All Forum Posts by: Stefan Forsberg

Welcome Dave,

I guess there is not much landscaping going on in the snow huh :o), good luck with your investing. Lot's of good information and good people here.

Keep us updated with your progress.

Welcome Brad,

It sounds like you have a lot that most beginners don't since you studied real estate as an undergraduate. This is definitely the place to be for learning. Good luck with your investments and keep us posted on your progress.

As Bryan stated, don't be afraid of asking questions, you'll get plenty or responses and good advice here.

Welcome to BP,

Plenty of good information and great people here. Good luck finding your second, I am almost in the same boat as you I just ended up renting out my first property and decided to keep it long term..

Hi Kyle,

I am by no means an expert on LLC's so I am sure some of our more experienced member will jump in soon.

1. for the properties you can quit claim the deed to the LLC, if you don't have a mortgage this should not be to much of a problem. Yes there is a cost involved, the documents should be registered with your county clerk and they are usually prepared by a attorney/title office that will charge for their services. For the Tax notes I really don't know how/if you can transfer them to your LLC.

2. Your LLC can be named anything you want, just make sure you check so you don't get sued for copyright infringement if you pick something that is close to a well known brand. I would suggest you meet with your attorney/CPA to discuss the most beneficial business structure for your strategy (i.e. how to legally pay the least amount of taxes).

3.Loan will almost certainly have to be personally guaranteed, as far as I know there is no one today that will loan to a new LLC without personal guarantees, there are also some lenders that will not let you hold title with an LLC even if you give them a personal guarantee.

4. If you are going to seek additional funding you should probably have one LLC per project (property), if you don't you will have a nightmare trying to keep the Operating agreement (which is the bible of the LLC) updated to include who does what, who gets paid when, who makes the decisions etc.

Hope this helps as a start, I am sure more experienced investors will chime in soon..

Do not get emotionally attached to a deal, always always go by your numbers. If they don't make sense, move on.

Good to hear Kenneth,

I think the main thing is to never get emotionally attached to a deal, or just do a deal because you want to do your first one (don't ask me how I know), get your numbers and follow your strategy, once you find one that matches your criteria, you make your move..

Like you said, even if the deal doesn't happen, you still learn and you get confidence.

Good luck and please do run the deal back here when you get the comps, lots of people here with more experience then me will gladly offer their input on what the max you should pay is.

Hi Kenneth,

Welcome to BP, lots of great people and information here.

I think your question is best answered by yourself, you say that the comps are from the 40's to the 80's, what does the 80's type properties look like? Better or similar then the one you are looking at?

If 80's is the most you can get, you are looking at over 80% of ARV if paying 68K for the property, if you add on Closing costs, landscaping, inspections, insurance, selling costs etc, I don't think you have a lot of room left for any profit.

You should first get some real comps from an agent that knows the area, then you need to factor in holding the property while finding a qualified buyer that can close, this could take up to 6 months if you are unlucky, do you have cash-reserves to support this?

It is good that you are out there doing things, it will only get easier the more you do. I would personally pass on this deal but I am also fairly new so maybe I am just waiting on this perfect deal to fall in my lap.

Good luck with your investing..

//Stefan

Hi Robert,

from my limited experience with hard-money lenders I understand that they will inspect the work done prior to releasing any funds from the escrow account so the work performed has to be of quality equal to that of the professional contractor.

I have also heard that some HML will not allow the homeowner to perform the work but I think that varies from lender to lender.

If you can do the work with quality workmanship I don't think there should be any issue in getting the funds released when the HML inspects it.

You should also consider that the time you spend renovating the house could be better spent looking for the next deal..

Welcome to BP and good luck with your investments, I think it helps if you update your profile with your location so other people from your area can chime in with local advice.

Hi Kathy,

Welcome to BP, There are lots of people here from the Dallas area so I am sure you will find a few new friends while visiting.

Like Bryan I am also interested in learning from your experience, I am pretty new to this myself and I have learned a lot just by being on here..

Thanks for all the great replies, there is truly no better place then here to find information.

I have learned a lot from your responses and I think that as long as I am doing this part time it is probably worth hiring a turnkey company for the rehab with their own GC and subs, and be very active in my monitoring of them (daily visits, different time every day).

Once the business grows and we start doing multiple jobs at the same time it sounds like it is definitely worth hiring a PM or similar type role while focusing on the more strategic and financial aspects of the business myself.