Posted by Mrs SD on September 21, 2000 at 08:52:46:
“If anything and everything is selling why do you need to pay an agent 6% for falling off a log?”
-That’s what your friends, family and neighbors did so like a lemming you unquestioningly follow the crowd.
-You have no idea how to sell a house or pre-qualify buyers, afterall you don’t do this for a living. So you leave it up to an “expert”.
-You’re way too busy to deal with buyers; you just want to show up at the closing and pick up your check.
-You just don’t like talking to people.
-Real estate agents have been targeting your area with an ad campaign for years now, emphasizing how painless it will be if in the event that you need to sell your home, you’d let them sell it for you.
-etc
~~
“Seems to me the FSBO market would be going nuts under those circumstances.”
-Guess everyone’s wrong sometimes, huh?
~~
“This all leads me to believe while your heart is in the right place maybe your head isn’t quite there yet.”
-I disagree. My head is tethered quite securely to my shoulders by my neck–but thanks for your concern.
Posted by Benny maysonet on September 19, 2000 at 10:37:20:
i bought the course in 94 and to be honest the only thing it was good for was motivating me into getting involved in real estate but i did not make a dime from the course, you see i didnt throw this course on a shelf,i studied it religously and i did everything it instructed me to. i live in nyc and i learned that its a totaly different ballgame here i got laughed out of many real estate offices when i tried to apply careltons concepts, maybe he ought to make a course on how to sell bogus courses and sell them to naive people like myself. im now a full time real estate agent and im doing alot better than when i completed the course, sorry if i seem rough around the edges but im just telling it how it is in my opinion, right now the market is too good to even consider creative financing.
Posted by Eugene Lewis on September 22, 2000 at 02:19:50:
Much of what Carlton teaches, will work. Although, I have found that if I take something to the table, my acceptances increased many fold. After all, who wants to play with someone who has no money? Especially in a “hot” market,where you see more buyers than houses. So, don,t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Besides, the money that you bring to the deal, doesn’t have to be yours!!!
Posted by Rob FL on September 20, 2000 at 08:28:25:
I am a Realtor in Orlando, and I totally agree. 95% of the Realtor’s out there don’t understand creative real estate and couldn’t give a rip about it. They aren’t taught that way.
I use my broker license to my advantage (to me a salesman’s license is a license to sell other people’s property only, broker is truly where an investor needs to be). One thing I do is market to a few investors. There are a zillion Realtors trying to chase listings or to find pre-qualified buyers. Not many interested in investors though. Of course there is a big difference between an investor and a “wannabe” investors. You have to be real careful here. Nevertheless, the few investors I work with give me great repeat business (not many buyers or sellers do that unless you wait for many years).
Also consider your license a major asset for investing. All of the major residential investors in my area have broker’s licenses. Guess who gets first dibs on all the MLS listings that are good deals? Guess who doesn’t have to include a real estate commission on HUD and VA bids?
There are so many great investing techniques that a broker can do that an unlicensed individual cannot. Use your license to your advantage.
talk to people in your local real estate group that you`ve already joined—RIGHT!!,move out side the area you are looking in,I KNOW people making great real estate deals in NY.THERE ARE DEALS THEY MAY COST MORE BUT THEY ARE THERE!!!
Posted by Mrs SD on September 19, 2000 at 12:58:42:
Benny,
I agree with you that rei is like a TOTALLY DIFFERENT WORLD in NYC, the opportunities are just not as obvious as they are in other states. And people in other states just don’t get it no matter how many times you show them the blood and sweat you’ve put into trying to make this thing work.
I haven’t done my first deal yet but I think that opportunity here is abundant! It’s just that a small segment of the population thoroughly understands the nuances of NYC rei and they’re not telling! No, success will clearly not follow the text book (course book) outlines layed out by various rei instructors. But if you’re a MOTIVATED WOULD BE INVESTOR it’s my humble opinion that eventually SOMETHINGS GOT TO GIVE.
Afterall, if it’s a numbers game, like they say, then this is the place to make it happen as we have a pool of hundreds of thousands of homeowners.
