All Forum Posts by: Henry Clark

Glad to help.  My son is 19 and in college.  Would gladly have him swap with your position any day of the week.

In 1 year I won't be on this forum; working on a different life style change and investment overseas in Belize. Once you build up about $50,000 to $100,000 cash; track me down if your still interested in REI. I mainly do Self Storage. Keep our https address below. You can read my posts, but will be glad to guide you if you go down that track. Can be anywhere in the US.

Start small and Make Your Big Mistakes Early.  

"If" you will be stationed state side again, recommend you buy an RV or Trailer and park on base for $45 per month parking.  Take your housing allowance and pay as much as possible down on the Unit.  If large enough, house hack it with another soldier.

Lets say you buy it for $15,000 and sell it for $12,000 2 years later.  You lost money?  No, you made money on your housing allowance, just paid yourself.  Keep doing this at each post as long as it fits your lifestyle.  Who do you sell to?  The next incoming soldier and they get a great deal.  My Brother and Sister in law did this and racked up $50,000 equity moving station to station.

Could do a house, but a lot more risks and costs.  What ever fits your risk reward.

Probably doesn't fit Kuwait, but as mentioned above you could also Apartment hack if large enough.

Buy an RV or Trailer and park on post rental space.  Take your housing allowance and pay down on the RV or Trailer; sell it when you move and keep starting over.  Even if you buy it for $15,000 and sell it for $12,000;  you made money from the housing allowance.  My brother and Sister in law did this and it worked well with that part of his military career.  You can also House Hack and if big enough rent out to another soldier.  And sell to another soldier and pass on the idea.

Buying a house for only 2 to 3 year stations is way more risk than the potential reward is worth; net of any sales commissions and taxes.

Just keep buying a bigger RV or trailer with each move.

3 November 2020, 05:03 PM Retaining wall finished up. All our fences and walls usually are about 1 foot off the property line. The first picture looks like it is coming across the straight fence line, which it is. About 10 foot to the right of the wall out of the picture is our corner boundary and the property line runs along the back of the cars facing the fence. They have an easement for this land. Both the apartment and our land used to be owned by the same person.

The second picture is to help support the land for the pad to the right of it. Has dirt on it, so hard to see. Same pad in both wall pictures. This is a 15 foot wide pad. Originally I was going to do a 20. But we have to plant between the wall and the building so I shrunk the width down. I won't plant the shrubs on top of the wall till spring, so the building erectors don't have to step around it. I did go ahead and put grass seed down and grass mat. Really to late in the year, here for seeding, but put it down anyways. Should sprout in the spring.

All of the retaining walls combined equaled about 2,000 square feet. Ended up being $36,000. Cleaned the edges of the property up on the two pictures below. And the real long wall pushed the hill back to we could add about 28 more units. Will be close penciling out to revenue, but makes the property look a lot cleaner.

Also put a "Dry" wash area to drain water from behind our building and next to apartment complex. Otherwise water would back up into part of the apartment. Used a skid steer to dig the ditch out. Then put extra silt fence material I had down to prevent soil erosion. Then put rip rap in it to slow the water down and to hold the fabric in place. Again this is to get water around the apartment building to the right which our property line is only about 4 feet off their building corner.

Learn something everyday.  The pad below is 40 foot wide.  To give it a smooth surface they are running a "float" over it.  Made a comment about using the Bull float, and they said no, this is a "Fresno" float.  Guess the Bull float is used to level the concrete a little better than the power screed they use.  Then they use the Fresno float to give it a better finish.  Two people pushing and pulling.  The person on the far side to pick it up and move it to the side.

Electricians are working around everyone.  Plumber and Concrete.  They really laid a lot of underground line out this day.  They will have to come back when the other trades are further along.  Decided we would run two underground cables.  Since the site is so long, one cable will handle the near buildings and the larger cable will handle the farthest 1/3 of the buildings.  This is due to the distance and losing voltage over that far.

