All Forum Posts by: Cody L.

I sold Cody property in Houston many years ago, and while he wasn’t LIVING in Texas at the time his knowledge of the Texas real estate market was at least as great as mine. Maybe KNOWING your target market is more important than BEING THERE?

I still have BOTH the deals you sold me. Not sure if you remember the commercial space in midtown (Fannin) but that's had a NNN nightclub for years now. And then the old apartment complex north of downtown. It's just limping along, doing it's thing :)

0 Votes

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

As a buyer, I love seller financing because I can close quick/easy. Then, once I own the property I can take my time to work with a lender to get it refinanced. A bonus is the lender will normally (re)finance based on the appraisal, vs. your purchase price. This has resulted in a lot of 80, 90, or even higher % LTV

I also like it as a seller since I can sell to someone without having to deal with all the time and work involved when a buyer is using a bank. Then the buyer can take their time and refinance at their own speed. If it takes them 30 days, 60 days, 90, 120, etc. it's no problem as they already have and are operating the property.

But now the question: I've seller financed a lot of deals. I hold quite a few notes. I'm not worried about their performance since I only loan on properties I'd be happy to own at the amount the loan was done for (and typically I'm loaning properties I sold so worst case, I get it back and my cost basis is lowered by their down payment). However, since this isn't my core business, managing them sort of sucks. I don't have software to do this (beyond using my property management software to allow them to make payments, and a spreadsheet to manage loan start/end dates, any changes to rate based on bumps over time, etc). While maybe there is software out there (or hell, I bet I could get AI to write a webapp for me), I've thought about just tossing all the loans to a servicer to handle.

Other than just googling "loan servicing companies" and starting to dial the phone, are there any out there that anyone recommends? I assume some of the BRRR or multifamily people have run into this. Ideally they'd be located in Houston / Texas but maybe that doesn't matter.

(the other reason I'd like to use a servicing company is if someone is late, I don't want to deal with charging late fees, sending proper notices, etc. I'd like to wash my hands of it once the loan is funded)

0 Votes

Houston, Texas

I'm an exception. I live in Ca, and have ~2,000 units in Texas.

(though to be fair, I was living in Texas when I started building the portfolio and got to about 500 units + a solid team before I moved)

4 Votes

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Quote from @Fakaradin Floyd:

1 year and a half update

Hello everyone I am back for my updates, it has been a great journey so far. Just like usual I am back to updating you all. So a lot has happened since I last updated you all, well not too much has happened, I've settled into my personal home that I bought, renovated it and for the first time in my life have a place to call home that I actually OWN!!! Such exciting news, but I will sadly be departing from this home in the next year or so as I plan to buy another home to move into or an investment property I haven't ironed out all the details yet.

Total Revenue to date for airbnb Arbritage
So this is the part that a lot of people care about INCLUDING myself, so I've been really successful I can say that I have done a great job with researching and expanding so far, in I have made in total revenue *drum roll please* $204,301.84 with profit averaging around 20-35%. Again I don't have the full numbers out yet because I am still learning the accounting point of things. But I have officially hit 6 figures in revenue and honestly if I wanted to I could just stick to having these 3 and live pretty okay off of 3 airbnbs I am arbitrating. Thing is I hit a wall, I want to expand in my area, but I also want to expand in other areas and I am stuck in a little analysis paralysis scenario. Even though ALOT and I mean ALOT of people on bigger pockets or friends and family have told me airnbnb arbitrage wouldn't work out I have been pretty successful even though I was pretty much self learnt without any form of joining a course or anything like that. But I am glad I took this leap.

Next Steps and future plans
I have 3 airbnbs as of right now that I do Rental Arbitrage at, and can say I am pretty good at what I do, this is my second business I created and both times I was successful and started everything with low funds and youtube being my mentor. Now I aim for bigger and better, I want to buy a home FOR airbnb but I still want to simultaneously still do airbnb arbitrage, the benefits are just too great at the moment and to be honest a lot of the money profit wise I just have been utilizing to put back into the business and further expanding, paying off business line of credit and such.

So I am not in a place to buy multiple properties in support for airbnb, not yet, more so closer to the end of next year. With the real numbers I have now, I know I can make around 250k+ in revenue with 3 Arbitrage properties, if I keep the same trend I can make another 250k+ with 3 more and that's on the lower end, so I plan to keep expanding, the thing is I am having a hard time envisioning expansion in my local area, and kind of hitting a wall when researching other areas. I want to utilize my arbitrage to obviously use for my personal life but also to create a hefty fund for investment properties later on the line.

After this tax year, I will know exactly what I need to do to progress. I hear everyone though, buying a home for STR is the next step and it is the better choice. Soon once I have the liquid amount. Obviously there are other ways of finding funding and such but I will need to research a bit more on this.

Final thoughts

So its been a journey, I am contemplating going full-time in entrepreneurship as this is my second successful business, my end goal in life is to have the option to retire by 35 haha so I want to do everything in my power now for future me. Now that I have the proven experience, and proven numbers of this working I want to leverage the experience I have in some way friends have recommended creating some form of course but I think I'm too green for that haha I need to buy a home for STR first before I contemplate that. I do want to expand directly in my area and having more confidence when speaking to landlords but that just means my sales pitch still needs work. I do want to thank everyone thus far on this journey the good and the bad feedback is the direct reason on my success so far and I plan to be great. Will update you all in the next few months.

I will continue to expand, and I will continue this path that so far has been successful.

