All Forum Posts by: Alexander Felice

Start with the end in mind. 

If you want long term rentals, which is sounds like you do, don't bother learning how to flip. The risks are different, the taxes are different, the requirements of skills are different, and in the end you won't have a cash flowing asset like you want.

The rest of your question comes down to how much risk you want to take on. For my first deal I went with a depressed asset and did a big rehab and it paid off huge. That's not saying you should do that, just saying it worked for me so it certainly could work for you. 

Taking risks, skin in the game, is how you learn. I say go get something pretty close to your ideal goal project and get through it. It's easy to put the first deal on a pedestal but the reality is if you want to do this long term it's just going to be one deal of hundreds, it can't make or break you. Think of it more like paid college, even if you come out at a loss in capital you make a giant gain in experience, good trade. Odds are though, you'll make money and get the experience ;) 

As Jay said

99% chance this is a scam

1% chance this person is inept and perhaps new and just throwing things against the wall to see what sticks

0% chance this guy can get your loan done 

Loans are not a taxable event

This is my favorite mechanic in the American tax code

If you create equity in an asset (real estate or stocks) and then sell it you pay taxes, if you take a loan out you get the proceeds but pay no taxes (and in the case of real estate get tax benefits) and if your asset continues to appreciate you can take loan proceeds out over and over again. 

 Yep, that's what I said in my post, great idea but takes highly scalable resources to make it happen 

Dan, this is literally why everyone is here....

got any new information for us? ;) 

There are def a bunch meetups in Raleigh already. 

If you come to Fayetteville I host a meetup regularly 

I have a very active online book club (not real estate though it's mostly philosophy, history, and economics)

For me this is mostly irrelevant because when I was young I would never listen

but, in theory the two things I would tell myself is:

1. Read difficult books - Knowledge is the best investment and the best risk mitigator. Feed your curiosity with reckless abandon

2. Choose your social group with great care, you will become them - When I hung out with alcoholics I became an alcoholic, when I started hanging out with wealthy investors, I became an investor (who might someday become wealthy lol) 

Sitting on cash is what I did to buy my first rental. 

The common narrative is that inflation is ruining cash right now, and while true, cash still gives you a lot of optionality and often times less volatility of the stock market. 

nothing wrong with a high interest rate savings account to build enough cash until you have enough to serve your bigger goals. 

The cons are you need to get a seller that is technically willing to take a very low cash price as is with the HOPE that they can make more after rehab

then you have to connect that homeowner with a contractor who has this vision, will show up and do the work to a high degree, and be willing to front all the money with the same HOPE that they will make more once it sells. 

Great idea for a HGTV who has a massive budget and national network of potential homeowners and contractors to facilitate all these things, but on a small scale I can see this as being extremely difficult to execute. the idea is technically sound, but like many things in real estate it's super easy on paper but real life doesn't always pan out the so simply. 

@Natalie Kolodij