Win
Signed a LOI on a small multifamily in Mesa last spring, four units, seller asking 610 and I had talked myself into 595 being a win. My agent pulled the actual rent rolls instead…
Story
A case worth studying: a fourplex purchased at 340k, refinanced eighteen months later when the owner needed capital for a second acquisition. The appraiser came back at 390k, whic…
Story
The listing agent ordered a standard package, flyover plus approach footage, around $380, standard for the market. The building shot well. What the footage also captured, without…
Win
She pulled comps from two zip codes over and the ARV came in 18k under what the seller's agent was using. I had already run my own numbers off the same listings the seller used an…
Discussion
Most investors assume their buyer's agent needs to know how to find deals, which is true, and how to run a basic cap rate, which is also true, but the skill that separates useful…
Loss
Here is a loss pattern worth studying because nothing dishonest happens in it. Say a buyer picks up a six unit in Bakersfield in late 2022. The agent has done perhaps thirty trans…
Happening Now
Consider a passive LP who owns a quarter of a multifamily building in Columbus and has never set foot in it, which means relying heavily on what people say. The operating partner…
Happening Now
Take a parcel like this: 22.4 acres under contract at $410k, 90 day due diligence, $15k going hard at day 30. Front 6 acres zoned for two-unit residential, back 16 agricultural wi…
Discussion
This question sits adjacent to note investing, but it comes up whenever evaluating a small rental to understand the asset side, and the commission picture has gotten confusing. Ol…
Poll
A pattern worth naming: investment summaries from agents tend to share the same three problems. Vacancy at 5%, a number typed rather than sourced. Maintenance and capex folded int…
Discussion
I've been doing passive positions for a while and I do a lot of due diligence on sponsors, so I'm comfortable with the paperwork side. What I've never done is buy a property direc…
Happening Now
Consider a rural county where target houses run $38k to $72k, rents hold in the $675 to $850 range, and tenancies average longer than in most metros. The math on the property itse…
Poll
There are two reasonable positions on this and the right answer depends heavily on how much underwriting experience the buyer already has. The case for a specialist is that they e…
Discussion
Four deals in, and every agent I interview says they work with investors. Then I ask what cap rate the last small multifamily in the submarket traded at and I get a blank. I've st…
Happening Now
Second call with an agent who says she works with investors. Ten minutes in she asked what my buy box is and I said something about "good deals in decent areas" and heard myself s…
Poll
Ran the arithmetic on three years of my own buy-side spend and the percentage structure looks harder to defend the bigger the deal gets. On a $180k rental, 2.5% is $4,500 and the…
Discussion
Say a 1,400 square foot 3/2 in a decent submarket comes back from an agent at an ARV of 315k, built from six comps, four within a half mile, all sold in the last five months, with…
Happening Now
Reading a T-12 is the easy part for most experienced buyers. Getting an actual agent relationship that produces off-market deals is the harder skill, and it shows up as a common c…
Loss
This case is worth writing up because it was avoidable. Say an investor meets an agent at a local meetup who describes himself as investor-friendly and claims a pocket pipeline. H…
Discussion
A question that lands on a lot of small landlords eventually. Picture six units across two small buildings, self managed, and a third agent in four years. None of the agents were…
Poll
Take a common scenario: an investor buys an off-market property through a buy-side agent who sourced it through her own network, no MLS, no competing offers, and who takes a reduc…
Discussion
Here is a situation worth working through. An investor spends six months with an agent who bills himself as investor focused and hands him a written screen: max purchase 180k, 8.5…
Loss
Bought a 1958 three bed, one and a half bath, 1,340 square feet, at $158k. Agent's ARV was $265k, backed by three comps she sent in a one page PDF. Sold at $232k after 152 days on…
Discussion
I've been working with an agent who genuinely knows investment numbers. She runs comps, she understands ARV, she's brought me two pocket listings from her wholesaler contacts. No…
Happening Now
A common negotiation point when signing with an investor-friendly agent: exclusive buyer representation for 12 months, county-wide, covering all residential 1-4 unit purchases, wi…
Discussion
I said yes on the call like I knew, then googled it after. I think it just means what kind of property I want? But every example I find online is a spreadsheet with a dozen rows a…
Win
A useful pattern for a contractor with a construction background: what they have to offer an agent isn't capital, it's the ability to stand in a basement and estimate repair costs…
Poll
I've been at research for six months with nothing closed, and I finally sat down with two agents in the same week. First one owns nine rentals himself, has had a license for eleve…
Poll
After a round of coffee meetings, it's common to hear every agent describe themselves as investor-friendly before being asked, and just as common to then receive owner-occupant li…
Loss
Signed a 9 month exclusive buyer rep last spring with an agent who marketed himself as investor-focused, which he genuinely was. He also runs a flip business, which I knew and did…