All Forum Posts by: Cris Johannsen

Rent is money in your landloards pocket. Owning is money in yours as well as a tax write off that is more money in your pocket to invest. I would look to areas much more afordable for your first couple of investments after your own home to minimize your risk while getting your feet wet. You can get in easier and still get a good return on your money. I am no expert. Just relaying what I have done and has worked for me. Best of luck!

David,

Don't get discouraged. There are other ways to cover the minimum requirements for reserve funds. If you have a 401k or a life insurance policy that allows you to invest a portion of your account. Both can have cash available to cover if you have the need. If you take money out they can have penilties but are a great back up along with being collatetal. I have both. Not sure where you are at in your life but both can be good investments in your future and you can use them to assist in assets for investing. Of course speak with a good, well known financial advisor you can trust. Best of luck!

Thank you all for your input. If I do a cash out I am just taking a larger mortgage. Wouldn't all that interest still be a deduction but at a lower fixed rate? A heloc would still need to be repaid before you could use it again correct? I was not aware of the primary residence restriction so if that is the case than I have only one choice anyway. Only have 5 years into the hard money loans at 8%. Really appreciate all the responses.

Hello all,

Looking for ways to use the equity I have in properties I own and have as rentals. I am refinancing out of hard money loans anyway and my income from the rentals with the lower interest rates will cover the additional payment. Any benefit between a Heloc or cashout? Thanks!

Sean,

Thank you for the info. I will check it out. Is property radar the old foreclosure radar site?

Thanks again!

All,

Looking to get back in to the market of foreclosures and use to use foreclosure radar but it seems this site is different now. Looking for a live site that lists up comming foreclosures. Anyone aware of a good site these days?

Much appreciated! 

Thank you so much for your respose. I was just doing some research last night on BP and ran across that as well but the info was generic. If anyone does business this way I would appreciate any pointers or if you can point me to a tax person or CPA that would be great. Thank you Lydia!

Just wanted to bump this again. Any one know a good CPA in SoCal or Norcal for real estate?  Thanks.

All,

I know the typical way to minimize your exposure to capital gains and employment tax is to hold the property over a year.  Does anyone have any suggestions on how to minimize that exposure when doing short term rehabs? In SoCal. Also anyone have a really good CPA or tax person that is really good in knowing all the rules and exceptions in the real estate business? Thank you, Cris

Afternoon all,

My name is Cris and I am new to BP. My wife and I have 3 properties in Southern California we rehabbed and made into rentals. All with positive cash flow. Started back in 2008. Bought our first conventionaly and the 2 following using hard money. I have my real estate licence and dabbled in working with a property management company but it was not my thing. My wife and I built our own home in 2004. I designed, GCed and my wife and I did quite a bit of the construction ourselves. I have always had a passion for finding the diamond in the rough and have wanted to rehab and resell. I hesitate to use the word flip as it seems to have a negative meaning to those watching reality TV. ;). I have already started listening to a few of the podcasts and picked up some good pointers and look forward to getting any info I can. I generally keep to myself so I don't have much experiance with social media or networking. I am not trying to brag about our accomplishments as we are really beginners, but I hear we should share our experiance. We are moving back to socal from norcal in July and will be looking to start picking up properties in the Redlands and Yucaipa areas. Thank you!