All Forum Posts by: Alex SImon

Anyone have any experience or interaction with NRE Brokerage?  They offer turnkey rentals with in-house property management.  They're only a couple of years old but so far they've been pretty professional with me.  Prompt communication, very straightforward, no big sales pitch or buy now pressure, so those are all positive marks.  Still, I'm just starting out and I could be missing something that an old pro would spot in an instant.

Anyone have anything to say about these guys?

I'm still working on my first deal, but it's already taken me through hiring the right and wrong people and several cycles of analysis paralysis. It's surprising me just how quickly my mindset keeps changing as I absorb the information here as well as from other sources. When I first got my head around the idea of REI my eyes turned to dollar signs and I was overwhelmingly positive. Then I started to really learn about the expenses and the hassle factor and other things that had me crestfallen and ready to find some other form of investing. Now I've reached a moderate point where I still see the dollar signs, but they're itemized and arranged in rows and columns, cash in and cash out, risk and reward. I'm just glad I hadn't gotten so blinded by potential profits that I rushed into it. Now that this first deal is underway I feel like there's a good chance that I can make this work, and those after it as well.

@Bill Gulley I promise I wasn't being nearly as disingenuous and false as I probably sounded.  I just didn't know if there was some commonplace maneuver that experienced RE investors used, some workaround that was still very much legal.  I was looking at it more like some of the creative moves that business owners use to maximize their tax deductions, where they're basically shifting money around from one pocket to another in a way that will stop them from having to pay too much in taxes.  But, this is some interesting reading and I'll be sure to keep from making these kinds of assumptions in the future :)

Ah, thanks for giving it to me straight.  I didn't know if this was a thing that people routinely sodestepped or if it was serious business, and it turned out to be pretty serious business after all.  This is good to know, though!

This overseas work is simultaneously my greatest asset and biggest stumbling block. Maybe in a few years when I come home for good I can use an FHA loan to finance my swinging bachelor pad.

@Jay Hinrichs

I do live in FL, sort of.  I'm a security contractor and I work in Saudi Arabia exporting freedom at gunpoint.   My quote un quote home is in FL in my mom's basement (truly a noteworthy feat considering the lack of basements in FL).  I know the area and I know some of the markets rather well as I lived there most of my life, I'm just kind of displaced at the moment.  And yes, choosing wisely is going to be critical to the success of my projects.  Full inspections, professional management companies and lots of insurance, and that's after finding a decent deal to begin with.

I'm also looking into turn-key properties, as there's no real way to rehab a property from across the globe. 

@Ali Boone I'm looking into FL properties as well but a bit further north.  I'd be interested in talking with you about the Ft Lauderdale market.  Mind if I inbox you?

I'm new around here and if you've taken notice of me over the past few days, you'll see that I tend to post some newbie questions.  This time I've been able to do a little homework and my question is a little less obtuse.  So here's the situation:

I'm a contractor overseas. I work year-round in Saudi Arabia where everything sucks but they pay you lots of money. My target properties are 2-4 unit rentals that I plan to buy and hold, preferably with units already leased. To this end, I want to take advantage of an FHA, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac low down payment loan to get started with rental properties in the 2-4 unit range. Now as all you seasoned investors know, those loans require owner occupancy of the property as a principal residence, which is not really feasible for me because (A) I can't physically be there all the time since I'm overseas and (B) the property in question is meant to generate revenue, so even just taking one of the units off the market will cut my monthly profits down to a pittance.

So, to all of you who are wiser than me, who have plied the tricks of your trade and trod the path less straight and narrow, I ask you, is there some legal way to get around this restriction?  Obviously I'm not out to commit fraud or anything, but one example idea I had was finding someone I trust and who needs a place to stay to be my 'roommate' of sorts, effectively renting the unit while I use it as my physical address.  I'd get my mail there and have a cot or a sofabed or something so that in all respects I could technically live there whenever I come home (even if I only get a few weeks home each year).  Is that a solution to this problem, or would that constitute some kind of fraud or something?  If you guys have another more elegant solution, please enlighten me.  Or, you know, tell me I'm barking up the wrong tree or something.  I might be completely wrong and there's no way to use these loans as a contractor in my situation.

@Raymond  Thanks for actually breaking down a few of the basic terms for me.  After I read your post I had a surprisingly stable hour or two of internet access and was able to follow the links you provided and actually do some more searches that (gasp) actually came back with results.  I've saved a few PDF files for later reading including the beginner's guides from Bigger Pockets and I think I can finally get some real learning done over the next night or two.  From what I've seen so far, I can take the 50k I already have and get it to start working for me with a couple of tenant occupied 2/3/4 unit properties in the shorter term, then pull out equity with a refi later when I'm more prepared to move on a larger property.

@Andy Mirza You're right about the @ function not working well with lousy internet connections.  Got it to work 50% I guess.  As for my deployments, I'm over here nonstop until I decide to quit.  We do year long contracts and you're pretty much guaranteed renewal.  It's very stable, high paying employment but dang does it suck.  I have a few pairs of boots on the ground in my desired market, all in the form of family and acquaintances who can scout properties in which I'm interested, and I've got a small team of pros coming together as well, but of course the communications barriers are a pain.  I can come back in person for only a few weeks out of the year (gotta stay tax exempt), so basically one big trip home each year or so.

I've got some good reading material for tonight, and hopefully I can find a few hours of stable connection tomorrow as well.  I have like 5 hours of youtube videos bookmarked already.

Hey how's the weather up there, on your high horse?  Thank you for taking time out of your day to ridicule someone new to the game.  I'm sure we'll all sleep better at night knowing that you're out there fighting the good fight against inquisitive novices.  

Like I mentioned above, it's pretty hard to look any of this stuff up because the internet is so unstable and nothing loads right.  If I had real internet access I would have watched a couple hundred more hours of tutorial videos and webinars by now since there's nothing else to do, but I don't so I can't and I haven't yet.  Hence the act of putting up a bunch of quick questions and submitting the post 10 times before the horrible network will actually let me post.  

This post in particular has already taken over an hour to try and upload, failing about a bajillion times.  So you can imagine how inefficient the search function is for me right now.

@Nathan: I have no idea what seller carry-back means or what this 65/35 split means in terms of whatever LTV is. I'm new to this, I don't know all the acronyms and the abbreviations and stuff yet. Worse still I can't look anything up because they just moved my unit to this ungodly prison compound in the middle of nowhere where you can't access anything useful on the internet.

Ugh, this sucks.  I mean, dang, that sucks worse than that guy in that one movie where he sucks a lot.  You know the one.

I've now gotten this a lot.  The whole "start small, start with duplexes or something" thing.  I had not quite realized how bad apartment complex terms were at the level where I can buy.  I don't know, maybe I should start small.  I wanted to dive into complexes because the money seemed good and while the initial investment was higher than a duplex, you seemed to get more profit for your money.  Now I don't know.  I haven't run into a single person who thought it was a good idea to start with apartments, so that's gotta say something.

Alright, so, maybe duplexes or some other tiny little thing.  Whatever it is I probably don't qualify for any of the programs that are meant to help you get a hold of them, and everything will probably be ten times harder than it needs to be.  Challenge accepted.