All Forum Posts by: Ben Wilkins

As I'm sure you're already aware, partnerships have pros and cons. As far as how to structure the BRRR partnership:

Understand your partner, and have that understanding in writing. Have exit strategies / options in writing, which will determine how one party can leave a deal.

A partnership makes sense when you are both planning to hold the property together. If your partnership is based on the understanding that one will buy out the other, it makes more sense to get private investing with a rate of return offered to them. Less emotion evolved, and fewer chances of something going wrong. It also helps that there are plenty of examples on how to set up the financing. 

Favorite vacation spot right now is Boulder CO area

Although making it a humorous comment, I know that John has made the best comment possible. A property without a tenant means that it isn't giving you income (and thus isn't giving you any returns right now).

I am from a smaller part of PA as well, so I know what you mean about the dry MLS pickings. How comfortable are you looking further outside of your immediate area? You can always expand farther away if you need a better market.

Network! That's where my partner and myself currently are in the real estate process. We are currently in the process of our first purchase (here's our intro post! Shameless plug haha), and are starting to reach out to increase our network. We just joined on BP (we just found the site last week), and are looking to attend the local REIA meeting as well. The more people you know, the more sources of hearing about potential deals!

Keep searching on your own for deals. Depending on your criteria, it might take you a while to find the next Buy and Hold purchase. In the meantime, you can consider flipping (if you have the capital), expanding your market, and keep networking.

Congrats, and good luck!

Ben

Good morning all,

I am looking to get involved in real estate investment with a friend. We have been doing some research enough to know how to calculate COC and the value of a property. With our current liquid capital available to us, we were planning to purchase a two-unit for $40,000. COC is 31%, so not terrible for the first purchase. This is at 20% downpay using a standard 30-year finance through a local bank.

So our question right now: are we aiming too low? Our longer goal is to retire from our current careers within 10 years and have a sustainable income flow from real estate. To that end, we were planning to purchase a few similar properties over the next five years, then sell and upgrade. Rinse and repeat. This strategy was based on 20% downpays, rolling over income from owned properties and reinvesting, etc.

After reading other posts on here, I'm starting to wonder if our strategy is the best for us. Should we be looking at other options? What is a realistic first purchase, given we don't currently hold a lot of equity?

Thank you all in advance!