All Forum Posts by: Devin Beverage

@Carlos Morales Welcome to Biggerpockets, and the world of real estate! That's exciting that you've started with some basic goals -- Eric is right, you've got your broad idea, now hone in more on specifics. 

What do you want out of your real estate investing? Do you see making all or most of your money out of real estate, or do you plan to launch into a different career and use that income to purchase real estate and build wealth? 

Hi @Jacob Turner! Welcome to BP, and Congratulations on deciding to start investing in real estate. That's a great strategy you have in mind - house hacking is the best. As far as financing, the "easiest" route might be to go with a traditional bank loan, if you would qualify. This would depend on your income and credit history, and given your age I would guess it might not be an option right now, but still might be worth talking to a mortgage broker about - if for no other reason than to find out how to qualify down the line even if you can't right now. 

Other options are...

Joint Venture opportunities - finding someone who has the cash, either for most or even all of the cost of the property, and is willing to put their money out up front in exchange for equity, work, etc. An example would be if you found a great deal for 150k cash lets say, and you find someone to pay for it in exchange for 50% equity in the property - and you get 50% of the equity for finding the deal. This is a simplified example, but there are infinite possibilities. 

Hard Money / Private Money - These are alternative resources which are typically meant for shorter term scenarios where you need money for a certain period of time. Interest rates will often be very high relative to traditional bank loans, but that's because this is one of the last resorts when traditional bank loans won't work. Those who lend hard/private money have the leverage because you don't have a better option if you're using them.

Seller Financing - This is usually not easy but definitely not impossible to obtain, and the possibilities are endless because it comes down to what you and the seller agree to. The idea is that the sales price is X, the down payment is X, and the monthly payments are X, with a term of X. There can also be balloons involved, or deferred payments, and other stuff, but I'm just giving you an overview. 

Lease-Option - There are a lot of creative ways to leverage the lease-option strategy, but the basic idea is to rent from the seller for a period of time until a certain point in the future where you'll have the option of purchasing the property. One way you could make this work is if you either lease from the landlord at full rent for a couple years until you can qualify for a loan, then buy using the loan. Another way is if you can negotiate a discounted rent so that you can make money on the spread. Obviously you're going to need a seller who is motivated in some way, for that. Example: House needs 10 grand in work to be rented and seller is broke, and can't or doesn't want to sell the property yet, so you offer to pay 10% of market rent for use of the whole property, with option to purchase after X period of time. You put in the 10 grand in work to get it rent ready, you charge full market rent, and you make the 90% spread between your negotiated rent and market rent, minus your own expenses (Another simplified example, obviously). 

@Adam Lovell Great decision, and congratulations on getting involved here in the online BP community! I look forward to chatting and potentially doing some deals together.  

@Brian Hassani

While I have never focused on renting to med students/residents, I work with a lot of investors and landlords, and have heard that they

are a generally a great demographic to rent to. They are often longer-term leases (relative to 1 year or less), treat units better, and apparently more often have their parents paying their rent (from what I'm told), who are less likely to default and throw off your cashflow. 

Top of mind strategies to make this work: 

• First things first, proper location -- you are going to want your property to be proximal to the hospital or med school where your prospective tenants will be working and studying. This is probably pretty self-explanatory.
• Advertising -- I'd have to check on the legality of stating that units are exclusively for rent by medical students (may violate fair housing, for the record, I'm not endorsing), but you can start off by placing ads in places med students are most likely to see them. 
  • If you can, get flyers up on bulletin boards within the actual school and/or hospital
  • You can use paid Facebook ads to target specifically people who are looking to rent, who ALSO are studying and/or working in medicine.
  • Definitely reach out to the schools and hospitals themselves and attempt to talk to someone who might put you on a list that's called when someone needs housing. You can either do this yourself or have your Realtor call on your behalf.
• Add flexibility by renting by the room, especially if there are 3-4 rooms. This can often increase cashflow, sometimes dramatically. One of the other convenient things about this is that individual leases can potentially end at different times, so you can avoid having all units vacant at once. 
  • Also, I could be off on a limb here, but you could also end up being the one landlord with a room for rent for the odd med student needing one at an unusual time of year. 
• It's worth mentioning that regardless of where and how you advertise, if you have a nice unit in a location convenient to the hospital and/or school, and you're advertising at the right times of year when students are most likely to be looking for places to rent, you'll probably end up getting a fair share of med students applying anyway. 

