All Forum Posts by: Andrew Holmes

@Jameson Sullivan

Have you talked to any of the commercial small banks in your area. You should not have trouble as long as your W-2 or 1099 and credit are decent. 

I will be a 5 year balloon and a 25 year amortization but you can get those all day long. Expect the interest rates at 5 to 5.5%. 

or go to Finance of America - Call Lisa Gray. They will do it for sure. Higher rates though. 

@Jarrett Mitchell

Personally I would sell because I am not a fan of out of state rentals. A lot of folk will disagree but if my own back yard is very fertile I am not going to watch something in another state. In your case this was a personal home so that is understandable. 

Your net is $ 42,000 is your net before debts are paid back so that would depend on your debt amount. Buts lets assume you have a gain back in Nashville for another 10 or 15 K in the next few years. 

I think what you have to look at it highest and best use for this money or your rate of return. If you think that you can buy an properties in ATL with the purpose of investing and good a better rate of return then of course it makes sense to sell. 

You should look at the numbers in ATL and how likely it is that you can create those returns. You may have already done that. I think you should weight the two before making a move to sell. 

Know my market in the Chicago suburbs I would sell and buy here but I know this market so that is the reason for that biases. 

Would love to hear from folk as to how you guys track your sub contractors going to Home Depot and buying materials on your account. They have the text to confirm method so you or your rehab manager can confirm the purchases. I have never liked the text to confirm because you are not there and the only way to really verify is go through all items purchased online on the Home Depot Pro site. 

It was easy to do when the business was small and I was looking at every single thing but as we have grown there seems to be a creep in materials purchased for some properties. Plus the amount of wastage is hard to monitor. On one house it may not be a big deal but over 40 or 50 rehab a year. It is a scary amount. 

Any thoughts how to control these purchases?

@Sal Zafar@Paul Staszel

In the chicagoland area we do not have as many Lowes and lot of them have closed. 

We have Menards and HD as the main players. 

When I started I used to always go to Menards because the prices in general seems a bit cheaper but so does the quality slightly. They have their own brand that seems to a little cheaper. 

HD seems like it's better. Now a days for the past 4 years we have been mostly buying from HD just because of tracking of orders. Will a lot our subs picking up material HD seems a bit easier to track online. 

Menards used to be my go to place but as we have grown we have moved to HD. I still think Menards is cheaper but our rehab manager says that when we have done price comparisons on stuff we buy a lot HD is cheaper. 

Menards does have 11% off from time to time and can be pretty good if you are good at watching the sales when they come up. 

@Mindy Jensen@Chris Martin@Steve B.@Joe Kim@Jerry W.

I have to admit that I don't even know what the heck Dodd-Frank bills says. I have heard a lot of talk around the real estate investor community about Dodd-Frank but may be because we just do simple fix and flips, cash flow refi rentals and wholesales never really ran into Dodd-Frank. 

From what I understand Dodd-Frank deals with seller financing. Not really sure. Not even sure how big is this bill and how much it covers. 

I don't know how many people understand the bill really. It's amazing that our congress and legislators don't seem to understand some of the stuff they pass how are mere mortals like us expected to wrap our brains around it. Yet we have to live by those rules. 

@Adam Detig

Adam I think you will get the same excuses. They don't change and we have all made them starting out. 

Too New

Not Enough Money

Not enough credit or bad credit

Don't Have a team

Already work too much

What if I fail? What if I loose money?

Market is too hot?

Market is too bad no one is buying?

My spouse won't support me?

I don't have enough education?

If you take a pick all of us have made these excuses at some point or another. 

For me the day of action in terms of investing was Jan 14th, 2008 in the middle of the real estate melt down. Everyone was running for the hills and I thought that was a great time. Now after 800 some transaction that seem like I am was a bloody genius to jump in at that time. 

There will be no opportune time or place. Do your research in your market. Rather than keep reading to a books and keep listening to podcast spend as much time as possible to get to know the market in your back yard. 

