All Forum Posts by: Brian Berryman

Real Estate Goals for 2020: 

•  Continue building up cash reserves. 
• Purchase 2-3 new properties (depending on market and opportunities) We currently have 5 SFH properties in the Detroit area.
• Learn and implement new creative deal making strategies. BRRR / Flip / Etc
•  Network to expand ability to find better deals
•  Explore short-term vacation rental property strategies. We would like to purchase either a cabin-type property in an active tourist area or a multi-family property in a larger city. 

I'd say that overall, I'm somewhat bearish on the market. We have been focused on building up cash reserves to deploy if the market should turn our way (both stocks and RE). We'd be happy to jump on any great deals we happen to come across, but we're not being very aggressive. 

My partner and I have purchased 4 properties (all single-family homes) in the past 18 months (3 purchased 20% down - 1 at 25% down). The mortgage company we used was a referral from our realtor (who is great). The lender was also great to work with, but we're now finding it impossible to get the properties moved into LLCs that we recently created. 

So, I believe that we have a few routes: 

1. Keep the houses under our name, but we need to know the best way to keep our personal assets protected in the event of lawsuit. We have landlord insurance policies on each. Is that enough to protect us? 
2. Number one, but with the goal of refinancing at a certain point in the future. 
3. Refinance them. Since they were all purchased in the last 18 months, they likely haven't appreciated much. I'd be worried that the refi costs would wipe out a year's worth of cashflow, unless we'd be able to pull out cash. 3 of them were more or less turnkey, the 4th we bought at $45K and put another $15K cash into it. Cash flow is pretty good, but I don't know if comps would support what we'd need it to appraise for in order to refi. 

Are there any other options that I'm not seeing/considering? 

Thanks!