All Forum Posts by: Arron Paulino

I decided to make a post here to essentially reset. I was a newbie who started investing in real estate during the pandemic so I've been at it for a few years now. I am planning on liquidating a couple of my properties to "start over" and see how I can better achieve my personal goal of attaining $5,000/month in positive cash flow and keep some money in the bank to be liquid. I now have an LLC with a business checking account and credit card that I just established to separate my business transactions and personal. I have been in the ringer through real estate investing (negative cash flow, scammers, bad contractor, obtaining more than ARV, getting less than ARV, plumbing issues, positive cash flow) learning head-first the whole way. I know the obvious answer is to keep educating, but I knew I learned best diving right in and so I really experienced the good and bad of real estate investing firsthand.

With this said, any advice on how to proceed with decent liquidity? I've grown to learn what to do, how to do it properly, and continually educate myself to do better on the next deal. I read somewhere that it may be a good idea to buy large multifamily in a decent area (just don't really know what market is decent for this) or buy turnkey properties (I know of a couple reputable sellers that I can invest with). I have been doing the BRRRR as my exit strategy to obtain properties in my rental portfolio. Looking to hear from everyone and specifically from those that have obtained their financial freedom goal within a span of a few years.

I have been investing in the Memphis, TN market for four years now. It has been a journey and I have been cash flow positive but nothing too crazy to boast about. It's been up and down with expected repairs coming up (HVAC, plumbing, misc. repairs) that has shaken my cash flow over that time span. How has everyone else been doing in this market?

I am thinking of moving into a different market as it has been pretty stagnant for me especially due to high interest rates not making the numbers make sense in this market in my opinion. I plan to still keep the few rentals I have here in my rental portfolio, but will be doing more research in other markets such as St. Louis, the OH-state cities, and Detroit. I am thinking of changing my exit strategy from my typical BRRRR to a little fix and flip to generate some side income.

It's like I am thinking of hitting the reset button to find better results elsewhere. I even created my first LLC to start the fix and flip business, funding it with enough skin in the game, elsewhere hoping to use OPM rather than my own capital to fund these projects as it has been difficult finding a lender who is comfortable with loaning to me solely without an LLC.

My goal has always been to match my W2 income and eventually double it and more so I can work as a hobby rather than relying on it to live. I thought I would be near this place since I started, but haven't quite reached it so I am at a point of restructuring my strategy to make it more effective. Basically doing some review here to see what worked and what needs to be improved. Humbly speaking, I would've thought within 5 years something would've clicked to reach my goal. Especially looking to hear from anyone that has successfully attained this sort of goal and able to share their input.

Really was a waste of time and money.

I am thinking of always getting a title company/attorney or reputable entity to act as the median between me and the contractor/lender in every future opportunity.

Honestly, I was overzealous looking back. Treading more cautiously from now on.

They ended up blocking me, but for some reason, left their fraudulent site up and I noticed they changed their number. I heard of a couple of BP members getting contacted by them before and warned them about their scam.

It doesn't look like they appear on nmls (of course). This may a lost cause for me unfortunately.

Looking into the licensing board in TN, it looks like his license expired so I am indeed out of luck. Taking this all in as a lesson learned and really having my guard up future real estate investing relationships.

Has anyone ever had success with a demand letter? I will be sending two letters regarding a property that I was planning on fix and flipping. One letter is going to a former contractor (Dan Fitzgerald from Memphis, TN area) that I will be pursuing for fraudulent activity since he left about halfway through the rehab. The other will be sent to a scammer (David Owens of Owens Financial Group), who claimed to be legitimate, but was actually just pulling me along and had me wire funds for a loan that never even seemed to exist.

I waited about a year to take action and I figured better now than never to act on this. Hoping for something to happen in my favor, but not getting my hopes up. If anyone has pointers with this, that would be greatly appreciated. I put in my letter than I will give them two weeks to respond before needing to take legal action and have this tracked to see where the letter is to be sure it has been delivered.

I appreciate your advice. I am interested in getting a LOC as it goes into the mindset of using other people's money to scale up in my real estate investing journey.

I actually have the EIN ready when I was in the process of establishing my LLC. I am in the process of selecting which bank I want to do business with and getting my funds ready to store in this business checking account for my LLC. I will be following the instructions you just laid out. Thanks!

 That makes a lot of sense so that can keep me from waiting in line. Thank you for sharing the link!

 I appreciate the heads-up. This will be the start of a great business.

 Sounds simple enough. Thanks for the answer!

I plan to utilize seed capital and leave it alone to fund the business. I only plan to essentially pay myself once I see extra income not needed to be in the LLC account. What do you mean by having a good attorney have my LLC thrown out?