Step 1:  Looks like your living or active in both Seattle and NYC.  Please validate for the above so we can be more specific in our help.  These two markets narrow your options down with $100k cash; but not totally.  Totally different market and not my field; but I was discussing Downtown Chicago with a BP member from Chicago, the older Cylindrical buildings.  My wife's company was possibly going to relocate her for 5 years there so we looked there.  $180k to $220k; 1/1 or 2/1 condos.  Or rent for around $2,100.  I thought that was high from living in the countryside, but for the city, I thought it was great.  Point, is there are options everywhere.

Step 2:  I take it as $100k cash on hand.  Determine your most likely funding source and the degree to which you want to invest. Based on that decision will determine your equity position and potential funding amount.  Example:  SBA loan at 10% collateral, $100k would be $1mm project with a $900k loan; Traditional 25% collateral with $80k cash would be $320k project with $240k loan.  Do this step to help narrow down your search, other wise you will be looking at deals that don't fit and wasting energy.

Step 3:  Recommend you never invest all of your cash on hand since you might have a future deal come up; you can always pay down; your retro costs may be higher than you thought; tenant revenue stream may not be as steady as planned.  Especially first time out.

Step 4:  Invest local to start with.  You don't have a team.  You don't have a list of types of people or resources needed.  You need to be able to learn close by, so that later it is easier on you and your distant team member to communicate.

Step 5: Define success on your first time out. Your hesitant to pull the trigger, part of that is potential failure. Lets say you lose $25,000 on your first investment. To me that is not a loss. You will have learned a lot during that project. At some point you have to stop reading and get exposed and dirty; to learn to the next level. What does losing $25,000 mean to you? Do you go bankrupt; downsize your house; downsize your car; not go on vacation for 5 years; no college fund for your kids; etc. Once you identify to yourself, your not going to lose the full $100k; then you will be more willing to start your REI path.

Step 6:  "Start small and Make your Big Mistakes Early".

Supply the following info:

1.  City you are in or very familiar with.

2.  How much can you invest or your total loan amount.

3.  Define both failure and success; so the above can improve the options they propose.

4.  What is your investment interest?  AirBNB; hands off investment; House Hacking; etc.

5. Your REI background. Have you bought a house before or had one built?

Good luck.  

@Vlad Romanov

Try a different approach and work your search backwards. We do Storage and our business is based on life events.  Death, divorce, jail, fire, water damage, etc

Develop a call list.  Identify lawyers and restoration companies and keep calling them.  Get to know them   Shoot the breeze.  Smooze    

These people want to sell and faster than normal sellers  

Investing/Living in Belize:

I will probably say some things or you might interpret them as callous or elitist.  You might be right.  But my intentions, without you having rubbed shoulders with both locals, expats and business people down there is to give you a sense of what it is like there.

A.  You will leave Belize at some point.  Sick, divorced, the dream isn't true, ran out of money, disillusioned, business idea didn't work, developed a medical issue not treatable there, missed kids/grandkids, or just grew old and found out there are no retirement homes there.  You will leave Belize at some point.  Any comment I make, there always is an exception.

B.  You are just a dollar sign and you are rich.  Your not even human.  Recognize your are fresh meat and a big whale and every one wants to land you.  At first this is uncomfortable.  Then realize no matter who you are talking with down there, the Dollar is King.  You control the power and the decision.  Remember that 10 years later when you go to sale.  You don't have the power.  Don't plan to make money down there, just a temporary lifestyle change.

C.   You can build your exact dream down there, or start with "A" above and adapt and pick up someone else's dream.  Your bargain is if you can "Wait" before investing in your plan and are adaptable.  If you build, it will probably take twice as long as in the US, for many reasons.  If it takes you three years to build and you only live there 10 years, most of your extreme memories will be of building.  Thus do you Buy and renovate instead.

