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You are not figuring in the cost of keeping up that real estate license. It's EXPENSIVE. The local area board of Realtors fees will kill you, alone. Never mind the initial costs for testing, schooling and licensing.
You can track homes on your own without having to get a real estate license.
If you sit down and seriously add it all up, you'll be happy paying the 3 percent commission.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rrah
I didn't see anyone mention this as the OP seems to push aside the good advice he's receiving. OP--the cost of a license is not just the classes or any broker fees. There are monthly MLS fees, insurance fees, etc. All of those fees will eat into any of the "profits" you might make on a flip. You need to do some more research.
I did. First page, post number 8.
He dismissed it, told ME what it is going to cost even though I was an agent and he has never been.
My local board of Realtor fees - that gets you the MLS access - were about $2,000 a year. That's on top of desk fees from the agent, etc.
Also, around the same time, last year, he was given a breakdown of the astronomical costs of having a license.
Here's another one of his threads. I'm starting to think that he has a "thing" when it comes to agents and that he's not going to flip houses at all. That's a good thing because he's going to lose his shirt. He's just obsessed with the money he had to pay an agent.
Well, well, well. It appears that he doesn't have enough expertise to know how much rent to charge so he's looking for an agent. He just fired his agent a month ago.
Location: Formerly Pleasanton Ca, now in Marietta Ga
10,380 posts, read 8,622,158 times
Reputation: 16747
Quote:
Originally Posted by hiknapster
Well, well, well. It appears that he doesn't have enough expertise to know how much rent to charge so he's looking for an agent. He just fired his agent a month ago.
Well your links just reinforce what I said about the op thinks they know better than everyone else combined and we are all just beating a dead horse.
In the future I'm sure it will be a case of "a fool and his money are soon parted" for him.
...i don't like to wait, i want money and i want it now.
Unless you're destitute, this is an ugly sentiment to put out there.
Others have answered with the financial particulars. Ill take the macro/cosmic view.
Our society does not need another absentee landlord, let alone a would-be house flipper. You already own a house (the one you and your wife live in) and are hogging a second one. "But, but, but, income property!" You said you're both gainfully employed full-time, so that negates the "need" for income property.
Spend less time thinking about money acquisition, and more time being a contributing human being.
it is saturday, have other things to do, will make my reply to what others have said as concise as possible.
1. Compare to many people in America or around the world, financially, we are not doing that bad. BUT i cannot help the fact that i want more. We don't need a 2nd, 3rd, 4th house, but i want it. you can call it greed, i rather think it as ambition.
2. One thing i learned about renting sfh is that you need to hire the right agent. The first agent that we hired, we hired him because he agreed if the house was not rented within a month at the price that we agreed, he won't take his commission.
In reality, he didn't know the area that we lived that well, so the house stayed on the market. In the end, we hired another agent that specializes in our area and the house was rented the next day at the listing price.
In retrospect, we should just have paid the agent that knows our area the first place, and let him do his job, thats all. We made a mistake and learned from it, time to move on.
3. Flipping the right house is not easy, otherwise every1 would be doing it. But if every1 starts doing it, there will be no money to be made.
First house that we flip will be the hardest, after doing all the work and sell the house, we might end up losing $10k, $20k or even more, but if we can learn something from our mistakes and use the knowledge to help us when we flip a 2nd, 3rd house, i have no problem making the $20k mistake.
First house that we flip will be the hardest, after doing all the work and sell the house, we might end up losing $10k, $20k or even more, but if we can learn something from our mistakes and use the knowledge to help us when we flip a 2nd, 3rd house, i have no problem making the $20k mistake.
reinforcing that you really don't have a handle on what to do ...
Quote:
We have about $30k saved in our bank account now, mainly b/c we cleared the majority of our savings when we bought our current house last year. The $30k will also go down later this month, the property tax on both houses are due.
so you're willing to blow ALL your cash on the first flip.
How long would it take you to accumulate another $50K for the next flip, he one you would have learned your lessons for?
it is saturday, have other things to do, will make my reply to what others have said as concise as possible.
1. Compare to many people in America or around the world, financially, we are not doing that bad. BUT i cannot help the fact that i want more. We don't need a 2nd, 3rd, 4th house, but i want it. you can call it greed, i rather think it as ambition.
You can call it whatever you want. It doesn’t change anything. Everybody wants more. I want more rent, more savings and people do free work for me but it’s not happening. Anytime I hear of these get rich quick schemes I laugh and walk away. While I may not have a lot of rentals, I have very little risk and I make a lot of money doing it. But it took a while to get there. I never hurried along.
2. One thing i learned about renting sfh is that you need to hire the right agent. The first agent that we hired, we hired him because he agreed if the house was not rented within a month at the price that we agreed, he won't take his commission.
What you need to learn is to do it yourself instead of paying everyone to do for you. In some cases it’s worth having it done as time/money doesn’t pay to diy. But to screen and choose tenants? I’ll do that myself. It’s not that hard and now can spot bs from a mile away.
In reality, he didn't know the area that we lived that well, so the house stayed on the market. In the end, we hired another agent that specializes in our area and the house was rented the next day at the listing price.
In retrospect, we should just have paid the agent that knows our area the first place, and let him do his job, thats all. We made a mistake and learned from it, time to move on.
3. Flipping the right house is not easy, otherwise every1 would be doing it. But if every1 starts doing it, there will be no money to be made.
First house that we flip will be the hardest, after doing all the work and sell the house, we might end up losing $10k, $20k or even more, but if we can learn something from our mistakes and use the knowledge to help us when we flip a 2nd, 3rd house, i have no problem making the $20k mistake
If you have no problem losing 20k hopefully it’s YOUR 20k because as a investor if it was my 20k I would be pretty pissed off from your mistake. If we were interviewing for a investment opportunity and you said that to me I would get up and walk out. When you’re usung other people’s money you can’t afford to make mistakes.
Your money? Hey lose as much as you want, but in my book 20k is nothing to shrug off as a loss
The simple fact that you even said what you said tells me you’re fairly clueless and have absolutely no understanding as to what you’re getting yourself into.
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Good luck to you. I have a feeling you and your family of investors is gonna need it.
Good luck to you. I have a feeling you and your family of investors is gonna need it.
Very well said.
The thing about this thread is: the OP has this issue on a 'self-esteem' basis, and not a logical one. He's motivated by beliefs and feelings about success and the path to it. There's nothing wrong about that, but it does 2 things here: all responses are taken as insults to his motivation and drive (not true), and it makes the OP hold on too strongly to illogical ideas because they feel good.
When City-Data is at its best, a post here will yield responses that will help someone avoid 2 or 3 rookie mistakes, which IMHO is invaluable.
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