All Forum Posts by: Cal Martin

I live in an area that under most circumstances that doesn't currently cash flow for new deals and deals are selling at a higher premium than any other place in the country. I am looking for alternative markets to put my money into.

Through my research I've selected Birmingham, Memphis, and San Antonio as my front running markets.

Give me a 3 Bullet Point list on why I should invest in Birmingham

- Statistics are encouraged, however, I am also interested in the feel and vibe of the city and prominent areas.

Looking forward to hearing your responses!

Awesome question, good thing you are close to a lot of great places to invest

- Buy an awesome ring for $5-6k

- Cash out Refi 

- Take ~$110k and either:

1) Buy value add multifamily with owner occupied financing and move into it and use the remaining $ to rehab the units and rent out your current primary, even if it doesn't cash flow a ton or at all.

2) Use $110k as a 20% DP on a MF investment and continue living in your primary.

If I had to guess it could be an aggressive DSCR loan, or

they had owner carry part of the deal, or

they could've been an agent and elected to have their commission go towards part of their DP

Regardless, definitely weird situation.

I am an experienced investor and agent. I just want to get other's opinion on what they would do in my shoes. Currently renting, but flipped a mobile home and netted $65k and flipped a second MH and am pulling in $12k. Average small multifamily in the area 400-500k and won't cash flow fully rented with LTR.

My plan: FHA househack with cosmetic value add, take remainder and invest out of state

Thoughts?

I've been direct mailing through obtaining ownership info through county records and sending them a few sentence pitch of what I do, a business card, and a QR code that takes them to a website I created on Canva that summarizes my 3-year investing goals, what projects I've done, and my next steps. The QR code is important because when someone uses it you can see when they scanned it and what city they're from (if they're absentee owners). 

I'd argue the best way is most likely to find a local REI meetup, find the person who you want to be, ask him what they need most in his business. Once you know what they needs most, put a ton of effort in to solve that problem for them. They'll either invite you to partner in buy and hold, or he will use you as a resource when he is off-loading properties.

Hey Alex, hope your day is going well!

It probably just depends on what your current situation is financially. If your'e just starting out and cash flow is more important for your personal finances than it might be best to sell and look for some higher cash flow properties. The more likely situation is that you are have a decent paying job that enabled you to purchase that house in the first place. In that case it might be the best idea to keep as a rental and while it might not pay you super high cash flow, you are producing $40,000-$60,000 that goes towards principal pay down and significantly increases your wealth. As long as you get a high quality tenant in there I think holding as a rental would be a low hassle way to hold a property that it only going to appreciate in value.

Hey @J Raj! So happy to have you in the community! 

Personally I believe education enables us to be more aggressive when you do end up pulling the trigger. Any $ amount you end up spending on education could come back to you ten-fold, so don't be afraid to get that audible subscription or Spotify. In the mean time, I would agree with @Clayton Mitchell and finding ways to house hack, save money, and practicing analyzing deals. Also any agents in your world would be more than happy to talk to you about the investing world!

Have a good day!

Hey Micheal! Personally I would say that regardless of what avenue of real estate you are most passionate about, house hacking is most likely the best method to get started, being able to put even more of your soon to be large income with addition to any cash flow you have back into the RE game will be huge! Let me know if you are unfamiliar with the concept, but since you are on bigger pockets I highly doubt that haha.

Have a great day!

Hey @Alfredo Navarrette! I personally just started a new business and having the same issues with financing. Personally I just found cosigners and still eligible for that 3.5% down financing. If you don't have a cosigner then you can go one of several directions.

1) Hard Money: Find a hard money lender for a high upside deal with a value add then sell, take the profits and re-invest.

2) Owner Carry: Find off market deals that are owned generally by tired land lords and offer them seller financing to maintain that monthly check coming into their bank account but you can net the excess.

3) DSCR: If you have enough down you can do what @Clayton Mitchell advised and get a loan thats based on income generation and not your personal income.

4) Get a part time job that is fully guaranteed to help your DTI

Wish you the best of luck!

Hey John! We just had a lender come in to our brokerage and speak to us about ARMs and lending on land. If she bought the land outright then she can use that land as collateral on a construction loan to finish the project. Now I don't know about the value of land in her specific market but if it is similar to other northern California markets I hear about then it shouldn't be an issue to cover the 100-120k bid she needs to finish the construction.

Hopefully this is helpful!

Cal