Quote:
Originally Posted by PayPerChase
Spex,
I am a novice learning investor with no real experience. I was talking to a friend of mine about doing 7 day sales. The friend is a Realtor. He kind of turned his nose up at the idea and said. "You know stuff like that was really popular a couple years ago but no one does it anymore. All the guys who were making lots of money doing that are making money teaching other people how to do that now." Is this an accurate statement. I live in Grand Rapids, MI a fairly big city. I'm really interested in starting to 7 day sale some houses. As it sounds like a good way to build some capital fairly quickly. What do you think about this?
I'm not even familiar with the term '7 day sale' to be completely honest. I had to google it. So I don't know. It sounds like Tien knows about it, so ask him. He is perfectly competent.
Anyways, I'll make some general comments. I agree completely with Tien about the realtor. In 15 years as an RE investor I've met less than 10 non-CCIM realtors that know anything about RE investing. I'm talking about regular single family home realtors. They just don't know what they're talking about. To be a realtor you need to know about marketing and sales. Thats it. You don't have to know anything about RE investing to be a good RE.
Realtors, as a group are completely incompetent regarding REI. So I wouldn't be inclined to listen to a realtor about much of anything having to do with REI. Ask your realtor friend how many RE investments he has made. I bet its less than 5. Ask him to describe those deals. Dollars to donuts says that IF he even owns any investment property he bought a $0 cash flow property off the MLS at a retail price hoping for appreciation. Realtors are as incompetent as any other average joe when it comes to REI.
Now, if your man is more than the average realtor, then thats a different story. But still, if I were in your shoes I'd be hestiant to listen to anyone that can't tell me why a specific REI strategy won't work. If he is a 7 day sale guy that knows what he's talking about, then there is your answer. But my guess is that he is trying to impress you with his knowleged, but he really doesn't know WTF he's talking about. If he says that he knows people that do 7 day sale stuff and they're not making the money anymore, ask for their names and call them up. In the absense of a great reason why it won't work, I'd say that you should disregard his opinion.
Look, realtors have a very specific way of looking at buying and selling RE. They are arrogant because they have a virtual monopoly for RE transactions. Like I've had realtors literally laugh out loud when I tell them my investing criteria. They think that the deals I do are not possible. 90% of realtors have never done anything besides run-of-the-mill bank-financed residential property sales. These people are not a good source of information about REI.
I'd recommend that if you want to learn about a specific strategy for REI that you find someone local that is using that strategy and try to get them to point you in the right direction.