All Forum Posts by: Anthony Angotti

 This is a great idea! I tell newly licensed people all the time that they can pay their bills off of rental commissions until they start building up the sales business. 

A lot of small landlords don't want to pay for a property manager full time, but would gladly offload leasing. It's typical to make one months rent for leasing an apartment so if you have just 4 a month or so you can probably make pretty good income. Just keep in mind that it's a bit of a grind with a lot of calls. You can systematize things a bit to make it easier but it's still going to be a bit of a slog. 

Definitely a super lucrative side job during college though and you will learn a lot. Beats checking people in at the fitness center money wise. Building skills through your college jobs is also important to getting that first job out of college. You'll definitely do that if you do some apartment leasing. Marketing, sales, and general follow up is what and employer would take away from your time in that role. 

 Points, rate, etc. 

Hard money and private money are almost always more expensive than commercial financing with a local bank. 

The benefit to hard and private money is usually they don't require much of a down payment, there's less criteria on the performance of the property at purchase, they can usually close a little faster, and there's little to no underwriting on you as a borrower. 

There is a great niche filled by hard and private money, however it's never in saving cost. I've done both kinds of loans in the past, own over 100 units, and have done this for a while now myself and with customers as an agent. 

There are benefits in ease and speed of which they can close, but in exchange for the lender taking on more risk you are always going to pay a lot more in points and interest than you would on a commercial loan with a local bank. 

 It's also exorbitantly expensive if you can manage the down payment on a portfolio loan at a local bank. 

You need to shift to portfolio loans from lenders that will lend to you as a commercial mortgage. You'll find these at local banks. Usually going to be an adjustable rate with a 20 year term. Once you build a relationship with the bank you can usually negotiate a slightly better term and possibly longer rate locks. At this point you'll probably have a LLC because there's no benefit to keeping anything in your personal name since you won't get better financing terms as a result.

After you reach 4 to 10 loans your options with 30 year fixed mortgage start to evaporate. But that's ok as long as you've been building your network of lenders. 

I will say that if I know the buyer has a certain experience level then I wouldn't mind it, but generally speaking most people don't. Another reason why reputation is.worth everything. 

Also my statement only applies if the person has an experienced buyers agent. If their buyers agent has done only a few deals it's really no different than working with someone unrepresented anyway because at least in PA the licensing classes teach you nothing about actual real estate practice. 

 As an agent I personally DONT like it when someone expects to use me for both sides when I have a listing. Having an experienced agent on the other side always makes for a smoother transaction. Additionally I don't have to get into situations where I'm giving advice on both sides or where I have to worry about dual agency. 

Perhaps I'm in a minority, but I know many other agents that feel the same way. 

 If it is listed you should usually use a buyers agent so that someone represents your interests. The listing agent represents the interests of the seller only. The buyers agent commission is already agreed upon with the seller prior to listing so it won't cost anything additional for you to use a buyers agent unless the buyers agent has a minimum commission and the commission offered by the seller is less than that, most that are worth their salt do.

If a property is off market and you are newer then you would probably benefit from working with an experienced agent that knows a lot about the process and homes/real estate investment in general. However you'll pay for those services at closing since it's not negotiated to be paid by the seller. You aren't required to have an agent though by any law. 

 As someone that receives 100s of pieces of marketing, texts, and calls in a given month I can tell you that I put everything I get from some sort of automated caller/mailing system directly in the trash or just lose/block the number. If I get a piece of mail designed on some yellow letters site it is immediately going in the trash because it screams newbie, that won't close on my deal or offer me a fair price. IF I sell off market (and I have before) then I want to be dealing directly with the actual buyer, and I have no reason to work with a wholesaler. 

So my advice is to keep lead generation on your own. If an actual investor calls me that is looking to buy one of my properties then I am more likely to actually have a discussion and if nothing else we both build our network. However if I get something totally cold from some call center I'm immediately hanging up and blocking the number. 

Additionally with my own company we have designed our own letters and our own website that look a bit different from the typical marketing strategy out there. We've gotten a lot of calls back from prospective sellers just because they trust that they are working with the actual buyer and not a wholesaler or newbie that isn't likely to close the deal. 

I'm looking for a different type of property than you because we are looking for commercial buildings, however when I was looking at single family homes and acquiring properties in that niche I will say that it was the same type of stuff that worked. Authenticity goes a long way in a crowded market.

 Pittsburgh is a great place to start by house hacking because there are quite a number so small multifamily buildings and the rent to price ration is good enough to make it work. 

I started with house hacking in Pittsburgh and still live in the third duplex I bought that way. It put me in a good enough spot experience wise and financially to now owning over 100 doors. 

In my opinion it's the best strategy to start with and Pittsburgh is a great place to execute your plan. 

 Haha you too!

It is a rough guide, but I will say that the Munhall/Homestead area is definitely picking up a bit. Rent wise I've seen rents there I would have never in a million years expected.