All Forum Posts by: Derek Eskens

@Colin Zhu Is the rehab done now?

I just had my call with them yesterday.  There was a lot of interesting things that came out of it. I'm glad I've done enough research that I had some kind of idea of what to expect, otherwise I would have been completely overwhelmed with the vast amount of information,  terms, and ideas being thrown around. 

I'm still have other firms I want to contact, but the all-in-house aspect of having advisors, tax teams and accounting teams all together is appealing.

The person we spoke to also advised a C-Corp for the holding company, but I told her we were planning on staying very passive and had no interest in dealing with the overhead of running a C-Corp. We draw income, insurance, 401ks, etc from our FT jobs, so the benefits to starting a corp at this time are minimal.

I think if someone has ambitious plans and wants to move fast, their larger plans (Platinum/Titanium) make sense. The problem is "best laid plans". One might think they are going to go from 0 to 50 doors in 5 years, but things happen; if you don't get there, you may have just sunk a lot of money into something that is going to eat up any profit you would have otherwise made.

@David Neese is correct. Omaha REIA is the one you're looking for. It's very reasonable for an annual membership.

http://www.omaha1reia.com/

http://www.omaha1reia.com/membership

It's interesting that they advised you to create a C-corp. What was their reasoning behind that? Seems like a lot of extra overhead vs. an LLC. Normally I hear of the holding company being created as an LLC, but electing to have that LLC taxed as an S-Corp. (Speaking as someone who's not yet formed _any_ entity, so grab your salt)

This article seems to match what I've read/heard. 

How Can I Change My LLC Tax Identity

https://www.rocketlawyer.com/article/llc-tax-infor...

 "Titanium VIP Service" - I can't tell if that's a joke or not. Is that really a thing they are offering above their "Platinum" service?

Hey James,

Welcome to BP.  I'm also just getting started.  I live in Omaha. If you need some contacts for service work, Realtors, etc, let me know.  I can make a couple of good recommendations.

Hi BP crew. I'm making my official introduction here as a signpost for when I _really_ started down the path of REI.

I'm a senior software engineer for a consulting company headquartered out of Minneapolis, with an Omaha office of about 30 developers. I've been doing software development for over 15 years now and have been looking for better ways to put my money to work while still doing what I love.

I've been investing in the stock market since my days at Ameritrade, but I'm looking to diversify and always looking for better returns (stability, ROI). After hearing @Account Closed on the TWiT podcast, I started digging into real estate investing.

I've done my research and my wife and I have decided this is the right path for us. We have no experience in real estate, but we're good and reseach & analysis and learning as needed.

Based on our research, time commitments, risk tolerances, etc, we're planning on starting with turnkey rentals in the midwest(-ish). As we grow in size and experience, we plan to buy properties closer to home that we can manage "ourselves". We'll be starting with single family homes, but hope to move into multi-family units within our first 5 years. We'd like to be aggressive and double in doors each year for the first 5 years, then reassess our needs for growth vs. consolidation.

We are talking our first steps now. We are evaluating CPAs and attorneys that focus on REI so we can set up our holding and (maybe) management companies. Then as we find deals, we'll form LLCs as needed.

I'm always happy to grab lunch with strangers, so if you're interested in chatting, feel free to ping me.

If anyone have recommendations for CPAs and attorneys for someone just starting out (I'm not afraid to switch later as our needs change), I'd love some recommendations.  Remote is fine, but I'd prefer someone in the midwest just because I feel they can provide quality service for more reasonable prices.  And there's that good ole midwest work ethic :-)

Thanks! Hope to meet some of you soon.

Ben, can you elaborate on why you kept changing companies before finally landing with DVG Realty?

Curious to hear why you both chose Buildium over Cozy, Appfolio, (fill in the blank).