All Forum Posts by: Bryan Balk

It really amazes me that a lot of real estate investors are not Realtors themselves. If you do more than 3 buys a year there really is know reason why you are not a Realtor. There are so many reasons why you should be Realtor that I honestly couldn't even list them here. ALL newbie Investors go get your license it will cost you at most $500-$1,000 and guess what you will make it back on your first purchase off the MLS. Especially right now there are plenty of low fee brokers out there you could sign up with if you do more than 10 start your own brokerage. Its not like the old days when Remax was charging $1,00o a month to be a Realtor. Sign up with Billy Bob Realtor that will charge you a couple hundred bucks a transaction.

I'm an agent and very surprised that agents are still getting 6% to split. In Chicago the market has pushed Realtors down to 5%. We offer huge bonuses to Realtors to get them into our homes. 5K bonuses on houses worth anywhere from 150-100k. This really gets the Realtors to show the property when there looking at a 7%+ commission just on there side. Obviously were flippers and Realtors so we don't pay a selling commission which helps us offer these huge rips. But buying agents are a huge resource that you can't get cheap on.

All I have to say is do what ever you can to get rid of that Pit Bull. We sell investment properties to a lot of investors and we have had two issues with Pit Bulls. Both investors are now being sued by the person the pit bull bit when it got out. This is seriously not a joke. And when we rent these properties for the tenant we make them an addendum that states they can not, absolutely not have certain types of breeds on the property. I hope you own this in an LLC and that will help protect you but I personally don't know of any law one way or the other of the LLC protecting your personal wealth. And honestly you just never know now and days some people will say your 100% safe with an LLC some will say you just don't know but it helps. Since its a pup I'm guessing your going to be OK and I know a lot of Pit Bulls if raised right are great dogs but is it really worth the risk? At the very least if I were you I would make sure you have your paper work straight and copies of your notices just in case.

Steve,

Where do you live????? We go to 7 counties in Illinois and at best its 5% of the homes are sold at auction in one day. One county NO ONE has bought a single property in the last 2 months. Now there are only about 30 properties a week there but still that's 240 homes at least with no buys.

Skip the Mortgage Brokers, residential lenders. Go to your community bank as a confident borrower and talk to the commercial bank. Go in with a plan, Commercial paper at your local community bank is NOT sold. This gives them way more options on what they do. This will not be easy by any means. Your going to have to golf, lunch with the decision makers and convince them your a solid bet. Now along with that, your not going to get 5.25% your going to be paying around 6.75% with at least a point, your term will be max 3 years. These guys will do 100% of cost, if you are smooth enough as long as its below 80% After-Completed Value. Most likely starting out your going to have to pay for the rehab and they will put the funds needed for the rehab in escrow. Once the rehab is done they will release your escrow. There will be other issues such as DTI cash reserve but as long as those are OK you should be good. We often walk into closings with a pen and walk out with a small check.

Sounds like you may have a good assignment deal. maybe you forget the hard money and just assign it. Make a nice little profit without the headaches and no money out of pocket. I'm guessing your seller is going to lose faith in your deal and kill it before you might be able to find financing.

Eric,

Ever try to Evict someone for non-payment that just filled for bankruptcy? Shouldn't you be working on my loan anyway.

Bought it at the sherrif sale so its on us. It was listed in the LP but not sure if it got dismissed yet. Wont get my paperwork for another week.

I looked up Coastal-Funding and if anyone googles them there not going to see it as a serious proof of funds. Try to get a proof of funds from a more established Bank rather than an automated proof of funds from a website. $500 EM is very low in my area maybe not in yours. Banks take you more serious when you are willing to put up $5,000. It also always helps a lot to work directly with the agent that is listing the home that you want. I'm not sure about your broker agreements that you may be in but if this is an option I would definitely look into it. Trust me that agent would rather have both sides of the commission than just one and will help you out to get you in that home. We send out about 50 offers a week and maybe lock up 2 homes if were lucky. Of course we are trying to steal the ones we get so our numbers are probably a lot worst than most investors. I wouldn't worry about the 15 offers I would just say make some changes see what works in your areas and keep trying. Good Luck.

After reading your post I'm glade were not alone. We do a lot of deals in our area and the last few months we have been forced to grow our territory and learn new markets fast. The deals with the nice margin just don't seem to be there anymore. Last year we could stay in our backyard and do 100 deals no problem now were traveling to reach our goals. I have hope that November December will be huge months for us as the usually bring us our best deals.