All Forum Posts by: Andrés Uribe

Welcome Alex!

I was where you are 1 year ago. While I waited to get my entities set up to start investing I learned a ton. And I had the same mentality you did with this statement on your post "I'd like to find a property that I can fix up cosmetically to raise the value of the home & provide me with cash flow in order to start saving for my next investment." 

My realtor taught me about the BRRRR method, David Greene has a book on it, definitely learn about it because it will save you time. This helped me get into analyzing deals to know I could get my money back out in 6-9 months and keep investing it, rather than wait years to save rental cash flow to buy my next deal. Like that I could get my money moving faster, and cash flow at the same time, PLUS own a property for free pretty much after refinancing it.

Definitely study as much as you can and learn from others with experience as Nick and Cameron said.

Hope this helps and good luck on your journey!

Andres

Hey Steven,

Long message here but I hope it helps! It's what I've done when trying to do BRRRR's.

First thing I would say is to work the deal backwards to know how much you'll need to break even or walk away with a little profit after BRRRR. What I do for a property of interest, is I have realtor go there with contractor and send me 1min - 1:30min long videos of the walk through, I tell contractor my plans for property if cosmetic rehab or more extensive, then he'll give me a timeline of how long it will take plus cost. I add 2-4 weeks to his timeline and $5-$10K more on rehab from what he said, I also add however long it would take to refi after rehab is complete and refi closing period.

Then I create a list of every possible expense out of pocket, monthly interest only payments or mortgage payments (times that by the amount of time it will rehab and work out refi), utilities, insurance, taxes, closing costs, down payment, I usually add $10K of unexpected costs as well. I take all that into account when looking at the property, if it checks out and asking price is close, I make a lower offer that will at least help me break even, also taking into account the 25% - 30% LTV lender might require for a refi. If contractor is on time and on budget, and there are no unexpected expenses, that $15K - $20K for me, if not I move on.
To know what I think the property can refi for, I run my own comps on very similar properties, same beds and baths or less. Then I use price per square foot instead of looking at the for sale price.

Hope this helps and its clear! Any questions just let me know.

Andres

Hello BP Forums!

It has been a while since I was last around. And I thought I'd make a post about my journey so far, because I am proud of the progress that has been done (in real estate leaning and mindset), thanks to the BP RE podcast, performance coaching and many people who have helped me (in these forums, a Slack channel and so many others). I also want to be more active here, to find help and give help, so if anyone has questions to break down any info below please reach out (not a pro by all means, but happy to share what I've learned :) ).

So! I have been actively pursuing Real Estate since Sept 2020, and by actively I mean making my first phone call to ask "What does ARV mean?" Ha!
I first wanted to start in Winnipeg-Canada where I live, until I talked to a friend of mine who buys long distance. He recommended the book "Long Distance RE Investing" by Mr. David Greene, read half of it (eesh) and jumped into the US market, in Pittsburgh. It just made sense for grow faster, and I knew trustworthy people who invest there.

An international cellphone plan, many many phone calls, BP forum posts asking for insight and a lot of research over 6 months, and I had a team set up, THIS. WAS. KEY! Realtors, Property Manager, a few Contractors with 1-go-to, CPA in Canada and US, Attorney to set up my entity structure, etc. it was go time! It took so long since I still have a day time job selling building materials, so most phone calls were done at lunch, the studying and practicing were done in the evenings after my two minions were in bed.

I was analyzing and having realtors send me video tours in the meantime to practice, but it was go time to place offers after about 7-8 months since September. And as of December 3rd, 2021 I have closed on two deals, own a lot to develop and have raised $100,000 of investor money, and feel very happy and confident on the path I am going.

My first deal was two houses undergoing rehab right now, bought as a package deal for $285K, and $260K rehab on a hard money loan, both will be flips, and the ARV is at around $800,000 (+/- $20,000). The golden nugget is a lot in the middle of the two houses, where I will build something new. It will be a $300,000 construction loan on hard money and an approximate sell value of $600,000, it might work with no money down since I already own the lot! Both homes are right next to a brand new development of 4 large townhomes which motivated me to dabble into new construction.

Looking into building new has been a good journey, I finally found a lender willing to work with me, as long as I bring in my contractor as a partner since I have no experience. Thankfully, my contractor agreed and we are working on subdividing the lot right now. So much more to learn, so any info or advise here is appreciated!

My second deal is a 6 unit multifamily deal I found on the MLS. A duplex and a quad on the same parcel, with rents almost 50% under market value!! I bought it for $330K and will put $90K worth or rehab on hard money as well ($95K now since a furnace needs to be replaced... Eesh). My plan will be to flip this one as well as a commercial deal, once new tenants are in at market rents, estimated valuation is around $620,000 on a worst case scenario, with pro forma rents being lowest for that area. This has been a great preview on the basics of how the multifamily space works, I've learned a lot about underwriting multifamily deals, and working on building relationships with brokers and commercial lenders.

The reason why I am focused on flipping right now is to build capital to go bigger. I am hoping to bring value to a broker in the area by having them sell the 6-unit property with me. Then when the development and two flips also sell and I'm ready to go bigger, they feel comfortable bringing me larger multifamily deals to put offers on.

At first I was terrified of doing this long distance, now I can't wait to go into uncharted territory like new construction and flipping a small multifamily... from Canada into Pittsburgh... how did I get here?! whichever way, I am very happy I am where I am, thanks to so many!

So in 2022 and a 1.5 year span, I would have sold 3 properties, and 9 units... over $2M in RE transactions... crazy! Just never would have thought I'd do that... It will be crazier when I'm selling hundreds of units and multimillion dollar deals like the pro's here :).

