All Forum Posts by: Bella Butler

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

The real first residence that we enjoy living in

One of the Boston Suburbs, Town Melrose

That's a very good question. I had a light bulb moment a few months ago while I was listening to a podcast show talking about when in a crazy real estate market ( the reference here is Boston, MA), what you should do to stay rational and to take advantage of the situation. And what I had as a conclusion for the next step for myself is to be fearful and picker about investment when everyone else is fearless about investing in real estate. I also recall a lot of good points from the movie " The Big Short" though I never experienced it.  So for the next step, I plan to focus on helping people (especially foreign buyers) buy their first and second vacay homes here. Besides, I am going beyond the entry level where most of the players are, and going to pursue bigger residential and commercial development opportunities in-and-around the city of Boston, such as apartments, retail, office, mix-use, hotel, and warehouse repurposing, etc. Me and business partner will pull together deals by bringing individual investors, lenders, and developers in the same deal.  We will pursue the double-down brokage relationship where we make sales commission more than one time or get small portions of equity in each deal instead. 

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

The real first residence that we enjoy living in

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Great location and well-down gut-out job. A competitive residential market where there is always people who want to move in.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

MLS, all -cash, closing within 30-days, no contingency.

How did you finance this deal?

HELOC+ savings + investment returns from other assets

Lessons learned? Challenges?

The challenge was we all knew that the offer should be over the asking price but how much over was a very tricky thing. We dived in all the local market data of the past 10 months and came up with a number that made us both comfortable and confident to win the deal.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Myself, the realtor

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

A condo where we lived for free for 4 years because we made a good profit on the sale.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Value appreciation in a booming market.

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment.

Off-market big multi families of 4 units.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

In a great location and neighborhood of the town, over 6000 sq ft total, each unit at least 2 bedrooms and some could be converted into 3 bedrooms, great potential to increase rent and the value of the property with some proper work done.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Off-market, found by driving past it and got the owner on the phone afterwards.

How did you finance this deal?

Equity partnership. Savings and the loan.

What was the outcome?

After a few years, 2 units have been upgraded, better rent and greater cash flow.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Should have fractured the cost of the balcony rebuilding in the price in our offer. It cost us over $6,000 to fix the balcony right.

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment.

First 4-family income property, the purchase price was relatively low given the uphill market. The strategy was purely to generate passive income.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

4 straight-forward units in the building. Utilities are all separate. The rents were good enough to generate net income immediately. Tenants are the locals thus very reluctant to move.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Made the offer in a private showing before the open house, and approached the seller's agent aggressively "a legit and fair offer with 24 hours validation only, take it or leave it. "

How did you finance this deal?

Private loan.

How did you add value to the deal?

Was the best deal for the first investment. There is room to upgrade the unit and improve the value of the property when ready.

What was the outcome?

Generating income as expected.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

There are 2 units where the tenants need the government's to help pay their rent. The rent is usually paid on time. However, when increasing the rent, the government will always make it harder for us to get the rent increase approved.

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment.

Cash flow income property with a potential of scalable mix-use development (apartments + retail ) next to one of the commuter rail stops in the town.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Income, and value appreciation because of the limited supply in the area where we had invested time in living and learning about the market.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Sent letters to all 4-families in the area along the commuter rail in-and outbound of Boston. The owner responded to our letter and we started to talk about him selling to us, would make it a quick and clean deal.

How did you finance this deal?

some private loan, our bank savings, and a commercial loan

How did you add value to the deal?

Successful with a creative approach, and a great learning experience.

What was the outcome?

Pretty good, the property is stabilized and generates stable monthly income for us. The development opportunity is still promising though it could be years down the road. We need time to save and accumulate principal to invest in future development anyway.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

In order to get the deal, we agreed to let the previous owner live in the owner occupant unit for another 3 months for free so he could have time to use the payment from selling this property to close on another house and help cover his moving expenses. The 3-months were the most problematic 3 months that we had ever been experienced since investing in multi-family real estate. We learned that having the ex-owner stay for a while for free was not a wise decision.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Myself, the real estate agent.