All Forum Posts by: Troy Gandee

@Justin Montoya You don't have to be licensed in SC to buy or sell your own properties (or manage your own properties) without a license. You should disclose that you're licensed in another state just to keep yourself out of hot water if you were to get sued for anything that were to occur during the transaction.

The license gets involved when you try to assist anyone ELSE with a transaction or try to collect any sort of compensation from a transaction. Most investors that get licensed do so in order to get access to the MLS and and so they can legitimately collect a commission out of transactions to offset the closing costs.

If you want to just hire buyers' agents, you wouldn't have to involve your license. How much of the commission they get is between the buyer's agent and their broker. If you were too collect any sort of referral fee for these transactions, those checks would have to be sent to your Utah broker, though.

@Gabrielle VanCopeland REI Central is the bigger series of meetups. We have a large general meeting the 1st Thursday or each month. We have 4 more specific sub-groups that meet throughout the rest of the month for our annual members including a women's group. The "Landlords" group, which is the one I run, includes STR stuff. We don't always focus specifically on STRs but we usually have 30-60 minutes of Q&A and networking where we can discuss whatever comes up.

There's also a very large investing group on Facebook called Charleston Area Real Estate Investors Club. Just make sure you answer the membership questions or we won't approve the request to join. We get a ton of spam in there since we have about 3,500 members.

Thanks @John Semanchuk

@Brianne L. We're an investment focused brokerage. I have no issue with agents having other work obligations or buying/selling investment properties for themselves. We can allow self-management to a degree, but it gets a little sticky managing your own properties. It technically has to be done with BIC or PMIC supervision, so I don't prefer it. We have a small management wing, but don't have big ambitions to grow that out.

We don't offer a monthly fee, but the split is low and there are no junk fees. I am going to start charging a small monthly fee next year for agents producing less than a certain amount because I provide E&O and software. Feel free to shoot me a message and we can arrange a call.

@Rick McGuinness It's not uncommon Downtown for parents to have to be co-signers on leases. That market is chock full of students and young professionals who are not going to meet the requirements. The next best option is to get a parent or family member to co-sign. If you're struggling to get it leased, this is probably the best you're going to get in the near future. The rental market Downtown slows significantly near the end of summer. I would probably ask for a higher deposit as an assurance in the event that they stop paying. 

@Victor Garcia We do double closings often. I have 2 pending at the moment. You just have to find the right attorney and it's generally better for everyone if the end purchaser knows it's a double closing. It's problematic to try to sell a property that you do not hold title to in SC. Many attorneys will just outright avoid it. If all parties are aware of your true position in the transaction and wish to proceed, then it's usually fine. You just have to structure it right. There are also quite a few banks that won't finance them to due to deed restrictions and seasoning period. I will also say that a lot of attorneys are avoiding certain partnership structures and creative finance transactions because many of them are being done incorrectly. If anything, you should run a situation by one of these attorneys and have them help you craft your documents in in a way that will comply with SC laws. Too many people are using Googled agreements and templates that aren't really state specific.

@Joseph Escamilla You're more than welcome to add events. The REI Central meetings are pretty large. Our main monthly meetings draw around 100 people every month. The sub-groups are anywhere from 20-40 people each. None of them are targeted specifically at new investors, but we try to keep the topics pretty broad so everyone can participate. We also have a really active Facebook group in addition to the REI Central one called "Charleston Area Real Estate Investors Club". At the moment, we have 3,300 members on that group.

@Evan Bermudez There are quite a few busy wholesalers in the area. I will warn that the real estate commission has recently decided wholesaling/assigning contracts to be the same as brokering real estate, so they now require wholesalers to have a real estate license and have a signed listing agreement with the seller. My understanding is that they have just recently started enforcing this, but you should be weary that the landscape is changing very soon.

@Scott E. Coastal Equity Group is a great lender. I use them frequently for my deals. I also use RehabWallet for quite a few deals. Either on will be good choice, but RehabWallet does not lend on buy and hold deals. They're focused on flips/bridges. It just depends on what you need.

@Mona Lisa Harrison is correct about the legality of wholesaling in SC. The SC REC has deemed assignment of contract to be no different than brokering real estate, so you technically have to have a real estate license and a signed listing agreement with the owner of record to wholesale in SC now. As far as I know, the REC has not yet started enforcing this much, but I have been told it's just a matter of time. My understanding is that there will be cease and desist orders issued to offenders and repeat offenders will be issues significant fines.

@Vishal P. Any property you do not occupy will be assessed at the 6% rate in SC. You can claim a multifamily up to 4 units as a primary if you do occupy 1 unit. Those are still considered residential in nature. In general, any multifamily property with 5+ units will not be approved for the 4% even if you live in the building.