All Forum Posts by: Tim Johnson

Yes. The exclusivity contract (buyer agency agreement) between buyer and agent can be ended at anytime. A period of several months (often 6) following the expiration of the agreement serves to protect agents from buyers who will simply cancel the buyer agency agreement after a suitable property has been found - just in order to avoid paying the agent a commission.

Put more simply - it's a kind of "loyalty" agreement. The wording you're looking at is probably something like - "if you purchase a property that was shown to you by the agent, or brought to your attention by the brokerage firm during the time period that you had a buyer agency agreement - you will have to pay that brokerage a commission, even it that agreement is no longer in effect."

Sorry @Account Closed - I responded before I saw the follow up comments....

They are great tenants, never a problem, the dog is small.... the paperwork was late.

It sounds like perhaps you feel taken advantage of because of their process? ...which is understandable. I have no comment to make concerning the "illegality" of their paperwork timing.... or the legality of a possible eviction. But if it were me... I would do  my best to keep a great tenant. Maybe communicate clearly with them both my disappointment with the lack of clear communication and timing... as well as a reasonable way to move forward?

Hey, you're only 18 for crying out loud......

or to put it more positively.....congratulations, what a great place to be in! Good decisions, hard work, success at wholesaling.... you've made the right moves.

Why not wholesale for a bit longer?.... you're good at it. You can build up your networks. With 100K income for a couple of years you'll have plenty of capital and lenders will be interested in talking to you. 

Nice....actually, I thought the photos look pretty good. Best wishes and I look forward to hearing of the progress!

rentometer, zumper, zillow...?

Hi @Scott O'Neil, welcome to the forums! What a great first post. Yes, live within your means... pay off as much debt as possible.... soak in as much as you can here at BP and other forums - especially, invest in 5-10 of the best books that are always recommended here. Join some local REI meet-up groups. Even if that is all you did for your first year or two - it will put you MILES ahead of where you are today.

As far as the specifics of strategies - that will come in time. Personally I would avoid wholesaling and auctions to begin with - and perhaps start with the tried-and-true househack? A real estate license allows me a broad range of fun and options - but certainly not necessary for REI, and many would argue that it may be more of a hassle. Just get to know some great realtors - they'll be happy to jump in and help you search.... for free!

@Alecia Loveless - you'll probably get a ton of varying answers here - but I would go with Luxury Vinyl Plank, hands down. Not as warm or classy as refinishing real hardwood floors - but much more practical for tenants. Reasonable and wears like IRON.

Hi @Josh Corby, along with the mortgage payment, there are usually vacancy rate, property taxes, insurance, your share of utilities, capital expenses, maintenance, and property management fees to consider. Of course, if your mortgage payment is PITI (including taxes and insurance) you can nix those from the above list....and likewise, if you're managing it yourself you can lose the prop management fee.

When I don't know much about the property and am just crunching numbers I'll use 8-10% for vacancy rate, 8% for property management, and 5% for each of capex and maintenance (total of 10% for both).

If I know the property is new construction I'll use a smaller number for capex and maintenance - if the property is old, I may figure a bit more. Then, as you get a chance to actually see the property you can hone in on those numbers and even add "initial renovation costs" as a one-time figure.

@Champ Leong - sorry, I dislike when others use too many acronyms as well - I meant "purchase and sale agreement"