Benny, now that you have an advantage (your license) why don’t you try again and maybe invest in more courses? After all when you go to college you don’t just take one course or even just one at a time. Immerse yourself in knowledge and in combination with your license and applying yourself your success is almost assured.
Remember, losing motivates winners instead of defeating them. Give it another shot whydoncha?
Posted by JohnBoy on September 19, 2000 at 12:46:32:
Sounds like your biggest problem was trying to deal through other realtors. That’s NOT the way to go out and buy a lot of property using creative techniques. 95%+ of all realtors will tell you it can’t be done and laugh you out of their office. You can find a realtor that will work with you, but you may have to go through 100’s of them before ever find that one that will.
For BEST results, you deal directly with MOTIVATED SELLERS! That’s how you find and make the deals using creative real estate investing, even in NYC!
Hey, don’t take my word for it, just go ask Donald Trump!
Posted by Jim IL on September 19, 2000 at 12:05:53:
Benny,
You mean to tell me that as an “Agent” you are making more money than you would as an investor?
And that Creative Real Estate does not work?
Wow!
I wish someone would have told me this before I bought all this property!
No what do I do?
The only thing to fail in this case is YOU, not the course.
I can tell you, “Creative Real Estate” is good, and it does work.
I have done several deals, and even live in a home I bought “No money down” with creative terms.
So, keep plugging away as an agent, that just makes more room for us who are doing this “Creative” thing.
Posted by Mrs SD on September 19, 2000 at 15:01:31:
True Story
We can’t even get an ad in the most effective (largest circulation) paper. We attempted to run our ad but were rejected because we are not an established business with a storefront. We’ve written a letter to several editors in protest and left (polite) voicemail inquiries, have yet to receive a reponse. Before we were even allowed to attempt to run the ad we had to fill out an application. Yes, here you must apply to run an ad an then you may be rejected because you don’t have an office space.
We attempted to circumvent the main NYC newspaper by running an ad in another paper. We paid almost $200 for a 3 day We buy Houses ad. Responses-1. A guy who was looking to buy a house.
We bought more flyers. 2 responses that didn’t pan out from our last batch of 600. But hey, we’ll try again. This time we put them up on street lights and at bus stops all over our neighborhood. The city workers had them removed by the next day. OK so much for that technique.
Last night at a 203K seminar a broker told me that it doesn’t make sense to try to chase fixer-upper (mind you he initiated this conversation with my husband and I, we never even brought up what we were trying to do)properties that were foreclosed by HUD. According to him thousands of people bid on EACH property. These properties are all 100K+.
Rehabbers here are coporations with staff that research lis pendens, foreclosures and every other type of opportunity for discounted property FULL TIME. These established professionals are our competition.
There are no FSBO ads, everyone lists their properties because in this market any and everything will sell. The only FSBO ads are by investors selling their rehabbed properties for retail. How do I know? I’ve called around and around and around newspapers large and small.
I could go on and on but I think you get the jist. Investing in NYC is different and requires a high level of motivation to get your foot in the door if you don’t have a lot of money to throw around. I don’t want to sound like a whiner and I’m not saying it can’t be done, but Mark, you asked.
I actually feel that eventually I will be successful. It’ll just take a bit longer with more perseverance than if I were in some less sophisticated town in Anywhere, America.
Posted by Shenesa on September 19, 2000 at 13:43:33:
You know Benny, I have to agree with Johnboy. I live in upstate NY and even though I have not done my first deal yet, I realize that its not the markets fault it is MY FAULT. Creative investing does work. One have to learn how to put all the pieces together to complete the project. I may have all the book knowledge but fail to possess the people knowledge.
I took it upon myself to go to the library and read up on Donald Trump. Why? Since this man is known as a Realestate(creative) Tycoon(sp), than I want to learn as much as possible about him. One thing I did pick up about Donald is that he was not afraid to ask for nontraditional things when it came to realestate. He does not allow failure to dictate who he is which is a very succeessful real estate investor. I love his gutts. It is the persistant that becomes successful.