I am not saying reading and listening to all sorts of real estate info does not help. The problem is that is confuses a lot of investors because it an overload of ideas. There are a heck lot of things you can do in real estate. At some point you have to pick one thing. Shut off all the rest and focus on ONE THING. Most investors that fail they don't fail because of lack of desire they fail because of lack of single minded focus and expertise in one thing. They dabble too much in too many things. 

BP is a phenomenal forum and loads and loads of info. The problem is what do you absorb and what you just pass. Who do you listen to? Personally I feel that today the problem is not lack of info. It's too much info coming in from too many directions. 

There are a lot of folks out their doing some amazing things in their businesses the question is what is right for you and your given situation. 

99% of info is garbage for what you want to do. The key is to find the 1% that is applicable to you today in your given situation. 

The great part of real estate is that the best equalizer. If you become good at it. You can compete with the best and sky is that limit. Sounds like a cliche but it is true when it come to real estate. 

They say: If you build it they will come. 

In real estate: You can find them (Good Deal) they will show up in your life (People with money to invest)

Good deals I the best magnet to find money in real estate. He who control great deals has the beast by it's tail. Of course assuming he knows what to do with good deals. 

@Gabriel Green-Lemons

If you can find a investment company in your area through the local reia or searching the tax records that does multiple flips a year try to see if they will let you work on an internship type of a basis. 

Find some a company that does atleast 20 or 30 flips a year. Don't work with a mom and pop operation. You will get caught up in their drama. You want someone that have a little of size so you can see good with the bad all at the same time. If you are a part of a very small operation depending on if their flip is going well or poorly it will affect your learning process. 

Start will the Finding Deals part if possible. 

Then move to rehabbing division if possible. 

Most people think rehabbing is more important. If you want to be a good investor finding the right deals is way more important. The ones your pass are way more important than the projects you take on. 

@Foster Algier

@Mike Cumbie

Foster I think with what Mike said that 60 or 70% of zillow price minus repairs will not make most folks jump. 

On the other hand the whole Zillow move makes me think that at some point someone will compete with agents and go far the commissions for a smaller price. I was a agent for years and if I was still on the sales side of things this would have bothered me. Not that all agents will go out of business but there will be a downward pressure for most agents. The real good one will do good for a while but the industry is bound to come under attack. The Uber for Taxis will come in some shape or form to the real estate industry. 

I am curious how the powerful Realtor lobby reacts to it in a political manner. I feel this is bound to happen and will affect a lot of folk in terms of making a living. Real estate is still local so not sure how it would come but over time it is bound to happen. 

Technology and access to info is double edged sword and cuts both ways. MLS used to be the holy grail of info not accessible to the public. Now every MLS around the country sells access including Realtor.com I think it will come back to bite them in the long run.

@Tony Wooldridge

This is a interesting question?

What you call Freedom Number we call that your LPN (Lifestyle Property Number) 

I think most folks have 3 different numbers

1. What you need to live on. (This covers your basic needs)

2. What you want (This is to upgrade the quality of life you want to live)

3. Your Dreams (This can be a huge to ridiculous number just based on your ambition)

So the way we calculate LPN is as follows

$ 800 net cash flow per property - This is paid off rental properties bought with purchase, rehab and rent and then paid off with cash flow. In my market $ 800 is the net cash flow on average once the property is paid off. 

**As a side note when we calculate your LPN. Earned income does not count only cash flow paid off property income can be used towards LPN. 

So personally at this point in my life

1. Needs : $ 8000/ 800 = 8 Properties * 1.2 = 10 (LPN) (Goal achieved)

2. Wants: $ 20,000/ 800 = 25 properties * 1.2 = 28 (LPN) (90% achieved)

3. Dreams: $ 100,000/ 800 = 125 properties (This will take some time but work in progress)

How about if the person with the POA. Over night's it with a FEDEX to a title company. Pay the title company to hand carry the POA to the county.

Also will the county accept a certified copy of the POA.

Sometimes a notary may be requested to provide a certified copy of a Power of Attorney. A certified copy means that the certifying person, has examined the original document and the copy and that the copy is a true and correct duplicate of the original document.