All Forum Posts by: Austin Fowler

Do you do private lending?

Sounds interesting, but why aren't you keeping the deal for yourself?

If you have a trusting relationship with your friends and family you can also use their capital while providing them with a return to move forward with real estate purchases. Every property I've ever bought was funded in this manner.

Hi Colin, you can also look in to borrowing money from private individuals. I've purchased 34 properties so far funding the down payments with private borrowing at 8%. Have all the legals set up for others to do the same if you are interested.

Private lending is not that bad --- when I raise capital privately I pay 8%, no points or other fees.

Can you elaborate a little? Estimated cost to design, permit, and build? Estimated sale price? What return could the deal in principle support to an investor?

Could you elaborate on what you mean by "having access to private money"? What return would that money want?

Instead of selling the tax credits, could you imagine raising the necessary capital as simple debt?

Dear all,

When most people think about the task of opening a bank, they think of startup costs that can run into the millions and minimum capital requirements that start in the tens of millions. For an entity with FDIC backing, this is more or less the case.

But what if you would like to open a small bank where your own personal income, and your personal and business assets, and your integrity of operation are what ensures your clients are safe? Where you deploy capital into real estate and educate your account holders every step of the way. Where in the course of normal operation you educate your clients how to follow in your footsteps and open their own small bank one day. What would that cost? What if you just wanted to try this out without fully committing, what about the cost of just doing that?

Well, over the last 20+ years I've put a lot of work into answering the above questions. If you want to try raising capital bank-style to fund your real estate, you'll need an LLC and a business banking account with ACH collections. Not free, but that is all. You are restricted to trying things with your closest friends and family only. No advertising of any kind.

If you want to get fully set up so you can talk to anyone and advertise openly, that will set you back $15k in legal fees. None of this money goes to me, all of it to a securities lawyer ready to help you. You can test the model for years before making this transition provided you test within your inner circle and don't advertise.

How hard is this to do? 5 simple steps to get to test stage, and 2 two more to get to fully legal stage. If you wanted, you could easily complete all of the steps in a month. I'm not personally charging anything for anything. We all win when we share our knowledge and experience. We all grow together.

If this is of interest to you, please head to https://groups.google.com/g/stairway-fundraising and read through the 7 steps. They total less than 3 pages :-)

Join the group and let's go!

Best,

Austin.

 As mentioned many times, the goal is not to sell, rather hold indefinitely. Any house you buy at market then sell shortly after for a similar price would be a bad deal. If we take 10% instead of 20% as average appreciation of the portfolio, that's over $700k of appreciation, plus $400k in cash from accelerated depreciation. I'll take that deal any time.

Best,

Austin.