All Forum Posts by: Casey Caton

@Jehon Bendokas

Well done! As mentioned by others, the sellers need to talk to their CPA about the 0% interest. Other than that - good luck with the rehab! I love Northwest Arkansas - I’m originally from Rogers!

@James Somers

I do both. I make sure I’m getting the most out of the matching, and then I invest the rest a la real estate. Little diversity never hurt anyone. Real estate is fun because there’s so many ways to be successful.

@Erick Constantino narrow down a list of lenders to see what your options are. On your first deal double check the number and run a conservative analysis to make sure you’re going to get the return that you’re hoping for. Down the road you’ll get an inspection but to make sure you don’t waste your time and money - verify the age and condition of the big ticket items - roof, HVAC, plumbing, wiring - those capex items. Start there! Real estate is the way - keep it up!

@Nathan G. That’s solid advice. I will definitely be using that in the future. Thanks for sharing!

@Destin E. Thomas yep, I would second that recommendation. Maybe even include that info in the listing by saying the neighborhood is up and coming but still has some rough edges. Sandwich that “bad” info between the best of what your property has to offer!

@Manuel E Chavez listen to the BP podcast everyday to get some ideas. Think about your goals and the vision that you have and why you want to do it. Build that strong foundation. Attend local meet ups, ask questions, listen and learn. After doing that - hopefully a clearer picture appears and you’ll decide to focus on a niche that interests you more than others. That’s how I started, and then finding properties and managing them and raising money is all stuff I learned along the way that was built on that foundation that I started with.

@Teodoro Vecchio - Most good property managers should be up to speed on the latest rents - but not all of the time. I had one advise me on a lower rent than what I knew the market would support. How did I know better than the manager? By verifying the vacancy rate in my market, which shows the demand or lack of demand which drives rental rates. I sued BiggerPockets rent analysis tools, looked at comparable rentals on zillow, realtor, craigslist, facebook, and any other sites I could think of. This research gave me a clear picture of what my rent could be in my market, and it worked. Give that a shot, and you should be good to go!

@Brian Chan I'm sure there are ways - and the most obvious way would be hitting the streets to find an off-market deal or having a team find them for you. But I also think tapping into @David Greene 's strategy in more expensive markets of not focusing on that year one cash flow - but rather look down the road 3-5 years to see what they return is going to be. I wouldn't ever invest solely for appreciation, but in Austin, it's definitely a major consideration before pulling the trigger on a deal. 

@Keaton M. That's good to hear! Are you going to keep putting the money to work in the Austin market or are you going to spread it out in other markets? 

You can make it work in lots of different ways. While the ownership and deed is in both of our names, the five residential loans that we have are all in my name. Whenever we reach a point when I can no longer get a residential loan, we will pivot and let my wife take over from there. LLCs offer great protection as long as you treat them as their own business and dont mix them with personal assets. My lenders would not let me transfer my properties to my LLCs, so I just got a large umbrella insurance policy. There's usually more than one right answer when it comes to many things in real estate.