All Forum Posts by: Brent Murphy

Hey Odie, thanks for the reply. Truthfully my experience only extends to what I've read in a few real estate books, podcasts, blogs and forum posts. Obviously there's only so much you can learn until you get out in the field. As for credit, it was excellent a year ago when I bought my personal home 740+, but I'd be willing to guess it's probably dropped to around 700ish due to increased credit utilization as a result of not working for medical reasons. I will also have been at my current employer for 5 years in June. I have a partner too, but he's mostly in the same boat as me experience wise. He technically flipped his own house a few years ago, but he lived in it for a few years so I'm not sure if that counts. As for terms I would prefer to have 9-12 months before it's due. We plan to do most of the work ourselves and hire out contractors for the few items that will require permits. I'm not sure if hard money terms have changed since I last read up on them but ideally 80% ARV for the loan amount and then interest rate wise no higher than 20%. I did get a local hard money lender referred to me by the guy who would be selling us the property who I will be calling tomorrow. I'm just starting to look into this so I'm not sure if this is realistic or not (especially with the lack of experience). This deal just came out of nowhere and I figured I would ask around as hard money at this point will be the only way to finance the deal.

Hello BP community! I have a potential deal in the works that I've been discussing with an a partner of mine. We're currently evaluating the property still, but are also wanting to see if anyone happens to know or recommend any hard money lenders (Ideally local to Saint Louis, but are open to other options). Also, when speaking with a hard money lender what questions should be asked? Thank you in advance!

I work at a financial institution and you don't need an LLC to establish a business account through my credit union. Many people have business accounts that are simply sole proprietors, partnerships, etc. I don't know if this is still correct procedure, but in the past I've seen business accounts set up as 'John Doe DBA (Doing Business As) John Doe Landscaping'. Other banks or credit unions may have different policies so call around and see if it's advantageous for you versus a personal account.

@Joe Hines Thanks for the information. First I've heard setting aside money after purchase for capex, but I love the idea!

Hello all,

I've been analyzing several deals for small multi family homes and I took a suggestion from a blog post I found for estimating CapEx. The blog suggested putting aside $200 for capital expenditures, which I've been doing when running the numbers. However, last night I had attended webinar hosted by Brandon Turner where he walked us through an analysis of a rental property. He used a percentage of 6% instead of a flat amount. After the webinar I had two questions. How is everyone else estimating CapEx and do you adjust the amount of CapEx depending on certain variables? For example, would you change the amount set aside based on age of the property?

Your input is greatly appreciated and I look forward to reading your replies!

Hi @Miguel Caldera. It would technically be possible however I can't say I would recommend it, but I'll explain how you could go about through a hypothetical situation. Lets say the payoff for your mortgage is $100,000 and you currently only have $10,000 in available credit with one credit card. If you plan to payoff the mortgage with credit cards you'll either have to increase the credit limit on your one card or open several others to make up the $90,000 difference. For the sake of simplicity let's assume you have the income to support $100,000 total credit card limits. You call your bank to request the increase and now you have the $100,000 of available credit to pay your mortgage off. Now, there a few scenarios you're likely to encounter when you try to pay it off using a credit card.

1. They don't accept credit cards for payment

2. They have a maximum transaction limit for payment amounts over the phone

3. Your credit card company may have a transaction limit

4. They don't accept your credit card vendor (Visa, MasterCard, etc.)

I could be missing a few possibilities but you get the point. There are a couple things you could do to get around these. You could:

1. Complete a cash advance off of the credit card and put the funds in your checking account and then have a cashiers check cut and then bring the cashiers check to pay it off.

2. Make multiple payments over a period of a few days/weeks.

One thing you'll want to keep in mind is that doing a cash advance is even more expensive than making a normal purchase. The credit union I work for charges an additional 2% interest on cash advances. You'll also likely have to pay a fee to complete the cash advance. The credit union I work for only charges $2 per advance.

The scenario I gave you is extremely unlikely. If you are capable of somehow supporting $100,000 in unsecured funds then you likely have a mortgage higher than $100,000 (generally speaking). You'll also likely have to open more than one credit card as quite a few institutions won't offer credit limits that high. My credit union will only go up to $75,000. The more credit cards you have the less likely you'll be approved for another. Especially when done in a short time span.

Long story short, don't bother wasting your time trying to get enough credit cards to payoff a mortgage when you're better off financially with your mortgage.

Congrats on your success @Anthony White! Just keep moving forward on the path to financial freedom!

Welcome to the community Justin! I don't know how much spare time you have between kids and your career but try to find time to listen to a few podcasts relevant to the strategy you're planning to use. The BP podcasts are full of great information. Best of luck to you with your endeavors!

Thanks @Kenton Coffman! I'll be sure to get in contact with him.

@Kenton Coffman do you know where I could find more information about who hosts it or how to get in contact with them? It would be greatly appreciated!