list price as the "true sales price", versus realizing that most of the time it is the price agreed that paid for all fees, NOT the value of the home. And most are pretty firm on price. I looked in an area near me, took all of 15 mins. The avr 3 bed / 2 bath / 1,900 sqr ft home is actually selling for 10% less list price in my area that I searched. One of those homes sold, one was a FSBO, yet it was a renter that bought the home from their landlord after 5 years of on-time payments. Every other contract, each party had an agent. And all non-FSBO homes sold with seller-prepaids and closing cost concessions averaging $10k or 2.5%. Since all other transactions had agents and buyer closing costs were paid, the true net to the seller was 7.9% less (incl commissions) than list prices avr $475k = $437,475. If I was an unrepresented buyer buying from a FSBO seller, if home was $475k I would offer 12.9% less list to account for lack of realtor fees too, not counting potential repairs. $475,000-12.9% = offer of $413,725 true net to seller. But getting to that number is rarely a straight line. Imo, a good negotiator is what most people need, even if they save you less. A savings of something is better than nothing. Good luck.

@Christopher Pearson

I'll coach you.

First read this:

My reco is that you go get your license, hang your hat under an experienced agent. Your supervising agent gets paid also. Your gumption to find deals and getting paid gross commission, which they take a cut of, is the win for them. You will also be on a different playing field than the avr investor. You just need to work with someone you identify with; interview a lot. Many brokers will want to work with you if you reach out to them first.

Want to be better? Keep asking "What if..." and trying new tactics.

I've found that most people want a how-to with processes, not a coach. A coach will push you to learn and grow to develop your our process similar to a framework and help you deal with rejection while a how-to are the steps without the experience.

I know a guy that bought a house, then went searching for a coaching program to "get rich", to which he paid $8k. Then he started asking me "how-to get leads", "where do I...", and other stuff, so I quoted him my fees to help him build systems. He didn't want that, he wanted actual "leads" lol. He thought calling expireds was the same as having the "coveted" leads. He wasn't getting coached in a process, he was being taught a how-to. Anyone can learn the steps, but actually doing it is entirely a different story. I will teach anyone that asks, but there are costs of time, efforts to build process, tools and LOTs of rejection. I mean a LOT.

At a recent REI meeting I met a burnt-out Realtor of 20+ years. Turns out she hated the commission saga and she recently completed a personal 1031 exchange and felt the Realtor she hired screwed her over. So I suggested she just do consulting... she was like, "You can do that?" It was a totally foreign concept to her. She plops down next to me, hoping for the how-to with processss and asks, "Tell me more..." I responded with "Not hard, just change your pricing model. Ask people for money up-front. If you want me to teach you how to do it, $2,500, 1/2 due when we get started." LMAO. I essentially just told her how to do consulting, but that is not what she wanted. She wanted the systems to get it done and a client. She doesn't even say thanks, just gets up and goes to talk to someone else. She just saved me a ton of grief! Lol.

It kind of feels that way because it isn't very dense. Regarding rentals, just like anywhere else, the numbers have to work out. 

I bought my last home after shopping 7 lenders. Yes I had a few point hits, but the lender I finally found was golden. Pros and cons.

Like others have said, don't pile good money on top of bad. Maintain your walk-away factor. If Realtor is not fighting for that as well, then you might need to walk away from them too if this doesn't work out. Education can be costly. I suspect your rate lock is going to expire and you might not get financing. That is the easiest answer. But you also state that "there is no other option", which means that the Seller can take their sweet time, they have you by a hook. I would expect that your occupancy permit contingency has a time limit on it... Listen to the lender answers here.