All Forum Posts by: Alex Grosvenor

@Hayden Lyon It is hard out here in DFW finding properties. It all just depends on what you're looking for. Crazy thing is now at the end of the year I'm finding more flips than anything else and at the beginning I was finding more rentals. VAs are a huge help if you're on a budget. They do a lot of the work for you. If you have more money and acquisitions person would be able to free up so much of your time to go do more important things. Most of my day is taken up by looking at/for properties for myself and clients. It's not hard it's just very time consuming. If you're looking to free up the time then hire somebody else because trust me this is a very low $ per hour task. 

If you're looking for how to find the deals right now try something new. Find a different wholesaler that gives you a different look at different properties than just these big names. Maybe start targeting High DOM instead of what just comes out. A lot of people forget about the stuff that's been on the MLS for half a year. Maybe it's time to pivot a little to try and see if something new works for now. Or even works better than what was working before.

Hope this helps!
 

A Property Manager would best to verify rental rates when fixed up. An agent can do it as well but it’s not their specialty. That should be known before you even make an offer.

Hey Lisa. Go to all of the smallest banks in your area that you can find and start asking if you NEED 2 years. Some banks will not a full two years. Small banks don’t have the same requirements and you never know who will work with you unless you ask.

Crazy the things you can get if you just go and ask.

If that doesn’t work try hard money. I know they do most usually do around 6%maybe you can find one with 5% and do it that way. This way your job doesn’t come into play.

You could do some many different things in your situation. You have huge equity that you can take out to pretty much buy property wherever you want. Getting a HELOC or Refinancing would be huge for you to take out hundreds of thousands of dollars to go do something with.

If this was me this is just what I would be thinking about. Use 8k from my savings to fix Dallas, force appreciate that property, and then raise the rents for the next tenant. Then I would refinance that because it is worth more so you have more equity and take more money out to use it for the LA property. It would also probably drop your interest rate as the interest rates now are the lowest they've ever been which technically means even more cashflow. Downside of doing this you're restarting your loan payments and have less equity in that property. But you get that cash in hand now. Then with that money go and do the same exact thing to the LA property to have more liquid cash up front now and lower rates than you had on them before and again like I said with force appreciation and lower interest rates, you SHOULD then cash flow even more. which bring your ROI up and gives you liquid cash now to buy one or two properties now and not just one or just one and keep the rest for reserves.

Property #2 in Dallas I wouldn't get rid of. Putting 8k in to get $300 a month in cashflow is amazing in my opinion. in 27 months you'll make your money back. That would force appreciate your property so you'd have even more equity. Doing it this way you don't pay taxes because you don't sell and you don't have to do a 1031 which at this point for you I wouldn't recommend.  

I would consider keeping your equity working for you. Market goes down you can lose that equity, but not if you took that equity out in cash. Your rents are already set once you get a solid tenant so you don't have to worry about that. Your equity would no longer matter for years and years later when you decide you want to pull out money again or sell. Right now you're just letting that money sit there and make 0 interest.

The only thing I see for you that's left is finding out your criteria. What is most important is it cash flow or appreciation. Most place don't have a huge amount of both. It's one or the other. Then whats more important being near you so you can manage it or having that cashflow you want. What price range you want. Getting very specific to your criteria will also help you with what you should do. The more specific your criteria the more you will know where you want to invest and what you are looking for. I've found that having somebody from the outside asking questions with a different way of thinking than I do is the best way to narrow down criteria and help you see past problem you didn't even know were problems. 

[Solicitation Removed by Moderators]

@Shannon Oakley

I have to agree with @Joe Villeneuve on this one. Investors that have been doing this a long time don't bend to anyone. They have a criteria and they stick to it. Asking price is just a number. If you are asking for 50k and my numbers says that I can buy it for 100k then I'll go over that asking without a problem. I'm not going to tell you that. I'm not going to start my offer with over your asking price either unless I already knew somebody else offered over you asking. That's not bending it's having a criteria. Same goes for the other way if your asking is at 100k and my numbers say 50k I'm going to offer you 50k. I'm not going to stray away from criteria just because you or the seller thinks its' worth more. If you bend you cause yourself to lose money because you didn't stick to what you know to be true, which is the numbers.  

Every investor has a different formula they use to determine what they can pay. Every person is charged different for materials and different for labor. Yes, it's around the same price, but some people get discounts some buy it at cheaper stores and some do it themselves so they save money on labor. Some get cheaper hard money, some get cheaper private money and some use their own money. So when running numbers and using formulas its inevitable that some people are able to pay more than others. Like Joe said it all depends on where investors are at in that specific moment because they are changing with the market and with the pricing of labor/materials/homes. So to group all REI into one group saying that they all need to change is a huge assumption and very inaccurate.

If people aren't buying deals right now it's because it's not a good deal. If you sent me a good deal no matter what area it's in I can find someone to buy it, If I don't buy it myself first. If the opportunity is there to make 30k+ on a good deal trust me people are buying it. Now if you have a deal that need 300k in with PP+Rehab then expect a person to be happy with a 10k profit theres too much risk for not enough reward. 

