All Forum Posts by: Christopher Giannino

If there’s that many offers coming in on a property, why don’t you just offer your maximum allowable offer from the start. This way you don’t have to waste a bunch of time. You know at x price you’ll make what you want/need. Only thing I’ll say is if you’re a newer investor, make sure you understand what you’re offering and don’t cut yourself too thin. 

I think it depends...

If your plan is to low ball offer every MLS property possible to make it into a deal and just wait until a seller bites, you probably will have to offer on tons of properties to just get one deal but if you know exactly what you're looking for and those numbers that support it, you probably will be like @Russell Brazil where you only need to offer a couple of times a year.  

I can't speak to your market but my market is pretty hot so when something decent comes on the market and a client tells me they are going to offer $X,XXX amount under list price I usually know right there that they aren't truly serious about buying the property.

@Nick Shriner 

Awesome and congrats on the early success! Like you, I turned my primary residence into my first rental. I wanted to do it a couple more times to get the OO financing but unfortunately life got in my way. Do you have a plan for your next investment?

Wow, very interesting read.  Although many people here on BP are the real deal and actually are here to help/educate themselves, I'm sure there's quite a few scam artists on here. 

As the others have stated, the loan origination fee is very high.  Another thing to note, not sure if you plan on using an Attorney but that's not included so if you are, plan for additional costs.  Personally, I would shop around and see what other brokers can give you.   

@Tanzia Hossain

So I don't know what State you're in or planning to get a real estate license in but make sure that particular State allows you to take an online course (if that's the way you choose.)  In NJ, back 2.5 years ago it's required to take an in person course in order to become licensed.

With that being said, although it was slightly a hassle to have to physically be there vs. learning at my own pace I felt as though it was more beneficial.  My instructor pointed out the KEY areas that I truly needed to study and focus on regarding what we would see on the test.  I don't believe an online course will show you that so to me that could certainly be a disadvantage.  Hopefully, you find this helpful! 

@Bud Gaffney

I think it truly depends on your ultimate goals/risks within life as well as real estate.  I know some investors who want to be debt free ASAP so they would pick the 15 year note.  I know other investors who refi every few years to cash out and invest the "dead equity" found within the property so they would pick the 30 year mortgage.  It sounds like you have a couple of rentals under your belt now so I would start to think about what your future investing career will look like.  Do you want to amass a huge portfolio?  Do you want a small but debt free portfolio?  Are you looking for cash flow?  Are you looking to "retire" from a full time job in a few years?

As I'm sure you're aware, there are pros and cons to both options so I don't think there's a right or wrong answer here...  Just more of what you want going forward. 

@Richard Oswald

If I'm understanding your original post correctly, the only way I can think of for a BRRRR to work is if you bought the property for a an extreme discount meaning you bought the property for a lot less than what the property is truly worth allowing for initial equity. Another scenario could be if the property you buy is in an area that appreciates and so you can capitalize on that but remember appreciation is something that's not a given.

Most of the time, the BRRRR process works really well when you have a property that needs work because you can "force" the appreciation by doing the work... replacing a kitchen, adding a bedroom/bathroom, etc. In your situation, you can't force the appreciation because you say you're buying a turnkey property where all the work has already been done therefore you need some other way to build the equity in order to refinance.

So I actually own a rental that's a condo in an HOA community and personally, I love it and haven't really had any issues. I will say that I am still a newer landlord so I guess take my last sentence with a grain of salt.

I do sit on the board of the HOA and I do it so I can be more in tune with what's going on and maybe have a little more say then your average homeowner if a problem should arise. Additionally, I use my background (budget and FP&A work experience) to help set the community for future success by ensuring there's enough going into the cap reserves.

I will say that if you do plan on buying in an HOA community (rental or personal residence) make sure you know the age of the community as well as have a sense if things have been up kept. My community is around the 30ish year mark so we have a lot of maintenance jobs going on. Luckily, we have enough reserves in place and don't have to have a special assessment but our dues go up yearly. We raise them with inflation so it's nothing dramatic but this is our specific board. I've heard from others in the past that what I have/am part of is not usually the norm.

I wish I only had to put down $2,000 as a Earnest money.  In my first deal, I put down $5,000 and my second deal I put down $6,000.  I knew I was going to go through on the deals though so it didn't really matter to me.