All Forum Posts by: Amit Saini

Everything is negotiable. You can offer to pay part of the money upfront and remainder upon completion. Otherwise ask for NET30 or NET45 payment terms (pay 30-45 days after invoicing). Assuming this is a reputable PM & contractor, overage should not be more than 0-10% if at all. It is advisable to budget for it. Hope that helps & congratulations.

For 12-month CD's you can go as high as 2.5%. https://www.bankrate.com/cd.aspx
Also check out some no penalty CD's with Ally currently yielding 2.2%.
Hope that helps!

@Cory B. Couple questions/comments:

1. Can you raise rents or are they max for the area?

2. Can you drive any rehab/improvements etc bathroom or room addition that will get you higher rents?

Refi rates look high btw. Try online lender.

I concur with others to hold unless you have a very specific plan to deploy the cash at a higher rate of return.

I think you're overthinking the LLC system. If you're relatively new and acquiring your first property, do it on your name because financing will be easier and you'll secure favorable rates. Once you've amassed a small portfolio you can consider create a LLC entity and transfer properties to the LLC. You can do one LLC for many properties or a "series LLC" which is permitted in some states. Umbrella Insurance is a good option when starting out. Hope that helps. All the best!
Edit - regardless of whether you hold the property in your name or LLC, you can still do the property management yourself or choose a property manager. If you get into much larger sized multi-family deals (50+ units), you'll find more complex legal structures separating the PM entity into its own LLC.

Short answer is "Yes" :) 
Some listing agents will permit a visit with a GC. Some others will insist on an offer before showing the house. ItIn that case you have to use contingency clauses or "opt-out" clauses should you wish to back out after inspection. It varies property by property. Work with a good realtor who can craft offers in a way that they're favorable to you. All the best!

Not that I'm aware of and most likely if it existed they will charge a fee :) The closest I can think of is monitoring payments on Mint.

HELOC - Yes, it's never a bad idea to have a line of credit established. Whether you use it or not is up to you. It can come in handy to fund value-add projects for short-term periods.
Also before you decide on SFR / MFR, look at the numbers and let them guide you. I think your best bet is to find an investor-friendly realtor ("investor-friendly" is important) who can help compile some numbers for current deals on MLS. You may also be able to pull this yourself from realtor.com (choose Property Type=Multiplex or SFR). There's very good Excel sheets available on BP where you can plug in your numbers to understand all the key metrics like Cap Rate, Cash-on-Cash, IRR etc. As another poster mentioned, be very aware of rent control laws and know what you are getting into if acquiring MFR that is occupied with tenants.
Good luck!

Depends on your investment goals/objectives, risk appetite & whether you wish to be active/passive. You can do a lot with $400k and build a diversified portfolio - options range from SFR, MFR, flipping with value-add, buying land and developing, going out-of-state, to commercial syndicates on the other end of the spectrum.
If no prior expertise in real estate, then stick to simple - SFR w/ value-add (in your home market or out of state) & commercial syndicates, gain experience & knowledge and chart your path forward. 

All the best! 

1. Insist that tenant have renters insurance

2. Get landlord insurance package for your rental property (for yourself)

3. Get umbrella insurance (for yourself) to cover your assets & add your rental property to the umbrella

4. Avoid LLC crap unless you are rent out large multi-family units. For a single SFR/condo/TH, LLC is an overhead that is best avoided.

I have rental property in CA and TX and have opted to go the umbrella route (for now).

Texas has new law Prop-13 style that limits growth of property taxes: https://www.texastribune.org/2019/06/12/abbott-signs-property-tax-bill-sb2/