So the reason for this post is to offer a hand out; to help, and a hand out to be helped as I know I have so many more things to learn as I grow. Also as some sort of full circle, since I when started posting here I was trying to figure out how to get started, now I have started and am in it, so BP forums needed to know ha!

Cheers everyone!

Andres

Hello BP Forums!

It has been a while since I was last around. And I thought I'd make a post about my journey so far, because I am proud of the progress that has been done (in real estate leaning and mindset), thanks to the BP RE podcast, performance coaching and many people who have helped me (in these forums, a Slack channel and so many others). I also want to be more active here, to find help and give help, so if anyone has questions to break down any info below please reach out (not a pro by all means, but happy to share what I've learned :) ).

So! I have been actively pursuing Real Estate since Sept 2020, and by actively I mean making my first phone call to ask "What does ARV mean?" Ha!
I first wanted to start in Winnipeg-Canada where I live, until I talked to a friend of mine who buys long distance. He recommended the book "Long Distance RE Investing" by Mr. David Greene, read half of it (eesh) and jumped into the US market, in Pittsburgh. It just made sense for grow faster, and I knew trustworthy people who invest there.

An international cellphone plan, many many phone calls, BP forum posts asking for insight and a lot of research over 6 months, and I had a team set up, THIS. WAS. KEY! Realtors, Property Manager, a few Contractors with 1-go-to, CPA in Canada and US, Attorney to set up my entity structure, etc. it was go time! It took so long since I still have a day time job selling building materials, so most phone calls were done at lunch, the studying and practicing were done in the evenings after my two minions were in bed.

I was analyzing and having realtors send me video tours in the meantime to practice, but it was go time to place offers after about 7-8 months since September. And as of December 3rd, 2021 I have closed on two deals, own a lot to develop and have raised $100,000 of investor money, and feel very happy and confident on the path I am going.

My first deal was two houses undergoing rehab right now, bought as a package deal for $285K, and $260K rehab on a hard money loan, both will be flips, and the ARV is at around $800,000 (+/- $20,000). The golden nugget is a lot in the middle of the two houses, where I will build something new. It will be a $300,000 construction loan on hard money and an approximate sell value of $600,000, it might work with no money down since I already own the lot! Both homes are right next to a brand new development of 4 large townhomes which motivated me to dabble into new construction.

Looking into building new has been a good journey, I finally found a lender willing to work with me, as long as I bring in my contractor as a partner since I have no experience. Thankfully, my contractor agreed and we are working on subdividing the lot right now. So much more to learn, so any info or advise here is appreciated!

My second deal is a 6 unit multifamily deal I found on the MLS. A duplex and a quad on the same parcel, with rents almost 50% under market value!! I bought it for $330K and will put $90K worth or rehab on hard money as well ($95K now since a furnace needs to be replaced... Eesh). My plan will be to flip this one as well as a commercial deal, once new tenants are in at market rents, estimated valuation is around $620,000 on a worst case scenario, with pro forma rents being lowest for that area. This has been a great preview on the basics of how the multifamily space works, I've learned a lot about underwriting multifamily deals, and working on building relationships with brokers and commercial lenders.

The reason why I am focused on flipping right now is to build capital to go bigger. I am hoping to bring value to a broker in the area by having them sell the 6-unit property with me. Then when the development and two flips also sell and I'm ready to go bigger, they feel comfortable bringing me larger multifamily deals to put offers on.

At first I was terrified of doing this long distance, now I can't wait to go into uncharted territory like new construction and flipping a small multifamily... from Canada into Pittsburgh... how did I get here?! whichever way, I am very happy I am where I am, thanks to so many! 

So in 2022 and a 1.5 year span, I would have sold 3 properties, and 9 units... over $2M in RE transactions... crazy! Just never would have thought I'd do that... It will be crazier when I'm selling hundreds of units and multimillion dollar deals like the pro's here :).

So the reason for this post is to offer a hand out; to help, and a hand out to be helped as I know I have so many more things to learn as I grow. Also as some sort of full circle, since I when started posting here I was trying to figure out how to get started, now I have started and am in it, so BP forums needed to know ha!

Cheers everyone!

Andres

@Ali L. Thank you! I opened an account with Wise, and so far is going ok. Not going to last forever as I prefer the security of a bank. Just a temporary fix until I can travel to US to open a bank account.

@Hai Loc got it. Cheers!

@Hai Loc Thank you. Do you have a contact by chance?

@Paul Britton Thank you. I tried RBC already. They can't open a US business account, for an LLC and LP registered in the US. Their requirement is that if it's a US entity, I need to register an entity here in Canada with the same name, then open a Canadian RBC business account, let it season for 6-12, months then open the US business account... can't wait that long... that's what I was told. Do you invest in US from Canada? If so any tips on what I can ask RBC... or what worked for you?

Cheers.

Hello again BP Forums!

I am wondering who is investing in the US from Canada, or abroad? I live in Canada and will invest into the state of PA remotely.

I need to know if there is a way to set up a back account for my LP and LLC? I have called a long list of banks and credit unions to set up a business bank account for me. But they cannot do it since I cannot be physically present. I have tried a POA, tried to add a member into LP, but it keep getting turned down. Any suggestions or something I could ask or say that could help me get a bank account? Is a business bank account even necessary?

I cannot travel to US since restrictions coming Canada would take me away from my job.

Seems for now like the only option is an online bank. Any recommendations?

Thank you all!

Andres

@Chad U. Thanks Chad, yes I’m definitely using an attorney and a cross border tax planner, both with more than 20 yrs of experience, I managed to get a hold of both yesterday after my post. They are meeting next week to discuss my situation and come up with a structure.

Reason I posted here is to learn what has worked for others.