All Forum Posts by: Christopher Parsons

Hey everyone, needing some help coming up with ideas to try to do my best to come out in the best position possible on my situation.

So, we moved down here to Florida on a rent to own option. Purchase price was 295k and we put 35k down, our term to execute on the option ends on 11/30 and it's looking like we won't qualify for a mortgage by then. Our agreement states that 3rd party buyer is not allowed and will void the contract. Value of the house now appears to be 315k and is going up by an average of 3% a month. Given this situation, what would you be doing in my shoes?

Hello everyone. We're investing in a small town in Texas and recently had an issue with our current property manager. Not to get too detailed, but basically we had some last minute repairs come up and need to get them done before an appraiser comes out to appraise the property (BRRRR). Been telling her for over a month that we need everything done by the 15th, reached out twice a week with little to no response, and now I'm having to pay premium for my wholesaler to get someone out to do these repairs tomorrow seeing as the appraisal is 2 days from now. Basically, I no longer want to work with the property manager. Problem being, apparently all the property managers in this area are like that, and I get it. They run on a very thin margin. Still was hoping for better communication.

With all that said, has anyone used Caretaker Property Management? Or Rentredi? If so, any thoughts or opinions on either? We live in Washington State, so if we were to go virtual/automated property management, we'd have to go with something pretty much fully automated. Couldn't find any reviews online for Caretaker and searching the forums unfortunately brings up posts that mention caretakers as in a person taking care of someone. 

Watching the Keyspire's pitch right now. Thought this was an actual 3 day webinar, but quickly realized its a 3 days sales pitch. What got me was the "Flip to Yourself" strategy and how they originally said it was different then BRRRR... Then they got to the Flip to Yourself portion, I asked how it was different than David/Brandon's description of BRRRR, and the moderator told me its the same... So there goes that. The other things that sold me on the 3 day workshop were the 1 on 1 strategic call. Haven't done that yet, hoping its not just another sales pitch (guessing they're trying to get as many touches as possible to increase sales numbers). The other thing was the fact that Scott McGillivray seems to be a part of, or at least endorse this company. Was hoping for a little more info on investing in Vacation Rentals.

Now, heres where I will play a little devil's advocate. I am a Muay Thai/MMA coach. There is no such thing as a successful professional athlete who doesn't have at least 1 good to amazing coach. Naturally gifted people? Sure, but they have no chance of making it to that pro level without a coach. That said, a coach can't make you workout, you have to choose to be that dedicated. When they say jump, just start jumping as high as you can, don't even ask how high. My point being, mentors/coaches will greatly increase your odds of being successful while also getting you there quicker. Its a matter of how you use said coaching and if you vibe with the coach/coaching program. I am sure there are lots of people who are successful with Keyspire, and probably a lot who aren't. From what I am seeing right now, I don't personally think I have too much to gain from their program which they're now charging 14k for their most beefed up program for a year. 

Thank you everyone for the advice. Feeling a lot better about jumping back into this. 

Hey everyone, I have a question for wholesalers/deal finders on Tax Delinquent lists. I found a mentor who was helping me get started in wholesaling. Unfortunately, there wasn't much prep work, as in, wasn't told really what to say on inbound calls from our letter campaign.

One question I got a lot from potential sellers was how I found their property and what makes me think they want to sell. I didn't really know how to answer this other than for being honest, which usually led to them getting defensive about their situation. My mentor basically told me to make up a story instead. Personally, I'd rather move forward with integrity and be as upfront as possible. Frankly, I don't even know if calling a Tax Delinquent list in WA is legal (my mentor never clarified that with me).

With all of that said, how would you answer that question without lying to the seller?

Just curious, why do a equity loan as opposed to an equity line of credit? I know they're a little bit more difficult to find, but they are out there. Little bit better advantage seeing as you only have to pay on what you use with the line of credit as opposed to the amount you borrowed with a loan.
Also, if you really want to explode, I'd look into the BRRRR method and try to apply it to vacation rentals as well. My wife and I had 30k to play with, got our first rental through the BRRRR strategy in August and are already working on our second to close this month. If we had $188k to play with in a year, holy crap we'd be through the roof. Maybe look at BRRRRs and cash out refi on a 15 year (as long as the cash flow makes sense), then when you have your 10, pay down the first 4 completely, acquire 4 more, pay down the next 4, so forth and so on. That way you'll have some 100% secured properties (secured as in paid off) that you can do some HELOCs on.
With how much you're looking to play with, I'd start researching a lot of strategies on how you can make that explode real quick. Also, whats long term goal? If its just cash flow, maybe do a solid market research and look at some commercial options. See if you can work out a nice seller finance option where you only have to bring 10% down. Lets say you found a property thats 1.2 million, you'd only need 120k and you'd have 68k to come in and make some improvements right off the bat. Just food for thought :D

