All Forum Posts by: Casity Kao

@Logan Allec 

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/08...

A lot of cities like Denver are starting to get AirBNB friendly as they are able to collect taxes on AirBNB rentals.  Best part about it is the way it is setup the guest is paying the tax up front rather than the owner, and you are starting to see AirBNB hotels so I am confident the trends will continue in a positive way.

@Ravi Todi  It's hard to say without knowing dollar amounts and amount of work you will put in.  Is your friend learning the ropes from the business or or just investing passively?  I would ask your friend what they think is reasonable and see if you think that based off those numbers it's the worth the amount of work putting in.  If you can do the deal without him then I would likely structure the deal based on how much time or money he is saving you to do the deal with him.  On the back end it sounds like the best way to go is to 1099 his portion of the profits when it's all said and done.  Your accountant will help you do this and you will need his tax identification/social security number to 1099 him.

@Ken Sypal Feel fortunate that you have had 20 trouble free flips.  Personally whenever I have a great contractor I know in a short period of time they are going to move on because they are going to find clients that they can charge more if they do great work, as most of my contractors I use are priced very well.  I think you deep down know what to expect out of a good contractor, and you probably know as well as many of us that good contractors are hard to find so when you find them do your best to hold on to them or keep them happy.  I often run into contractors that do not have alot of references I can truly verify and many times I need them last second if I'm trying someone out brand new and not known to me, so what we resort to is giving them a tryout with no money down.  At the end of a few hours of work or a maybe a day we or one of our other contractors examine their work to see if it's up the quality that we believe.  We are up front that the work has to be quality or they will not make it to the next days worth of work.  In most cases, except one the contractor does a good job the first time we use them.  If they are showing signs of cutting corners or we have to micro manage them then we cut them at the end of the job as we know it's only to get worst going forward. 

@Kristina Dodson Dupree I think what Shawn Ackerman said is correct that a cosigner is probably your best option for financing but I personally always tell my clients never to cosign unless you are fine with being stuck with paying the mortgage yourself or are fine with having a large payment on your credit for 30 years.  I can't tell you how often I have clients that tell me they didn't realize cosigning on a loan would cause all of the debt to count against their debt to income and it affects their ability to get loans in the future.  I would really make sure you consider the compensation they get for cosigning.  You will still have to do a portfolio loan as many banks underwrite to the lower of the two credits, but cosigning for someone is not a small favor, it's a huge favor and a much bigger commitment than people often realize.

@Rudy Cecere I really don't think that agent would mind if you move on with somebody else.  If he had shown you a ton of houses and invested in a lot of time in you then yes I could see that, but you are being respectful if you recognize that it's not a good fit and are respectful of both your and the agent's time.  Tagging on what @Russell Brazil, someone who I do not know personally but have great respect for the content he brings to bigger pockets, if you are finding that with other agents you are hearing similar stories regardless of background then realize that it is probably you with the unrealistic expectations but right now I think it's too early to say.  

@Pete M. Wyoming is probably where I would suggest for cheaper housing in relation to the rest of Grand Rapids, and also rental compliance is much easier than City of Grand Rapids. You will also find newer homes in this area which should help on the CAPEX over older homes in City of Grand Rapids. City of Wyoming had a very high millage rate but they have finally turned around and invested it in their schools so I think it's an area that is turning around, especially if you can find something in Wyoming, but Grandville School District which is an excellent school district. All of Kent County is hot right now, but even with that being said it's still super easy to find affordable homes under $100 a square foot which is kind of ridiculous given other markets of comparable size have much more expensive homes.

@Mike Abramov Sure thing Mike!

@Kristina Dodson Dupree  Going to be hard to get conventional financing, so it's going to have to be a private lender.  I normally would not say this but if you have alot of equity you may want to consider selling the property to use the funds to bump your credit up and buy more real estate or possibly do it via an installment sale with a large down payment to get a cash infusion to payoff the loans and cards.  How did you get the property in the first place with credit score in the mid 500s?

@Brian H. We go with the cheapest stainless steal package but normally are paying about 1700. I know many people that would disagree but for a middle class home we will just get a top down fridge instead of french door. Most people just want new and if they don't like the fridge they can throw the one we provide in the garage and get another. In my experience as long as it is brand new appliances it will not kill the deal. I also know many investors that do not supply, which I disagree with because I believe the FHA and VA buyers are the ones most likely to overpay because they are buying a house with max leverage and also they often do not have the money to buy appliances. In the end you will likely have to pay for it anyways. The only time I would upgrade the appliances at all is if it is a high end home I may do side by side, or if there is a big sale on a higher end appliance I may pay 10% more but in general I'd rather spent 1700 on appliances and 300 on light staging than just spending $2000.

@Rudy Cecere Hard to say if this is the right agent for you and I will say that this agent could be very good at what he does but he may not be the right agent for you. If this agent is so busy with their own investments and they have been in the business a long time they may have such a long list of investors that they don't really need your business, especially if you are a 203k or conventional buyer. You may or may not be better off with a newer agent that maybe has lots of investment experience because they may allow you to monopolize more of their time. We don't invest in the 2% areas of our city because we don't like to deal with older homes and the tenants are harder to deal with but it aligns well with our investors because we do not compete with them for the same type of home as we prefer lower 1-1.5% rents with lower CAPEX in nicer areas. Philosophically it's different from what we want but it's our job to align with what our clients want. It does not seem like you are getting that from this agent, so the question is what would you lose by trying another agent?