D.  How much does it cost to live there.  The answer is all over the board.  The key is housing and also how far off the grid do you want to live.  I could "easily" live for $500 up to $3,000 per month with housing not included; depending on my live style and housing.  Take a cleaned refrigerated chicken for $2.50; or buy a "Local" live chicken for $20.  Both USD.  Buy a fresh Pineapple for $1 or a can of SPAM for $6.

E.  What kind of social person are you.  This will dictate which town or community you live in.  

San Pedro- touristy and lively, ocean, restaurants, entertainment (stop at the "Truck Stop" for family fun; it was for sale).

Belize City- Don't stay longer than 30 minutes.

Belmopan- Capital, not much going on.

Placencia- this is about a 20 mile peninsula about 400 feet wide.  Great place, not as touristy, more of a local neighborhood.  The best Gelato outside of Italy.  A $1mm house in San Pedro will be about $700,000 here.

Dangriga- go and live off the grid.

Hopkins- rive and beachfront town.  A little grimy, but great value.

San Ignacio/Santa Elena- inland area.  Tourists, but they are spread out.  You make your friends since a lot of people live on acreages.  About 500 feet off sea level, which makes for a slightly cooler temperature and less humidity.

Corozal- haven't been.  Close to Chetumal, MX; with big box store shopping.  Beach front community.

Spanish Lookout- Mennonite community; although they are progressive, it is still a socially closed community.

Make sure you travel around and get a sense of which community will be best for you.

F.  Local versus Expat price-  You will generally always pay higher.  My local contractor bought a lot for $3,000; I would pay $30,000.  Part of this is being in the right place and knowing about the deal.

Where in Belize?

Once we decided on Belize, we had to decide where in Belize.  My wife wanted to walk out onto the beach and I wanted to live inland.

Decided we could live on the beach and I could catch a flight or bus and go to a property inland if we got one to have an interest.

Looked at the beach properties first.  We vacationed in Belize 2 times and then I did another 3 search trips by myself or with my brother, who had been "through" Belize about 20 years ago in the military.  

Most peoples concept of Belize is an Island which is Ambergris Caye and the town of San Pedro.  This is only about 1% of all of Belize.  This was our first vacation and we stayed at a BNB.  Really loved the house and the local.  Will give some background on Ambergris Caye.

Ambergris Caye/San Pedro

Areas of interest:

a.  Downtown and to the north as far as the hard surface road goes, maybe 2 miles at the time, along the Oceanside beach.  The city water, electricity and sewer follow the hard surface road.   $850,000 to $1.1mm

b.  Beyond the hard surface road to the North along the ocean side beach.   $700,000

c.  About 3 miles out and hang a hard left or West to Secret Beach.  $??????, did not really look at.

d.  Way North at the other end of the Island, mainly reached by Water, although you can get there by golf cart, part of the time on the beach.  $850,000

e.  The South of Town, to the east of airport.  Most of the Condo developments.  $250,000

f.  South of Town, to the west of airport.  Industrial and trash hauling.

g.  West side of town-  Locals and Boat dock facilities, on the bay side.   Just barely above water level.  Lower income.  Where the work force lives.

Notes of Interest:

1.  Due to the breeze from the oceanside, very few bugs and mosquitoes on that side.  More on the East or inland side.

2.  Belize really doesn't have white sandy beaches and the beaches are about 30 feet wide.

3.  Belize runs on Queens rule as far as access to the beaches and also your docks.  Anything within 60 foot of the beach, passersby's can access and walk through.  You can't block.  Even your docks can be used.

4.  Most houses even with city water have Cistern water tanks that they catch roof water off of.  They use this for drinking and washing.  Make sure your cistern is large enough to supply water for both your needs and to get you thru the "Dry" season with no rain.  If your doing AirBNB or guesthouses, you have to make sure your water usage is covered.  If they can most people go for bigger 30,000 gallons or double tanks.  Or both above and below cisterns.

