All Forum Posts by: Chris Field

Cars don't do much for me anymore. When I didn't have a pot to piss in I wanted everything, now spend $100k on a car? Why so some idiot at the store can whack it with there door? I'll stick to a basic pickup. 

Also if your shopping payments on a 10 year old Lambo you can't afford it. Exotic Italian cars break, if a $10k or a $15k repair will kill you don't buy one. A good way to get a deal on one is wait for the economy to slow down and buy one for a song from such a person. My buddy in 2008 stole a 360 from a guy who could barely afford the payments but not the T belt service it needed.

Jim Rogers does nothing but predict crashes. 

Typically I try not to push an areas prices. I'd have to really look at that specific area but with my new construction I like to be either at the bottom or middle of comps.  For example I just sold a beach house and all the comps were in the mid to high $400k range. I priced my house at $429k, and its sold before completion for full asking. The other guys will be owning them until spring, I'm on to the next deal. This also is a hedge against a market turn down, if the market tanked those guys at say $525k trying to push things would be down in my $430k range.

Pushing prices can be done in hot markets but its also a wonderful way to overbuild and lose your shirt if the market turns.  

Land value is again tricky, a lot of it depends on what needs to be done to get the land build able. If its raw land costs can be high, so you need to really look into what it will take to get a house on that property. 

If everything is mid $500k's I'd shoot for $550k for arguments sake, consider anything higher than that a bonus. For a house at that price point I'd be looking to be in a lot for around $150kish for a finished piece of property. Maybe a bit more if I really knew the area and I new I could sell it fast, but certainly not more than $200k. 

Remember that's finished if you have to spend $100k to get it build able take that off the top.

I can't really help you without knowing your area, but typically with land I just simply buy it with cash. Cash can be yours, a partners, or a hard money lender. For something that is going to sit that your going to be paying juice on yours is better. 

I have no idea what the land is worth you really need to talk to someone with some experience in your market to determine that. However if the FMV of a finished house is $179k the land isn't going to be worth much.

How are you going to come up with the capital for the down payments on these? 

In my area this would be around $60M +/- in property, and you would need $18m or $20m down to get the notes on them, plus capital reserves. Borrowing the money is fine but it dilutes your ownership significantly.

I'd love to get into this league and now a couple guys in it, you just need such deep pockets.

Around here their is no value difference, most buyers don't even know or care. 

Good luck the low end stuff is tough, it requires a substantial amount of babysitting and drama. After seeing what my business partner went threw with a $600 a month 8 plex in Ansonia no thank you. Taxes in a lot of these cities also kill you, they are simply to high. 

Norwalk seems really hot right now, and you can get some quality assets their.

The city I'm currently most interested in is Branford.

I invest in a higher value area and I expect good cash flow from day one. Why invest if your not going to make money? 

Never understood this about RE, every time the market gets good all of a sudden it becomes trendy to either break even or pay to own a property. A lot of people were doing this in 2008 before the crash.

Quality real estate is always a fantastic asset. The cash flowing houses in the midwest don't appreciate, what you pay for them today is what you get for them when you sell. 

Some areas of NYC have enjoyed very good appreciation.

Look at what your competition has and see if you can make yours better.