Found my through a relationship I built with a wholesaler. Purchased for 75k, rehabbed for 15k, ARV is expected at 140k (will be able to cash out refi in February).

So far the deal has been better than expected. My wholesaler hooked me up with both a property manager and a contractor. We had 3 people ask to rent while we were in the rehab process, lease was signed on the day the rehab finished (Took about 1 month, rehab itself was only a week and a half, had to wait for contractors to finish other job).

What I would have done different, and what I am doing different with the BRRRR I'm about to lockdown is set up a little better systems on the rehab. Our contractor works both cheap and great, but since we weren't 100% clear on everything we wanted done (there were 2 fans without blades for example), our property manager had to go back in and put on the finishing touches. Also, some of the cheap rehab wasn't what we thought it would be. We thought we were replacing all the tile in a shower, but they really only replaced the bad tile. Both of those are 100% my fault for not clearly communicating what I wanted (after all, contractors can't read our minds). What my wife and I did was went through Lowes and Home Depot just to price out common items that need to be replaced (floor, bathroom fixtures, etc.). Now what we have is a list of 2 to 3 options for a mid-tier rehab and a higher end rehab for when we start going into better neighborhoods. That way we have an idea of both price of our materials and what the finished product will look like. Also had our wholesaler video call us and walked through the property a lot slower while taking down notes on literally everything. The more clear you are with your contractor, the more likely you will be happy with the end results.

@Malachi Johnson sounds like you're trying to build a buyers list before you find the deals in your area so that you'll be able to hopefully move these properties as soon as you find them. What I did was I created an excel sheet with a few columns that I thought were important to know about a buyer so I only send them deals they would be interested in closing (name, email, phone, price range they prefer to deal in, preferred zip codes, ideal property like a 2 - 1 that has space to add another room, etc). After I had that laid out, all I had to really do was look up flippers in the area (most of your buyers will be flippers) and just called them to introduce myself, told them a little about me and that I'm a new wholesaler, explained that I would like to ask them a few questions if they had time and wanted to do business. I spent maybe half a day and was able to add about 10 people to my buyers list with that method. REIAs area a great place to meet buyers as well, they're just not open where I am. You can also look to see if there is an REIA Facebook group for your area and introduce yourself there and ask for people's email if they're interested in doing business.

What are you looking for? If it was me personally, I'd either go for a HELOC (if I could find it) or refi the equity out to leverage and purchase more. I'm also 31 and am trying to mad dash to build my mini empire as fast as possible. If you're looking more for straight up stability, then having them paid off might work better for you. Thatch Nguyen talks about how having the peace of mind is sometimes worth more than money you'd receive (ep 395 of BiggerPockets Podcast). If you have kids, are you trying to build up a bit more to eventually leave for them? Maybe refi half of them to have money to play with while also keeping some of that peace of mind.

Honestly, its a very personal question that will be completely dictated by your goals.

@Reyna Montoya researching your target market means try to get to know everything you can about that area. Is the population growing, are big chains starting to move in if they're not already there, are jobs dependant on a specific employer or is there decent diversity (ex: we have tech and Boeing up here, but tech is starting to move to working from home and Boeing is starting to move some production out of state), whats the median income, where are the bad neighborhoods, etc. For us, we got lucky and an old friend of mine got into wholesaling about 3 years ago and has been killing it down in Texas. He grew up in that area and moved back there about 5 years ago, so he knows the ends and outs of the smaller towns we're investing in there. Main thing is, if you can't fly there and get the knowledge yourself, find and put together a decent team that knows that area really well. Property managers are essential for that seeing as they will (or should) tell you where they don't want to be doing business. They'll also help you get your investment on par with comps in the area. They won't make money unless you make money, so there is incentive for them to help you best they can. Thats not to say some might be desperate for business, but thats where it becomes your job to interview them (over the phone should be fine).