This morning, I finished inspecting a number of properties and I must say that my real estate broker was very proactive when she brought along our contractor even without me telling her to do so. It saved all three of us the trouble of scheduling another visit to those properties, not to mention the time, effort, gasoline, etc. I believe this morning has been one of the most productive mornings I have ever had. I also realized that I really love doing home inspections.
I remember before when I was just starting out, I often had to make at least two trips to a prospect property because more often than not, the contractors I knew then and the agent/broker assigned to the property I wanted to inspect, and I would have different available schedules thus it was difficult for all three of us to agree on a schedule.
I’m so glad that these difficulties are a thing of the past because my broker and my contractor are already part of of my “dream team”. They are really team players and it really is quite easy for the three of us to set a schedule to visit a property or properties and even at short notice.
If you haven’t built your team yet, I highly recommend that you start networking with contractors and brokers and proceed with building your business relationship. I believe that this is necessary if you want to succeed in real estate investing.
My real estate team (so far)
My real estate broker
Your broker is a very important part of your team. It would help if your broker already knows what kind of properties you are looking for. In my case, since we have already done a previous deal, my broker already has a pretty good idea what I am looking for based on my set criteria and I believe she already did the shortlisting for me.
She knows that there really is no point in showing me properties that do not make any financial sense to a real estate investor like me and her. Yes, my broker is also a real estate investor, and I am so lucky to have known her.
You may be asking, why doesn’t she just buy the property herself and do the deal herself? As I have said lots of times before, there are just too many deals out there and one can only buy so much. I highly recommend that a newbie investor find a mentor who is a seasoned real estate broker who is also a real estate investor. You can really learn a lot from him/her.
My contractor
A good contractor is another very important part of your team. He can help you make a fairly accurate estimate of the repairs needed for a property. This is mandatory before one can even consider bidding on a property or submitting an offer.
Obviously, it would be impractical to have your contractor inspect all prospective properties so I strongly advise everyone to at least make a shortlist of your prospect properties before actually doing the inspections with your contractor. My previous post on how to shortlist foreclosed properties should give you an idea on how to trim down your list of foreclosed properties to inspect.
Of course, if you trust your contractor and know that he takes your best interests at heart (meaning he keeps his promises as to the quality of the work, meeting deadlines, overall costs, etc.), he will be crucial to your success as a real estate investor.
Have you started building your real estate investing team?
Happy real estate investing!
To our financial freedom!
Jay Castillo
Real Estate Investor
REBL#: 3194
Blog: https://www.foreclosurephilippines.com
Image courtesy of renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos
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hi jay.
i would like to thank you for setting up this website that has become a great inspiration to us newbies in the real estate world.
you spoke of having a good contractor here. can you recommend some contractors who can do commercial units?
thanks in advance.
Hi Jay,
For newbies where can we find licensed brokers here in Manila?
hi jay,
im not sure if i just overlooked this while searching but do you have tips on where to look for termite infestations? and other tips on inspecting the house inside and out.
your website has been very helpful for people like me who are just starting.
thank you! keep this up!
Hi, am a newbie here and have been reading all your blogs to help me and my husband start our passive income, can I begin my first deal even without a broker and do the selling ourselves.. my dad is a contractor though. There are lot of things I still need to learn and am eager to make that first deal. 🙂 Thanks a lot for this wonderful site and for those investors who have been really kind to share their knowledge and experience here. Kudos!
Hi Liz, yes of course, you can sell a property on your own even if you are not a broker as long as it is your own property. I’m glad you and your husband are very eager to start with your first deal and it’s great your dad is your contractor. You’re welcome and thank you for the kind words. Good luck and please do keep us updated with your first deal!
Thank You. You have done a Wonderful Job with this site. Just came from Zamboanga and doesnt know anything about foreclosures. I have read books but havent done any actual investing. I wanted to be your student in exchange of whatever service i can do to you. please email me listing of auctions so that i can attend too.
Hi Alf, thank you for the kind words! Are you now based in Zamboanga? The only upcoming auction is the one for PNB prime properties. Please subscribe so that you will be notified when I post new auction announcements. Thanks!
Great advice.
Hi Jay!
First, I’d like to say that I really appreciate the abudant information you have provided on your experience on real estate investing. It really encourages me to see that this is definitely possible and there are already some who are doing it successfully. I’ve been spending my time reading on books that helped me get into the mindset on pursuing financial freedom. I feel I need to make the important step of learning about real estate investing first hand. But I don’t know how to start.
Is there anyone you would recommend as a mentor?
Hi Kevin! Hmmm, its good you already have started with getting the proper mindset with regards to financial freedom, the next step I guess would be getting the proper mindset in real estate investing. I am oversimplifying it in this comment but basically you need to believe that it can be done(successful real estate investing), establish why you want to do it, come up with a list on what to do, then plan on how you will do these.
A mentor is someone who can say he/she “has been there and has done that…”. Personally I have had some success but I still feel these are too few for me to say I can already mentor you. Maybe when I have reached my goal of 4 deals before the end of this year, i can comfortably say I can already be a mentor. 🙂
I guess the closest I can offer would be for me to be here in case you have any questions, you can reach me through phone, text, comments, or e-mail, in that order. I must admit that I have been very slow in answering e-mails lately due to the big number of e-mails I am receiving( no I’m not complaining as I enjoy reading e-mails from readers but sometimes I loose track and/or lack time to search for un-answered e-mails). For comments, I am also quite slow because of how they are arranged as some comments from older posts are very likely to get overlooked, I guess I need to install a tool that will help me with answering comments. For text inquiries, I am able to respond faster. Of course, if I get phone inquiries, I can answer immediately as long as I am not in a meeting/driving. Welcome to the ForeclosurePhilippines.com community! 😉
Hey Jay!
Beautiful advise of building up a dream team!:) That’s what I’m trying to do now. My brother, Teejay Uy ([email protected],, cel#: +639151940405), is an architect with Jaka and he is also a contractor. He’ll be part of my dream team. My dad will also be part of my dream team! Can you give me advise on what to look for in selecting your dream team, e.g. what trait, character, skill?
Finally, I learned a simple formula about how to become successful in any task. I got this from Trace Trajano (I’m sure you know him, right?:). He says,
SUCCESS = KNOWLEDGE + BELIEF + ACTION
Having only one or even two of these factors cannot make you successful! Like even if you know how to succeed and believe you can succeed, if you don’t act, then nothing’s gonna happen! I’d like to share to your readers how I think about that formula in my website: http://investingpinoy.blogspot.com/2009/07/success-knowledge-belief-action.html.
Many thanks and may all your good works succeed!
Hi Bryan, you’re welcome and thank you also. Beautiful quote from our mentor, Trace Trajano! By the way, I really hope to put up the real estate service providers page soon so I can include Teejay on the list!
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