5.  The further out you get, the houses start using water cisterns, sewer cisterns, backup electricity and generally are more self sufficient.

6.  The general Island height is at most 8 feet above sea level.  Due to the Coral reef which is about 1/4 mile out, no large waves even during a storm hit.  Your main damage will be from wind.

7.  Although there is "fresh water" if your on this high side, which is generally along the Ocean beach side, you can't pump much water out, or the Sea water will come into your well system.  So no many people use well systems, since they are limited.

8.  Internet, is fairly good even at the northern end of the island since they have a large tower about 8 miles north of San Pedro.

9.  There are crocodiles on the island.  If you have cats and dogs, build a fence around your yard.  If you are on the ocean side, they are just across the street on the bay side.

10.  Transportation will be by bicycle, golf cart or quad.  San Pedro is getting so full that it is pretty hard to find parking anywhere during normal hours.

Real Estate:

A.  Recommend you do 2 or 3 trips before you get serious about buying, whether a house or an investment.

B.  A normal Real Estate agent tour will be two in the morning and another place after lunch.  Be as specific as you can be and they will do a great job.

C.  On the Oceanside.  Your houses will be in this category by price.  Less than $850,000 will be a fixer upper.  $850,000 to $1.1mm will be a nice beach house.  Then you will jump to $3mm and on up.

D.  Don't plan to "make" money with a beach front house or condo.  Treat it as a lifestyle experience.

E.  Prices for Lots on the Ocean side are primarily based on the hard surface road access at the front.  Same property inside the hard surface road area $500,000 for the lot.  Same lot further north will be $350,000.  Here is the kicker.  If your building a house and it is the exact same house on both of these lots, your value or future sales price will be double on the close in lot versus the further out lot.

F.  Build or buy.  How much of an adventure do you want and what memories do you want and YOU are on the CLOCK.  If your not on site, you will probably get robbed, the project will take longer than normal or it will take longer than normal and you won't understand you caused it.  That Italian Marble you picked out had to be shipped in.  Because it took so long the contractor had to pull off your job and go do another job and will be back in 6 months.  Then you find out the Marble got here and is broken and the cycle starts over.

Do your self a favor.  Go on the Real estate tours.  Then schedule a day with Noelle from Under Da Seas adventures.  You rent a golf cart and pay him to take you around the Island all day long.  Noelle grew up here and will know just about every house and any questions you have.  Keep in mind, he is not "selling" you anything. You are paying for his time, thus he will be honest with you.  He is a good acquaintance of ours.  The best thing you will remember about the entire trip will be if you do his all day Snorkel extravaganza.  You will get to go to Caye Caulker also.  Ask him to take you fishing.  His fish is cleaned and scored; ready to be barbecued.  Since there are no tourists during Covid, he was out catching fish for his family's dinner.  Note his head scarf, neck/face scarf and long sleeve shirts.  Make sure you can take the sun or protect yourself.

2 October 2020, 06:25 PM Beautiful weather. Dry and cool. Concrete construction crew is rolling along.
Got two of the small pads poured and frames torn off.
They just poured the second two buildings footings. It will take them Mon/Tuesday and Wednesday to get the sand, vapor barrier sheet and rebar in place.

Plumber is supposed to come on site next week. They will install the storm outlet drain and the facilities to the office.

Kind of excited to see the plumber tap into the sewer and water lines. I always thought they cut the service off for everyone and then cut into the line and added an extension. But I guess they "tap" or drill into the lines while they are live and attach. Have to see how they do that without getting sprayed.

They are moving a lot faster on this project with the skidsteer to move the trench dirt, removable steel corner forms and the attachment to clean dirt out of the trench corners.

Have one more pad site where the white trailer is, to do, then we will be done with these small buildings at the entrance.

Move on to three larger building pads, 230/250/250 long 40/30/40 widths. Have to check next week on the delivery schedule and the building crew.