Sellers control the market because theres not enough inventory which is why investors are offering over what they were last year and the year before that because there's less inventory than last year and the year before. So if there 11,000 people looking and only 3,000 houses it only make sense that those 3,000 house would sell for a little more than they would under normal circumstances (sellers market currently). The same works the other way, if there was 15,000 houses with 5,000 people looking then houses would sell for less then they would under normal circumstances (buyers market (2008)). The market will eventually flip, but we've been in a sellers market for a couple of years and it's not flipping right now. This has been the real estate cycle of buyers and seller markets for as long as real estate has been a thing. Investors have been changing and adapting since before we were born and will continue to do it long after we are gone. 

To me it sounds like one of two things are the problem. One you are working with new investors who still don't know how everything operates yet. They don't have a system in place to succeed. Therefore many things are going to go wrong from their emotions getting in the way to them not knowing what they are doing fully. Or two, the deals you are securing aren't deals and you need to learn what is and is not a good deal. Maybe that's with rehab numbers or your ARV or maybe it's your ability to negotiate the seller down to where you know it's a deal then YOU BEND and expect the investor to bend just like you did. Self evaluate. Maybe its not everybody else. Maybe it's you.

This is all an outside perspective because I don't fully know your situation and I'm not there to access. But this is what it sounds like to me. I'm just trying to solve the problem your having so you can be more successful. Not argue over a post. So if you want the advice take it. If not I'll be on my way. 

Lastly, don't get upset and argue over posts. It's a friendly forum where we all come to educate people and learn from one another. Joe wasn't rude by answering all of your questions. You posted it, he quoted it, then he answered it. Nothing wrong with that. He gave you the answers that you asked for. Don't get upset because it's not the answer that you wanted to hear. 

I believe that you’re going to crush that 10k in 10 years mark you want to hit. I believe there are many different paths you can go down to achieve your goals faster. 

I would recommend that you use a Virtual Assistant (VA). They are about $1-$4 an hour. You can start by paying them just 10 maybe 20 hours a week to skip trace, cold call , text message, run ads, answer phones, collect information, generate probate lists, pre foreclosure lists and much more.

I get time is extremely important and there's a ton of work that nobody does talk about in REI but this is one way to stop wasting your time on low $ per hour tasks and pay somebody else to do them and it's not that expensive at all.

If you didn’t want to do that then I would recommend partnering with someone else. You bring the money. They bring the deals and work then you just go over the deal presented to you to verify everything that person has already done. Ton of time saved for you. Still making profit. 

Hope this helps! 

That list is so interesting! I never would have thought some places on there would even be too 50 places on the US in terms of crime rates. 

For me I think I would invest anywhere. There’s people investing in bad neighborhoods and areas all the time. I would imagine your systems would have to be set for those kinds of neighborhoods and how to navigate it. 

Everybody runs from hard. Investing in those areas would be hard. Or very risky for some. Meaning less competition and more opportunities.

Hey Mario. I think you being a little more specific for what you’re looking to do will get you a lot more answers. 
Good Luck! 

Hey Lola! 

Coming from my experience getting my license here in DFW the RE PreLicensing course doesn't really teach you anything about how to do any real estate deal none the less a deal for investors. It will teach you about contracts though if that is what you are looking to understand. 

House hacking is technically what you're talking about by living in one multi family unit and renting the other units out. The MF market here is very competitive because everybody is trying to do the same exact thing you are trying to do. You could also house hack by getting a 4-5 bed house and living in one room and renting the other rooms out. Getting a house that has a back unit mother in law suite or apartment dwelling in the back and rent that part out to someone. 

Either way either one may or may not make you some cash flow or maybe just cut your rent down $500-1000 which I would still say is cash flow because you're saving that money you would be paying on rent. So don't get caught up too much into the whole I want to cashflow situation because saving that money on rent is just the same. 

Your RE Agent should be an expert in investing as well and able to tell you everything that I did and more. Use them to your advantage. You may not know about RE or investing, but if you are using them then they should. If they don't then it's probably a good time to find a different real estate agent. 

I wish you and your husband the best of luck on your journey! Good Luck!

Hey Thomas. I know it seems like a lot is coming your way but are those pieces of land and those houses that need to be rebuilt profitable? I see you have all of these plans but what are the costs of the land? How much is it to build a quadplex? Duplex? How about an apartment complex? How many can be built per the zoning?  Does any of the land need some engineering work done for building? What team do you have in place to manage the 10 acre project?

It seems like a huge project to just start out on. I’d recommend wholesaling that deal if you had it. It seems like a lot of work by itself not to mention with other projects going on. No experience, No team, and really no money. Just down payments from what you’re saying. You still need a lot more money for those 10 acres to remove trees build the apartments or duplexes pay for the rest of the land, employees and a lot more. 

Do you have deals to where the numbers work or are those just properties people say hey these are good properties and you just assume the numbers work? If the numbers do work out and you feel as if you can really take all of this on then find a partner to help. If you really found those deals the numbers work, you provide the down payments, you can find someone else for you to partner with that has the experience. They are everywhere. Even on here.

6 months at 8-14 hours a day is a lot of learning, but you still don’t have everything you need to get started yet or do you? Builders? Lenders? Contractors? Partners? Hard money lenders? Construction lenders? Agents? Investors? Property managers? Mortgage lenders? 

Maybe it is because you put it as long story short that I’m missing the full story, but to me you’re still missing a lot of knowledge and people to even do one flip deal. I don’t say that to be rude. It’s just to say that as the first time reading this from someone I don’t know it seems to me like you’re still a little lost. Correct me if I’m wrong. I don’t mean to be rude at all. 

I hope this helped and your real estate investing journey turns out amazing!