All Forum Posts by: Ted Chan

I think if you're looking for cashflow I think you need to start looking at multi-units, buy well below market, or add value to properties like others suggested. Most of the properties that I have run numbers for on single families didn't pencil out for cash flow in the areas that I look at.

Expanding to areas further out like Salem, St. Helens, Milwaukee seems to work a little better than closer in the Portland Metro area because purchase prices are lower and the rents are about the same. I get jealous hearing about some of prices per door in some of the areas in midwest and southern parts of the US.

I have been looking at multi-units and plexes, but many of them have high asking prices, especially if they're hitting MLS. I'm just getting started with marketing and looking for off market deals.

There are also a couple of meetup groups around real estate as well. If you go to meetup.com and search real estate.

I've attended NW REIA and Rarebird clubs and found value in both. Visit a couple of them and see which ones work best for you. There are occasional BP meetups as well.

Hi Matthew,

I'm in the Portland area and I'd be interested in meeting.

Bend is a great vacation spot. I'd investigate buying some houses or properties and renting them out as VRBO's or AirBNB. If you can fill them somewhat consistently, you'll have higher cash flows; and since you'd be local you can manage, clean and provide insights until you have some systems in place or people to manage turnover for you.

I don't know the rules and regulations for Bend as far as VRBO. I know a lot of people go down there for skiing or golf depending on the seasons from the Portland area as well as Eugene. Taking a look at the links on VRBO, it looks like there is a decent amount of houses available Bend, OR VRBO

Also, if your wife is open to it, I'd see if she would be open to buying a duplex to a fourplex as a primary, and do the  How to “Hack” Your Housing and Get Paid to Live for Free that 
Brandon wrote about.

@Dmitriy Fomichenko there is a REIA Meeting that meets on the 4th Monday of the month in Vancouver. I heard it has 5-7 investors from an acquientance. I haven't been to it yet personally.

You can check the REIA calendar at

http://www.northwestreia.com/clubportal/Calendar.cfm?clubID=939

It's the NE Metro (Vancouver) Round Table meeting.

I've attended a couple of REIA meetings. It's a great place to network and find out about what's going on in the local market.

I'm interested in getting ideas/clarification for the best way to buy and hold properties with some equity, with motivated sellers. Some might be have lis pendens or notice of default.

The goal is to get a property under contract and keep the existing financing if possible, I don't want to come up with a big down payment and get financing, control it, and rent it out for cash flow.

I'd be putting money in to catch them up, and pay any fees.

From the research that I've done so far my options are:

• purchasing subject to existing mortgage
• wrap mortgage
• land trust
• trust deed (i'm not sure if this is different than a land trust)
• lease option

Any suggestions or clarifications would be helpful along with Pros/Cons of each method.

Thanks for your input ahead of time.

I've seen properties bid up, close and re-appear for the next round/batch of auctions. There are some that I've watched that have shown up for 3 or 4 cycles.

Andrew,

You can have your friend take a listen to BP Podcast 17 with Jeff Brown

He discusses having Life Insurance, an employer 401k or rollover IRA that you can move to a self directed IRA or SOLO 401k and purchasing discounted notes.

If the person is interested in real estate but doesn't want to get their hands dirty, buying REIT's may not be a bad option until they get up to speed on where they want to focus their energy and money. The yield and leverage isn't as high as actively managing and investing in real estate but it's a baby step.

Hi Stephen,

Welcome to BP and Beaverton / Portland Area.

And there's always some great articles at:

http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/

Also, I'd check out the free BiggerPockets Podcast Josh and Brandon do an excellent job of bringing different guests on and finding golden nuggets of info. It also, helped me listen in and get different perspectives on what people were doing and help me decide which area of real estate investing to focus in on.

Hi Stephen,

Welcome to BP. In my area, most of the properties that I've been looking at don't work out with the numbers for cash flow unless I can get it significantly under market price.

I'd encourage you to read the Ultimate Beginner's Guide that Paul pointed out.

Also, you can enable alerts and add keywords that you're interested in by going to

http://www.biggerpockets.com/alerts

And there's always some great articles at:

http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/