All Forum Posts by: Corby Goade

Welcome! Congrats on beginning your journey and thank you for your service. 

You have an excellent jump start- the VA loan is such an amazing tool to get the ball rolling. A couple tips-

-Always best to house hack small multis when you are moving around from base to base. 

-Find a stellar lender who understands everything about the VA entitlements and how to maximize and scale using it. A great lender can help you strategize and get much better ROI.

Best of luck!

Welcome! Congrats on saving up that much money so young, that's impressive. 

I have to be honest- I didn't read your entire post, as soon as you mentioned that you wanted to do your first flip remotely due to cost, I can already tell you that this is a bad idea. Just take five minutes scrolling through these forums to read the never ending nightmare stories that people have- all of them also thought they had a good plan and were going to save money or not have the same problems that happen to other people. 

Get your feet wet locally. Use hard money or do a few live in flips to keep your costs low. You don't know what you don't know and when there is a problem- and there WILL be a problem- you want to be able to go to the site and talk with your contractors face to face. 

I'm not trying to be negative or dramatic, but this is a very common way for people to lose their life savings. If there's one thing that every new real estate investor can benefit from is that you'll be successful if you don't step over dollars to pick up dimes. Those deals that look great all over the midwest- why do you think those properties are so cheap? And why are there so many of them? Why are they sitting on the market for so long?

Stay local, learn the ins and outs and stretch a bit once you have your feet under you.

Best of luck!

I've got a few tips- like any other business, this is a relationship based thing. Get to real estate meetups and network with people out there doing deals. Here are a few high level thoughts for you as a beginner:

-Don't lend in second position

-Don't do deals with new investors

-Don't experiment with new strategies, even with experiences investors- ie, don't jump in to a first development project with someone just because they've flipped 20 houses. 

-Start at a title company- they will help you structure liens and deeds so that your interest is protected properly. They can help make sure your contracts reflect your equitable interest in the deal. 

-Vet contractors and builders that your clients want to work with. The trades can make or break a good deal. 

There are a billion more, but that's a start. 

Good luck!

Couldn't agree more. By my estimates, pricelabs cost me approx $25K last year in lost revenue for some of the same reasons you've listed in your post. Turns out artificial intelligence isn't that intelligent. 

If you have high W2 income, the amount your STR makes (or loses) will be peanuts compared to the tax savings. Way better returns on the cost seg than you'd ever cash flow from an LTR.

Don't be fooled by the returns you see on paper in the midwest. Many of those properties don't actually produce income due to turnovers, vacancy, maintenance and damages and you're lucky if they appreciate enough to keep up with inflation. Those properties are cheap for a reason. 

There are actually some solid markets with reasonable points of entry in upstate NY from my understanding. Better to invest in your backyard so you can learn and use your commissions for price reductions. 

I'd suggest you hire an experienced and well connected PM. Vacancies will kill your profits and then some, having a pro fill and manage your properties and make it passive for you will likely net you MORE, not less. Lots of new investors step over dollars to pick up dimes and this is one way you can focus on activities that have much better ROI.

 I would definitely be talking to a real estate savvy CPA- there are lots of armchair tax experts on BP and you can get really confident and incorrect advice. 

Have you considered just having one be an STR and using the loophole?

I don't love this question....it creates procrastination with new investors. There's honestly good, general advice above, but the answer to your question is really simple. 

Whatever works for you is "good cash flow."

If you are broke and trying to quit your job asap, the answer will be much different than what an acceptable answer would be for a professional investor who is a multimillionaire. People investing in Indianapolis have a far different strategy than people investing in SF. 

People house hacking have far different expectations than someone buying properties with cash. 

People with high risk tolerance will have a far different answer than someone who is risk averse. 

I'd decide what is reasonable in the market that you want to invest in and create a strategy around that- not what a stranger (who, very likely has never done a deal) says on the internet.

Best of luck- happy investing!

If anything, I believe this will have a tangible effect on inflation, which always makes hard assets more desirable. I can't imagine a scenario in which this makes anyone's life better, with the exception of values increasing.