Summer is over in the city

I had coffee with a mortgage lender last week who was saying that this current high inflation environment feels worse than 2008 but I think otherwise. When I came back to New York City just in time for the summer rental season and did a couple of rentals, it gave me the false impression that there are always apartment hunters to keep agents afloat in Manhattan. The summer rental and season is over now. I know a few agents from my cohort who have dropped out already and I had a rocky start but I am still here. I have decided to focus on learning as much as I can about the business since things are slow, and step up my other hustles. The one side gig that is very informative for my real estate is my notary business. When interest rates started going up, the phone stopped ringing but interestingly enough, I am getting a lot of loan closings again. People can only sit on the bench for so long then life goes on. I am getting more calls than I can handle right now because I try to do only one signing a day because some of them end up taking long. I just did a closing with 4 signers who bought a house in Connecticut. Title couldn't get the documents straight so that was my whole afternoon gone while I waited. I am started to know the documents better than some closers.

I am going gang-busters with #commercialrealestate because I have to pay CoStar Group $500 a month so it better pay off. I am carrying out some searches for office space, shops and buildings for clients, although commercial deals take a long time. It's very interesting when I talk to small business owners up in #Harlem, most of them have never met a commercial real estate agent. I handed one bodega owner my flyer with my picture on it and he asked me if the girl in the picture was missing, lol! He was very enthusiast when he understood the assignment and asked me to put up my flyer on his door. I try to stay versatile in this challenging market. I just completed an #investmentrealestate agent course with Mike Walker at R New York where we did everything including renovation estimation and a property tour. For a while I considered how to creatively finance a four-unit building I fell in love with which has been sitting on the market for a while in East Harlem but I did my due diligence with general contractors and the numbers just didn't pencil out. There are a lot of listings with price drops on the #OLR, the REBNY (Real Estate Board of New York) listing service in #Manhattan. You would think that cash buyers would be rushing in to scoop up these bargains. Even if buyers use credit, they can refinance soon enough.

I have been running the Manhattan Real Estate Meetup https://www.meetup.com/manhattan-real-estate-investors-meetup-group/ for the fourth month now and each time I meet different people. Last week there was a guy who flips land. The one common thread through all the #Meetups is that there is always a #wholesaler who can;t stop talking about it. At first I had no idea what wholesaling is and as someone who has obtained a real estate license in 4 states, I thought it was some amateur pursuit then I started to research it and it looks like wholesalers made a lot of money during the pandemic. Alas, wholesaling is slow now like the rest of the real estate industry and a major shake-out is taking place. I watch a lot of YouTube videos about #wholesaling #sellerfinance and #creativefinance. It looks like most of these guys are more focused on selling their coaching programs than working on their successful real estate strategies. The ads are starting to come up on my Instagram so today I set up a call with one of the guys and as soon as I said I am a real estate agent, I was told that I am not a good fit for the program which coast up to $15,000. For $15,000, I can flip a house in Detroit! I enjoy the wholesalers on TikTok though, maybe because the format is short and sweet. I also found an online NMLS mortgage course for $250 and figured I might as well do it and understand how the lending process works. I think I like taking exams at this point and the US is the land of standardized testing. Anyhow, I am here to learn it all so that one day you will see me flossing on #TikTok waving my bundles of cash.