All Forum Posts by: Brandon Frulla

I'm glad an assistant works well for you! I was listening to the podcast this morning about VAs and how useful they can be, but I had trouble of thinking of things for them to do besides intercept phone calls. Can you give some examples of what you have offloaded to them? Thanks! 

Can't wait to see everyone there!

This is a great idea, and something that I have thought about doing for my own children in the future as well. I don't think the LLC partnership aspect with your child is necessary though. You can either gift them the property (this will be subject to gift tax, since it will exceed the annual limit in value for gifting, link). Conversely, if you want to transfer it to them upon death you can leave it set up in a trust so that it bypasses the probate process (more info). They can simply manage it for you when you deem them suited to do so.

Arm yourself with knowledge of creative financing strategies and you won't be required to come up with 20-25% down. You have many options for acquiring MF properties with low-to-no money down. 

For example, you could negotiate seller financing with an owner where you take over operations for 5-10% down (or even less), and then you would simply pay them instead of a commercial lender. This approach is attractive for sellers who don't necessarily need the big payout and could still wait a few years (they get the benefit of truly passive income the whole time). It would give you the opportunity to improve the operating numbers and then do a balloon payment a few years down the line (or don't balloon,if the seller is happy to wait out a standard amortization period and the interest rate is favorable). 

Another way would be to negotiate an MLO and take a similar approach to what is outlined above (assume ownership, improve numbers, balloon). Like Russel noted above, there are more than one way to get the deals done, you just need to know how to approach it.

Good luck!

Hey from your hometown, welcome to BP! 

My number one piece of advise for you would be to use the VA loan program as much as you can! That is an incredibly powerful tool for acquiring properties for low-to-no money down. Good luck!

Hi Michelle, welcome to BP!

There is a lot of value in presenting multiple offers, as I'm sure you know (turns a simple 'yes or no' to a choice of 'which one?'). 

Based on your brief outline, I think it is very unlikely that they will take the cash offer, since it is sounding like you're buying a flip, the ~$50k reduction on that offer is likely their entire profit margin (or more). The second offer sounds like your strongest of the three, again because of it being a flip (I think), they likely will not be interested in carrying the property through seller financing. 

I think at most you should consider making two offers, one slightly below asking with a conventional 20% mortgage, and one at asking but as a owner-occupant so that you only have to put 5% down, or less! You'd only have to live in the one unit for a year, and you can rent your current primary residence out in the meantime. After the year is up, you could move back out and either repeat the process or fill the half of the duplex that you vacated with a new tenant.

Follow up questions that are important to the context of your question:

Are either you or your partner a licensed realtor?

How long has the property been on the market?

Can you make a higher cash offer?

Get in contact with a local realtor and ask them to run some comps for you. You could even ask multiple realtors, and then average out what they tell you to get a more reliable number.

Hi Jake, welcome to BP!

If you are looking to sell it all off and consolidate it into one property, you will want to look into doing a portfolio sale paired with a 1031 exchange. There are hundreds of articles on this process, so don't worry about not being able to find a how-to to accomplish this. Basically, you'll get to tell the government that you'll pay them capital gains taxes 'later on' on your next sale. The sweet part is that you can keep doing it forever, so you never really need to pay them as long as you continue to purchase larger and larger properties. There are a few timeline requirements, so be mindful of those. Here's a link that will explain it much better than I will:

https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0110/10-things-to-know-about-1031-exchanges.aspx

You're off to a great start already man, keep it up!

You generally need cash, but you can acquire the cash from hard-money lenders. It is usually at a steep rate, so speed is of the essence with this strategy. Make sure you build a framework of experts in their fields that you can trust in this process; lender, realtor, contractor, etc.

Buying from wholesalers is not required, and I would generally try to avoid it in my personal opinion. If you want to work with one, find one that is established and that other investors will vouch for.

I love my tenants, all either working professionals or retirees. I stopped by my house today to drop something off, and one was cleaning the kitchen while another was scrubbing down a shower stall- was very pleasant to see everything being valued. They are great people, and I got very lucky to find them!