All Forum Posts by: Alexis Soto

@Jeff Kehl Thank you for your advice. I have answers to about half of your questions. Hah! Managment is in place, as is the accounting aspect. It will take about 2 months to get all the tenants to signup for recurring payments. Most of the updates that are needed for the home are cosmetic and I feel that I can capitalize on the fact that I have tenants in place now, and make improvements to the unit as they start to move out. Rents are below market value at the moment, I am a firm believer in not leaving money on the table. Unfortunately, when I asked them to produce a lease, they were all very quick to show me.

I think your advice has gotten through my thick skull, and I thank you for that. I suppose I can wait another 6 months and collect some cashflow (sigh). So much for moving with momentum.

I still am activley searching for deals everyday. I will continue to do so until I refi out and have the means to purchase more!

Thanks for all your prompt replies and excellent advice first and foremost.

@Rodney Miller refinancing is not the problem, but actually my main exit strategy. If comps continue to go up, the deal could appraise for more in the next 6 months. I also looked into 'delayed financing'. But in order to free up more capital, I am thinking that the smart play here is to wait. Let me know what you think.

@Andrew Johnson selling the property for a profit of 80k or so is an excellent exit stragedy that I will always keep in my back pocket. However, the cashflow from this property is extremely attractive and I feel I need to 'reload my capital' like you stated.

Good morning BP, My situation is a bit sweet and sour. I recently purchased a fully rented 4-plex through a tax deed sale for 45k. If my personal appraisal is correct it will appraise for about 125-130k on the conservative side. I've spoken with multiple banks and they say that same thing, 6-12 months to allow for seasoning. I'm wondering how can I continue with this momentum that I have going for me now. I plan to do a cash out refi in about 6-7 months and take out about 50-60k for another property. Ideally what I would like to do is to reinvest the dividends from this property into a commercial multi family where I have more control of the forced appreciation. How can I continue to do deals with my capital tied up in this 4 plex? If i can use opm how can I make the deal profitable for the lender and myself as well? I feel like I'm trapped for another 6 months while I'm trying to hustle here! Any advice is appreciated. Thank you.

@Nancy Roth

The perfect neighborhood for me that I found has a relatively low crime rate, the prices on the houses are reasonable. I tend to shy away from neighborhoods that exceed $200k. The neighborhood is not bad, just not well kept. I went by to scout it out, and many houses looked to be vacant, grass was not cut, little piles of garbage on the lawn.

I may be wrong Nancy, as I am very new at this, but I got a good feeling about this. I think this neighborhood has potential, but then again I may be wrong.

Hello,

I recently found what I think to be there perfect neighborhood in Baltimore MD for wholesaling. Now before I go out and post my signs up, I would like to hear if anybody else has had much luck in Baltimore. If so what has worked for you in the past?

Currently I am focusing on bandit signs as my main lead generator. Later I would like to escalate to driving for dollars.

On another note, are there any investors in the Baltimore area looking for new projects? 

Thank you all for your responses.

@Tyrone Green To answer your question, at the moment I don't have a specific niche. All of my signs are pretty generic :

Al Buys Houses CASH

My end goal at the moment is very simple really. I believe in taking things one step at a time. My main goal here is to complete my first wholesale deal. 

The website you recommended to me, traffic.com, really great tip there Tyrone. Thank you.

At the moment I do not have a dialogue for motivated seller. That would definitely be something I need to look into... Do you have any suggestions Tyrone? I have a worksheet that I got from some site, a sort of questionnaire to ask the sellers when and if they do call. But the questions seem highly personal, something that I wouldn't even feel comfortable asking over the phone, never having met the person before. Again any advice in that area would be appreciated.

@Linda Williams-Jasper  I was not aware that Walmart had such strict rules, last time I drove by one there were many signs on the side walks. But thank you for that, I wouldn't want my signs to be taken down 5 minutes after being put up. 

I would love to take you up on that offer and tour the routes... See which ones have the most traffic. Currently I work a 9-5 so weekdays would be difficult. But by all means, whenever is convenient to you, if you don't mind.

@Nick Ye I'd be more than happy to work with you if opportunity presents itself. For some reason BP will not allow me to 'add colleagues'. Please send a colleague request so we can keep in touch.

Hello,

My name is Alexis. I have been on BP for about two weeks now, just devouring all the information I can. I have read the free eBook Ultimate Beginners Guide to REI, and purchased The Book on Flipping Houses and The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs.

After two week of constant study, I was finally feeling comfortable enough to go out and place a few bandit signs. I spent a total of $76, enough that made me 48 signs. I figured that I would place 10 signs in Woodbridge VA, 20 in Fredericksburg VA and 20 in Stafford VA. As I was preparing to leave the house all of a sudden I was feeling very skeptical of my locations. So I come back into the house and continue to do more research as to where I should place my signs.

My prior locations that I had drawn out were all near Wal-Marts (I know, very typical), and or shopping malls. I Also wanted to span then out on the major intersections you had to take in order to get into these shopping malls. 

Does anybody have a reference point? Any good advice as to where to place in a neighborhood? I know I was reading in one of the books from BP to get in contact with a RE agent and have them access the MLS database for prime locations. Frankly, I am a bit scared of the RE agents slamming the doors in my face... I don't know any personally and I wouldn't know what to say or ask them.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! On a similar note, if there are any REI investors in my area (Woodbridge VA), I would love to pick your brain over coffee.

Hello,

My name is Alexis. I have been on BP for about two weeks now, just devouring all the information I can. I have read the free eBook Ultimate Beginners Guide to REI, and purchased The Book on Flipping Houses and The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs.

After two week of constant study, I was finally feeling comfortable enough to go out and place a few bandit signs. I spent a total of $76, enough that made me 48 signs. I figured that I would place 10 signs in Woodbridge VA, 20 in Fredericksburg VA and 20 in Stafford VA. As I was preparing to leave the house all of a sudden I was feeling very skeptical of my locations. So I come back into the house and continue to do more research as to where I should place my signs.

My prior locations that I had drawn out were all near Wal-Marts (I know, very typical), and or shopping malls. I Also wanted to span then out on the major intersections you had to take in order to get into these shopping malls. 

Does anybody have a reference point? Any good advice as to where to place in a neighborhood? I know I was reading in one of the books from BP to get in contact with a RE agent and have them access the MLS database for prime locations. Frankly, I am a bit scared of the RE agents slamming the doors in my face... I don't know any personally and I wouldn't know what to say or ask them.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! On a similar note, if there are any REI investors in my area (Woodbridge VA), I would love to pick your brain over coffee.