149 a month plus 1 percent at closing for deal flow. How do I judge that?
I want income that doesn't turn into a second job, so I've been reading about buying rentals that are already tenanted rather than fixing anything up. Someone in a local group pointed me to a service that emails deals to a buyer network. The pitch is 149 a month for the daily deal email and priority on new listings, plus 1 percent of purchase price at closing if I buy something they sent me.
I got a two week free trial and saved every email. Nineteen properties in fourteen days. Eleven were in one metro five hours from me. Six had photos I found on a public listing site under a different price, higher in four cases and lower in two. Three said tenant in place and one of those said tenant in place, occupancy status unverified, which I don't understand at all.
On a 140k house, the 1 percent is 1,400 on top of the price they're asking, and the subscription is 1,788 a year if I keep it. So my first purchase through them costs me somewhere over 3,000 in fees before closing costs, and I have no idea whether the deals themselves are priced better than what my agent can show me on the open market.
The sales call is Thursday and the person keeps saying the network is closing to new members soon. I don't like that part.
What should I be asking on Thursday, and is a 1 percent buy-side fee on top of a monthly subscription a normal way this works?