When my emotions are screaming to give up but that desire in my heart continues to pound away for realestate investing, I listen to my heart because your emotions (feelings) can fool you a lot of times.
Just a tid bit for the day. The riches place in the world is the grave yard. Why so rich? Many hopes, dreams, inventions and goals are buried there that never came to fluition.(sp) This will not be me!!!
Posted by Rob FL on September 21, 2000 at 10:17:21:
I was looking up some new HUD properties this morning and did a little checking over at New York just for kicks. All I can say is that your Realtor friend either is a huge LIAR or likes to exaggerate to extremes.
Now I don’t know NYC from Timbuktu. Never been there at all. I don’t know exactly where these cities are located. But I did some checking and I don’t see any properties with “thousands” of bids. I did see several in Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Jamaica that probably had 50 bids or so. I also saw several properties in those cities during August and September that only had 2 or 3 bids.
If this Realtor exaggerated about HUDs, I am sure he exaggerated about alot of other things too.
Check this info for yourself. Go to www.firstpreston.com. Follow the links to New York. Then click on “bid statistics.” The proof is in the pudding. No more excuses.
Posted by Rob FL on September 20, 2000 at 08:10:26:
I think JGoodsen hit the nail on the head. You need to find out what works. This may be a trial and error process, but eventually you will find something.
I am sure that the NY Times and NY Post cost big bucks to advertise in, but in a city like New York aren’t there a bunch of smaller papers you can advertise in that don’t cost that much? In my area at least, there are all kinds of Pennysaver, Thrifty Nickel, and other throw away magazines. Not to mention several direct mail newsletter type companies.
We have a similar problem in Orlando (where I am) but not quite on the scale you mention. There are about 6 major dealers in town who have staffs of 10 or more people who spend all day digging through HUDs, VAs, MLS, pre-foreclosures, etc. Most HUDs and VAs that are priced for a deal have 30 bidders. Most courthouse auctions that are good deals have investors circling the auctioneer like a pack of vultures. Cheap MLS listings sell within hours of being posted. Pre-foreclosures get 30 letters in the mail as soon as the lis pendens gets recorded.
Know what I say to all this. SO WHAT!!! It is all a numbers game. On the properties I mentioned above, I still have success. Just on a smaller percentage than I like.
Other advice. Find your niche. Don’t follow the pack. Find a type of real estate that isn’t as hot an item but still has a good market. One thing I think of in my area is 3/2 condos. I had a 3/2 condo once that I tried to flip. A very good deal. I called the investors in town. Nobody liked condos. Legrand and Sheets said condos were trouble (or something like that). That’s OK. I found a niche and made a profit anyway.
Another thought. What about the next county or 2 over from New York City? Are those a little slower paced. I know they are around my neck of the woods. Maybe you need to travel a short distance to find the deals?
Posted by JGoodsen on September 19, 2000 at 18:17:31:
I just checked the online classified advertisements for NYC and there were over 1000 single family residences listed FSBO and another 271 condominiums and townhouses. Admittedly, this includes the metro NYC area because I saw some NJ addresses and many of them may have been unmotivated or investors, but please understand where I am coming from. Your logic on the situation is completely reversed in any event. If anything and everything is selling why do you need to pay an agent 6% for falling off a log? Seems to me the FSBO market would be going nuts under those circumstances. This all leads me to believe while your heart is in the right place maybe your head isn’t quite there yet. So far you have found plenty of things that don’t work. Sometimes that is as important as finding out what does. A lot of the advice on here is definitely regional and doesn’t fly in my hot urban market either. All I can say is keep after it. Don’t ever give up. Don’t ever give up.
Posted by Mrs SD on September 21, 2000 at 10:46:57:
Rob,
Thanks for the info. Actually I’ve seen this list before (you can access it directly from HUD’s website, www.hud.gov) but I (the still somewhat naive newbie) thought maybe he was privy to some info that I wasn’t since he’s a broker. As a native NYCer I of all people should realize that some people just love to run off at the mouth spewing a bunch of Cliff Clavenoids.