All Forum Posts by: Dax Desai

@Jasmine Wilkes If you need any advise or pricing on rehab let me know.  I'm not necessarily interested in bidding the work, but I can help you get good pricing and estimates.  I used to live in Dallas and have some good people still there.  

I lived in Grand Prairie some time ago and know its a heavy rental area.  I'd love to take a look at your deal with you.  My interest would be to familiarize myself with what's cooking in that market or partnering up.  Either way my help is free.

Best of luck.  It looks like you're on the right track.

@Evan Bell "Flagged" properties refers to hotels that are a franchisee of a hotel chain.  A good example would be a Holiday Inn, Ramada Inn, Comfort Inn, etc.  They are independently owned and operated under an agreement with the Franchisor.  The franchisor does marketing and helps with distribution to fill the hotel rooms as well as setting and enforcing brand standards.

Banks prefer flagged properties because the franchisors enforce standards and these properties tend to benefit from their franchisee relationship in filling rooms.

One last thought on this site.  I think it would make an excellent realty or title company office.  Access is good and its optimum size for that use I think.  I wish I could find something so cheap here in Houston around that size.

Brought back nightmare memories of a house we restored from flooding.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAkdcFjBKDM

With drywall, to do proper mold remediation you need to replace it.  Remove all the drywall and insulation.  Next you will want to dry out the area with a dehumidier and negative pressure air scrubber to eliminate any mold spores in the air.  You would next fog an antimicrobial in the area and try to cover as much surface area as you can.  Lastly seal the 2x4's with Kilz or equivalent.

If you truly eliminate any moisture sources you should be ok.  This description is a do-it yourself remedy with no guaranty, but it is by best practices.   There are more things that need to be done, but this is the gist of it.

I went to school in Wichita Falls so I'm familiar with this property. The problem in that area is land is cheap and these type of building are very cheap to buy. Without that NNN tenant in there this will be a hard sell as an investment. This would make a good owner-occupant purchase however since the location is not too bad.

 That's great.  That's a reasonable time table.  They'll have to upload your plans to their software and then extract all the measurements to itemize the lumber.  I would recommend you try to get another 2 bids though.  Building materials prices can vary from one yard to the next, but it should be fairly close.  Develop a relationship with them.  If you do this enough, you may be able to get credit terms once they see you know what you're doing (if you know what you're doing :op 

The way I've seen is through a partnership formation. While I can't speak as an attorney, generally both parties will form an LLC (corporation) with the local partner as a managing member and general partner. The foreign party is the funding party. The LLC will make all investments and the general partner will usually be the recourse party for any loans taken out. Banks need someone to go after and the general partner fills that role. This protects the limited partners to the extent of their investment in the LLC. The thing to look for is to make sure your general partner is competent and capable of performing the duties to manage and develop the property. The general partner may contribute some funds or may not. In any case the general partner will usually be compensated in the form of an equity promote in the LLC. For example a general partner may only contribute 10% of funds, but may receive 20% of equity.

Other ways the general partner may receive compensation are to have a waterfall structure.  In this structure, for example the limited partners may receive 10% preferred.  After the first 10% any excess maybe split 50/50 or some other ratio.

As in anything plan it out.  Plan well, then execute that plan.  That's my motto.

Most of the lenders want to lend to a local person here in the U.S.  The reason is they don't want to go through the effort of hiring an international attorney to serve foreclosure notices, etc in another country.  Unless it is a very large loan they don't want the hassle.  I would suggest partner in someway with a local person to do your deals that way the hard money lender has a local person to go through.  I've seen quite a few people from China invest that way and it seems to work smoothly.

@Lucero Sanchez You can take your plans to a lumber yard and they'll be able to do what they refer to as a "takeoff" to get the quantities of lumber you need to buy.  Go to somewhere like Olshan's Lumber or ProBuild.  Bison is a good one also for millwork/doors type of materials.

Best of luck on your project.  I'm glad you got over that uncertainty with your architect.  I wish contractors would learn that even if you're going to be late, communicate it.  No communication is the worst.