(Also if you know someone in some markets that are not talked about enough that have good potential for researching for expansion would love your thoughts! Also if you'd like to connect and network with me or work with me my dms are always open!)

Airbnb listings (newest to oldest)
(Hit a snag in lower reviews haha I promise I'm a great host): airbnb.com/h/familydelight
airbnb.com/h/homeoasisfloyd

airbnb.com/h/sereneoldtownsantuary

@Sarah Kensinger
@Ika Sargeant

Well done. I'm contacted all the time by people that want to do what you're doing. Almost none of them ever pull the trigger. They get stuck in 'run the numbers' land. Congrats on taking the steps to make it happen.

0 Votes

Quote from @Mark Dutton:

Hey everyone, I’m a novice investor and I’d appreciate some advice or insight on my situation, even though I know everyone’s circumstances are different.

I’m currently 27 and will soon have three rental properties along with my primary residence. Once I close on my next house, I’ll have about $900K in debt. To be honest, this feels overwhelming, especially knowing I couldn’t pay it all off quickly if I had to.

Out of that $900K, about $500K is tied to 30-year mortgages on my rentals, with interest rates ranging from 2.99% to 4.375% and 400k on primary at 6% 30 year.My total monthly mortgage payments are $5,500 on my rentals, and my long-term rental income is $6,850, giving me a monthly surplus of about $1,300. I’ve been saving that extra income for future property expenses or emergencies, so I don’t have to dip into my personal funds.

I also earn around $130-150K annually from my sales job, though sometimes I feel anxious about whether I deserve this income or worry about losing my job. Despite the income, I still feel like I’m over-leveraged.

Has anyone else felt this way as a beginner investor? How did you manage these feelings or concerns about being over-leveraged?

I felt the same way. But at a point, the debt is so high, that more doesn't phase you. I currently have $115 million in loans (about $600k/month of payments). It's so beyond what my pre-investing brain can comprehend that doing another $20m loan for a $30m property feels 'meh'

tldr: Don't let it bug you if your goal is to have a large portfolio. It comes with the territory.

2 Votes

Personally I don't care of someone got permits to do something. If it's done right, I don't need the government having been involved. Plus, I see all the reasons someone wouldn't want to bother with a permit so I'm not going to lose sleep over their decision.

5 Votes

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

I used to reply, talk in DM about what we have, etc, but at this point I've given up. 95% of the people we'd talk to about leasing our properties so they could STR never moved forward (and most of those, we just never heard back from)

So now when someone reaches out, we ask a few questions first. Starting with 'send us a list of your current portfolio and a bio'. Since we've started asking that question, we've got no replies. And that's saved us a ton of time.

We still have about 60 units leased to people who do STR. About 15 different operators.

@Shardea Miller My advice to you would be this: Put together some type of presentation, designed to 'sell' people on the idea of allowing you to rent their property for airbnb. Once you have your pitch, look for properties that are for lease by individual owners. Reach out to them with your pitch. If they follow up with you, follow up back. It's a numbers game. If only 1 in 10 will even reply, you have to make sure you're latching onto those leads hard.

To crush it in RE , you just have to be better than most. The good news is, most people are quite lazy. So it's not hard to stand out.

0 Votes

Quote from @Andrew O.:

Good afternoon,

I was just curious how everyone handles the stress of owning rental properties? Owning RE sucks. I own and manage 20 units all on my own while working full time with a family. This past year has been rough with maintenance issues and things breaking, and right when I start to think things are getting better, I have to replace 4 roofs (1 is just a carport), an AC unit gets stolen, and a racoon destroyed an attic. From all the quotes I've gotten, that's going to cost around $45,500 and it all needs to be done asap. I don't know how the average person could afford this. I'm not sure how I'm going to pay for it all quite yet either. I'm in RE for the long game, but I don't understand how people make money off of rental properties. It is always one thing after another.

I started my RE journey while I had a full time job. I got to about 150 units before doing RE full time. Best decision I ever made. I now have 2000 units and a team that allows me to focus on just the parts I enjoy (mostly the deal making)

I don't see anything I could have ever done that would bring me as much income and wealth.

It doesn't question my sanity. What I question is the sanity of those who want to jump in, but after years of tire kicking, never take that first step.

4 Votes

Quote from @Unakem Kazeem:

I own a townhome in Houston. I've been approached by 2 ppl the past 4 months about using my property for arbitrage. Wasn't interested but now open to hearing more details.

I get emails from people all the time from sites like zillow, apartments.com, etc saying "Do you allow commercial leases" (which is code for "can I STR arbitrage?"). Our team has a canned response that basically says "Yes, at some properties. here is a link..." etc. I'd say 99 times out of 100 we never hear back (which begs the question of why are they bothering to reach out if they don't follow up with the yes replies).

If I were you, don't seek them out. Almost always it'll be a waste of time. If you do get contacted by someone who is serious (with experience) then just request a large deposit to protect yourself.

1 Vote

All Forum Posts by: Cody L.

Cody L. has started 35 posts and replied 3655 times.

Post: Multi building in Houston

Post: Out of State investing does not work. With very few exceptions.

Post: Loan servicing for seller financed notes

Post: Out of State investing does not work. With very few exceptions.

Post: Advice on my STR pitch and overall Rental Arbitrage advice (Alexandria VA)

Post: I hate having mortgages

Post: Why do some investors allow unpermitted work?

Post: Rental Arbitrage Property search in the Houston area

Post: Does owning RE question your sanity?

Post: STR Rental Arbitrage Greater Houston