All Forum Posts by: Carlos Valencia

Hi Margarita, 

is this your first purchase? if it is its normal to have mental blocks or experience paralysis analysis. If your purchasing your first investment. First thing is you need to remind yourself on what your goals are for this property. Are you trying to flip it, house hack it, mid term rent, long term rent. Adding value to the property to be able to rent it out for as much as possible. Make sure your due your research and create yourself a check list that makes sense to you so when your out there making offers you can take that property through your checklist and see if that property meets your needs for what you are trying to accomplish. Current market especially in Los Angeles is very challenging to find a positive cash flowing property. Might be like finding a needle in a haystack. In Los angeles at least you know you will have appreciation if your going to hold for long term but don't expect much cashflow. You will be lucky to break even on paper. Good luck on your search hope this helps get you out of that mental block.

@Albert Bui @Matthew Kwan

Hi Martin, 

Have you tried attending local real estate meetups in your area? Those are very helpful to get a chance to talk to experience investors and pick their brain about their deals. Investing in Real Estate can get overwhelming really fast as there's so many avenues to go about it. I wouldn't say that there's one strategy better than others because at the end of the day everyone's goal is different. What might work for one person my not work for you. I would look into what it takes to do short term rentals as an investment, house hack, flipping, long term etc... They all have their pros and cons and just remember that this is a marathon and not a sprint. Do not expect your first deal to cashflow immensely but analyze the long term projection. Ask yourself based on your personality which investment will match better with you as each strategy is different. Hope this helps to try to figure out what options you would choose to proceed. 

@Albert Bui @Matthew Kwant

Hi Chelsae, 

Congrats on your ealry journey to real estate investing. House Hacking is one of the best ways to begin growing your real estate portfolio. Make sure you do not max out on your first deal regarding your Debt to Income Ratio otherwise it will make it challenging to move on to the next one. We have many of our clients start with House Hacking including ourselves and no better way to learn about rehabbing a property on how to add value to get the max rents out of your property. If you have any questions about House Hacking please don't be afraid to reach out we are happy to answer any questions. 

@Albert Bui @Matthew Kwan

Hi Kaleb, 

Have you been attending local real estate meetups in your area? Thats also a great place to meet investors and create new partnerships and friendships. If you have not yet I would suggest to use eventbrite or meetup.com to look event in your area. I live in OC and theres plenty out here and LA area too. I've attended many in my area and have met and created connections with some awesome people. 

@Albert Bui @Matthew Kwan

Hi Hayden, 

I would say the stock market can be a little bit more volatile but based on the data and history both tend to recover. What I've learned so far is that investing is a long term game and not a get rich quick scheme lol. I think why not invest in both and diversify. If you can I would do both. Real estate investing can be time consuming and hard work especially in the beginning but once you do a few deals it will get easier and you will learn ways to make your real estate investing much easier. But until then it will take time and work. You can also try looking into syndication deals that's where people basically invest money on a deal like an large multifamily deal that has x amount of units and a group of people come together and put their money in that deal and have someone manage the deal to make sure its profitable. I would suggest to try and look into syndication deals but be careful as some are not that great in your return. Make sure you do your due diligence when looking into syndicating.

@Albert Bui @Matthew Kwan

Hi Jason, 

Yes you can use hard money but you will also need 20-25% down plus 6-12 months reserves depending on experience. Your rate will also be high and maybe 2-3 points cost. If your new it can be very expensive. Many DSCR loans don't allow for gift funds as its meant for investment properties so that can be a challenge when it comes to finding partners to help you fund this deal. You would have to season the money in your account or have them be on the loan with you. If the rehab isn't that extensive meaning you can live in the triplex you can also try financing as conventional if you qualify as you would only need 5% down. This way you can live in one unit and rehab slowly and not having to rush as you have a locked rate unlike when using hard money its only typically good for 12 months depending on your terms. Once you complete your rehab you can move out and rent out that last unit. Rinse and repeat.

@Albert Bui @Matthew Kwan

Hi Aidan, 

House Hacking is our specialty, majority of our clients start with house hacking and our team also house hacks. Happy to answer any questions you may have about this strategy. Quick tips don't max out on your first property make sure you can at least break even once leaving that property or be negative as little as possible. The key is to make sure you can also get the max rent from your property and one way to accomplish that is to rent by the room instead of renting out the whole house to a family. In order to rent out by the room you will also have to make your property marketable for to rent out by room and this means location will be key as well. There's many ways to plan to make this work first thing is to find out how much you can qualify for and what are rents going for in your market. 

@Albert Bui

Wow Dhruv I just went to a meetup that hosted a speaker and was sharing how Ohio is a great market to invest right now because you can actually cashflow. He did mentioned to look for off market deals and thats usually the case when finding these potential Cash flowing deals. Just like anything else right the goal is to buy as low as possible and sell it for higher or in this case be able to rent something and get monthly cashflow. If it was only that easy right? 

@Albert Bui @Matthew Kwan

Hi Kevin, 

it seems like your off to great start. That's always great when you accidentally stumble on something great especially in real estate. I would leave your current house and rent it out completely. Many people rent theres out by the room to get the most rent out of their property instead of renting to family because theres only so much you can get on rents when a family lives there. Take your savings and try to find another home to house hack with 3.5% -5% down and rinse and repeat. Many people use this strategy as it seems to be the least risky. You can use your rents to help qualify from the current house if you leave but only 75% of the rents the other 25% is used for vacancy thats why they dont allow full 100% to be used for income. Once you file your taxes with that rental then you can use 100% of the net after expenses. Sometimes it can be positive and sometimes it can be negative it all depends on how you do your tax planning for when you file taxes. 

@Albert Bui @Matthew Kwan

HI Jeet, 

Thank you for providing a simple and clear explanation on this whole NAR settlement. All this media confusing everyone and leaving all the important details is so frustrating that people are jumping into conclusion before really looking at all the details. All this means is just make sure you are an expert realtor and know what your doing to make sure you deliver the best service to your clients and standout from everyone else. Not that you didn't before but now more than ever.

@Albert Bui @Matthew Kwan