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All Forum Posts by: Damian Ramirez

Damian Ramirez has started 10 posts and replied 68 times.

@Allen Honnila

Partnering can be a plus if you use it to your advantage and if you choose a partner that has strengths that you are lacking in. In your situation, it seems like you have capital and DIY Experience, so in this case, finding a partner with more BRRRR experience is something you should be looking for.

Some folks prefer not to partner, and it's understandable. They would like the whole piece of the pie or they would just like to not have to make decisions that require the approval of another person. However, partnering can cover your blind spots, expose you to less risks and prevent you from losing capital, and can be much easier to handle if responsibilities are delegated properly. 

I personally believe that partnering is the solution, especially if it is someone's first time doing RE Investing or a BRRRR in your case. It can help you scale faster, it allows you to have more capital at hand, and if your partner has the experience, HML's and lenders in general would be more keen to lend to you since you aren't by yourself and they know one of you has the experience in flipping/buy and holds.

We happen to partner and JV with other investors in the Cleveland market frequently. We usually provide the boots on the ground and project managing, while our partners, experienced or not, come in with the capital to lend.

Hopefully this aids you in making your decision. If you have questions, feel free to PM me. I'll send you a connection request in the meanwhile!

Post: At $25k, 21 years old, where do I start?

Damian RamirezPosted
  • Investor
  • Newport Beach, CA
  • Posts 74
  • Votes 35

Hello Tristan!

I myself am 20 years old, so we are very similar in age and can relate to your current situation, so perhaps I can help with some advice. I also live in California and I can say that finding deals to flip, rent, wholesale or house hack will be rather difficult, although, your specific area may differ from mine. 

First, you should decide what peaks your interest the most, whether it be flipping properties, building a rental portfolio for passive income, or wholesaling deals. Now of course there are other avenues of real estate, but these three are the most common and are usually the beginning of most real estate investors.

Second, you have to decide where you want to invest. As most know, California is much more difficult to find good deals and they also require much more capital due to California prices, even with HML. Now you can decide to stick with California, but out of state is your best choice and that is what I personally decided. If you do go the out of state route, you will now have to pick which market(s) to dive into. This can be decided by researching jobs being created in a market, unemployment rate, median income, or even if you lived there before or even have family that live there.

To add on to that, due to being new to real estate, it will be a bit more harder to find lending or to obtain good lending terms from hard money lenders due to not having any experience. Because of that, it might be a considerable option to look into finding a partner/JV who has the experience and connections to aid you in your RE journey. Through that partnership/JV, you can lend your capital or put it into a deal where you would ideally earn a good return on your investment. Meanwhile, you can also learn the process of flipping, buy and hold or wholesaling while not have the 100% risk if you were to have done it yourself. Which in the long run saves you time, money, headaches and from burnout.

If you have any questions do not hesitate to reach out to me through pm, I am here to help. 

Post: HML that lend in Cleveland

Damian RamirezPosted
  • Investor
  • Newport Beach, CA
  • Posts 74
  • Votes 35
Originally posted by @Sawyer Dina:

Hey @Damian Ramirez! The majority of hard money lenders do appear to lend here in Ohio, so the good news is that you have plenty to choose from however not all are created equal. I have bias because I used to work as an underwriter for this lender but they do a tremendous job, the company is Fund That Flip.

After working for Fund That Flip I went full-time as an investor and I currently use them to finance my flips. Most of the rates among HML are generally pretty close however where Fund That Flip differs in my opinion is the flexibility and problem solving of their team. If you have a unique deal and need helping funding it they will bend over backwards to make sure they do everything possible within their power to close on it, even tossing out low appraisals (I did that while I was an UW) on certain deals where the appraiser was being a moron. Fund That Flip takes a more human approach than a lot of other lenders in my opinion and that comes with great value.

Feel free to reach out and mention my name if you choose to!

Hey Sawyer, we actually work closely with Tyler from Fund That Flip/Trimark so glad to hear their name is mentioned with a positive attitude. 

I'll go ahead and reach out to you in PM and we can perhaps chat there.

Post: HML that lend in Cleveland

Damian RamirezPosted
  • Investor
  • Newport Beach, CA
  • Posts 74
  • Votes 35

Hello, 

I'm looking around for some HML's to add to my list that lend in Cleveland. If anyone has had any good experiences with a HML, please feel free to reply below.

Thank you all!

Post: Multifamily apartment Construction 20-100 units

Damian RamirezPosted
  • Investor
  • Newport Beach, CA
  • Posts 74
  • Votes 35

Hello Chaithra,

In what specific area of Cleveland? East Cleveland or similar area where it is D and F neighborhoods or other areas such as Cleveland Heights, and areas that are C+. 

Post: LLC for duplex/triplex/4plex

Damian RamirezPosted
  • Investor
  • Newport Beach, CA
  • Posts 74
  • Votes 35

Hello Emily, 

Most conventional banks won't lend to an LLC (some do, but with extra fees/points). But an alternative would be going through with a Hard Money Lender as they would lend to an LLC.

Post: High Cap rates in Multi-family at this time?

Damian RamirezPosted
  • Investor
  • Newport Beach, CA
  • Posts 74
  • Votes 35

We're usually seeing 15%+ cap rates in our deals in Cleveland and we only invest in C+ and above neighborhoods such as Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights, University Heights and some parts of South Euclid. I see a lot of folks thinking it's difficult or rare to find these deals, but it isn't. All of our buy and holds are no less than 10% cap rate and on average 15%.

For example, a duplex we picked up in Cleveland near Euclid Creek Park reservation was for 83,000 with 30k rehab and ARV at 165k with 2,000 rents a month (1,000 a side)

and another tri-plex in Cleveland Heights with 89k purchase price, 80k rehab and 190k ARV with 2 of the units renting for 1150 and the 3rd unit renting for 700. This one we happened to pick up around 2-3 weeks ago during the current situation. We also picked up another 4 MF with 15%+ cap rate in the same areas within that same week.

Post: In & Out of State Investors

Damian RamirezPosted
  • Investor
  • Newport Beach, CA
  • Posts 74
  • Votes 35

Hello Blake,

The team and I are interested in Indianapolis, message me directly and we can chat about the possible opportunity.

Originally posted by @Sebastian Marroquin:

@Damian Ramirez : thanks for the heads up. Do you have anything in the pipeline to wholesale? 

@Account Closed hey brother- congrats on almost graduating! (lets talk and see what you are thinking). 

@Brian Garlington thank you brother! I took a look at some of the messages already and there is a lot of info in there! Thank you for that. Wondering if you have time this coming week to get on a quick 5 min call with me: I have some questions that you seem to have experience with? 


@Sebastian Marroquin: Yes we actually do, but only in SoCal currently. We have a property in Van Nuys if you're interested. Message me here on BP. I can also shoot you my email on there.

Hey Sebastian,

Our team flips, buys and hold and wholesales in Cleveland. Specifically in Shaker heights, Cleveland Heights, some parts of South Euclid, University Heights and Lakewood. 

So far these areas have treated us pretty well and the numbers are amazing, although we source our own deals. One downside of some of these areas, such as Shaker Heights, can be the Point of Sale. Especially with this whole Covid going on, it can be rather troublesome to contact someone at the city and have an inspector go to the property for a POS inspection. 

We solely focus on these neighborhoods and it has been working great for us. We much rather prefer them to Cleveland proper. 

Side note, I see you are in SoCal, and so are we. We are located in Newport Beach and do happen to do deals and some wholesaling in California.