Getting started- need advice. Agents?
Hi all,

I’m looking to buy my first property- and I’ll be honest I feel a bit lost. I plan on owner/operating. I have a decent down payment saved. I’ve been researching zoning restrictions in my locales and doing as much as I can online. I live in an extremely competitive and expensive real estate market with tricky zoning and strict tenants rights so I’m really trying not to get screwed.  (SF Bay Area)

I’ve done a fair bit of house flipping, so I’m not a complete noob- but I’ve always occupied the houses I was renovating as a primary residence while I was updating them- so it was a different loan structure etc (I think?). 

I would really love to get a broker and/or lawyer to help me- but honestly I’ve contacted a half dozen agents and not a single person has even returned my phone calls. Am I asking for the wrong thing? I was hoping to get a buyers agent like I have with houses that could help me navigate this. Is this just a corona thing (no one working?).


Is there a resource someone could point me to? 

Thanks!
[{"id": "g0kqtnh", "text": "You haven\u2019t been getting people to return your calls because you are an inexperienced sponsor. \n\nHere\u2019s a good rule of thumb: If you want to buy a 5M office building, you need to have 5M in assets-1.75M (35%) as your day 1 equity and you have to be able to cover the bad boy carve outs on non recourse debt, so you\u2019ve gotta have another 3.25M in assets, and usually 10% of that has to be highly liquid. Hope this helps.", "replies": [{"id": "g0ks4wj", "text": "That does help thank you. I\u2019ve got 10% cash. My personal assets would certainly cover it, but I was hoping not to attach that much to the project.\n\nAny tips on what to say to have someone take me seriously? Should I wave a fist full of cash and my portfolio at them?", "replies": [{"id": "g0ksn4d", "text": "Common misconception, you \u201cattach it\u201d but with non recourse debt you only \u201close it\u201d if you commit fraud or have flagrant environmental violations. If it\u2019s just a bad deal and it goes belly up, you can just walk away and not lose the assets that you\u2019ve used as collateral for the bad boy carve outs.", "replies": [{"id": "g0ku8kv", "text": "Seriously my friend. Thank you. If you ever need veterinary advice- PM me.", "replies": [{"id": "g0kv9r3", "text": "Your welcome. One more piece of advice, I\u2019d reach out to local CRE mortgage brokers and state your net worth-this is key. Nothing is worse than working with someone without any money. They\u2019ll at the very least make some warm intros or help you find/underwrite assets that meet your criteria. At least smaller shops will. JLL/CBRE prob won\u2019t give you the time of day, and no offense, it\u2019s not wrong of them to do so.\n\nEdit: if your plan is to owner-user, then call and tell brokers your NW and about the strength of your biz etc. and your plans. They\u2019ll help you, slightly different approach, but still.", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "g0l4zc5", "text": "can you clarify?  are you trying to buy a vet clinic to put your business in?", "replies": [{"id": "g0lll6w", "text": "I'm trying to buy a building to put a new vet clinic in.", "replies": [{"id": "g0mgakq", "text": "You're buying this commercial property to operate your business that is already established?  I may be able to help you with the financing portion.  You mentioned you have 10% down.  SBA might be the best route for you.  Feel free to contact me at 615-952-0600 or david@premiercomcap.com and we can talk the different options you may have for financing and maybe  see what we can do to to find a realtor that can help.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}, {"id": "g0ojnel", "text": "The first thing I'd do is talk to a banker (or a few) and tell them what you are doing.  10% is low, you should expect additional costs.  SBA will get you close to that though.  I won't say much else on that, because frankly I'm not a banker.  Figure out what you can afford and on what terms.  \n\nAfter that, then yeah call some brokers and indicate you are looking for a property to open a vet clinic in, you have spoken to a banker and have a business plan allowing to spend $x on re+reno etc.  If you still aren't getting call backs you are just crazy low or something else is going on.  I'd call back some of the brokers you talk to and ask why you are getting blown off and what they reccomend.  Ask nice, don't be mean, and they will probably tell you.  \n\nI do not know if these are your issues, but generally speaking a lot of small deals require a ton of work and don't close because well they are small deals and the buyer isn't qualified.  So if a vet building costs 1 million in your market and you want one for $500k, busy brokers don't want to play that game, they want to work with vets who have $1 million (or 2 million!).  \n\nWhat kind of brokers are you calling?  are you calling on listings?  I'd start there.  Look at a site like Loopnet.com.  look at vet buildings and medical office buildings.  Find brokers who have multiple and seem to deal with that type of asset.  A multifamily broker or an industrial broker for example is going to know little about your need and is kinda going to be learning with you.  \n\nDo you network with other vets?  Ask there too.  If you have any professional organizations you belong to with fb groups or whatever see who other people are using.  You'd much rather be someones 10th clinic deal than their 1st.\n\nVets are very similar to medical office, do not be afraid to use a broker who does that work.  If you find one who does a lot of retail work they will also maybe not be 100% on vet stuff but they will understand enough to know what issues you are going to hit and what they cost etc.  Just mostly stay away from office/industrial/mf brokers.  \n\nGL!  also consider leasing if you get stuck, you can be sneaky and put an option to buy in then when you have more money saved you can purchase in the future.  That will let you use your down payment money for buildout and improvements now that you are protected on later.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]