Would you possibly be looking to invest in the Tampa area as well, or just your parents? 

@Brian Hassani

@Cris Mullen House hacking is indeed great, but Jake expressed his desire to stay where he is at the moment. Also, for anyone interested, it can be a real challenge to find a reasonably priced small multi-family (2-4 units) property in Tampa that most owners would actually *want* to live in. That said, it's not impossible, just worth knowing what you're up against. 

@Jake Calle Based on personal experience and market knowledge, the first areas I would suggest looking into are the neighborhoods south of Gandy Boulevard in South Tampa, West Tampa, and, if you're open to wood-frame build houses in an up and coming / hot area, certain parts of The Heights (Tampa Heights & Seminole Heights). 

You might also consider certain areas more on the outskirts or less high-demand areas, like parts of North Tampa or Town N Country. You can get more bang for your buck in these areas, but you'll have higher rents and a much larger tenant pool in the other areas I mentioned. 

If you'd like to talk more about this, I'd be happy to get together with you or have a conversation by phone. 

@Mikhail Andrade @Andrew Ellis Welcome to Biggerpockets, and the investment real estate game! 

As far as meet-ups, since you guys are new to the area I would recommend finding some general meetups to attend that match your interests, just so you can get to know some new people and make friends. 

However, as far as real estate meetups, I can personally recommend Larry Harbolt's meetup in Pinellas Park, and the various meetings TBREIA (Tampa Bay Real Estate Investor's Association - disclaimer, I am a host with TBREIA :) ). There are also Tampa REIA and Suncoast REIA, though I didn't find much value in those myself.

Larry's meeting is a very old meeting with tons of value with a lot of veteran investor attendees -- meaning a bunch of guys who have been investing in the area for decades. TBREIA has a bit of a more diverse crowd, from newbies to veterans in the industry. We now have 8 meetings per month, with meeting locations across the Tampa Bay area, including 3 here in Tampa. 

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask! 

Hi Jake! I'm local to Tampa myself, and work on both sides of the business (residential retail, and investment). 

There are a few more things I'm wondering about with your case. Are you looking for something you can live in yourself *as well as* rent out to a tenant? (Example -- rent out spare bedrooms, or even a multi-unit duplex or triplex?)

Also, do you have enough money stored aside right now, or at least have access to loan funds post-closing for any updates or repairs? This will determine whether you'll need to find something habitable right away or if you can get something needing some work where you can start building equity right away.

Boy, has it been a while since I've posted on BP! I'm still here in the Tampa - St. pete market, constantly on the hunt for good deals.... :-) 

I'm looking for feedback regarding buying property with Code Violation liens in place from the city, for things like mowing the grass, clearing debris, demolishing a dilapidated and abandoned structure. This is in regards to a specific deal, so for the sake of context: 

• The property is Vacant Land, originally had a house that the city demolished due to abandonment by owner. 
• Back-taxes of ~$2650 (headed toward tax deed auction, but perhaps not for another month or so because there is no set date yet)
• Total Liens add up to ~$6,000, without any interest the city may have added since they have been unpaid for a few years - I'm still waiting to hear back on that, but I don't think they were interest bearing liens. 

The seller is willing to walk away with $1,000 net, and I'm pretty confident I can sell the lot for ~$30,000 -- So it's a pretty solid deal so far. Now, for the part I am NOT as sure about:

My question is, can I maximize my profit by buying subject to the liens and negotiating them down or potentially having them wiped out? 

I've heard from about a dozen or more seasoned investors about municipal liens being negotiable - my question is, how? I'm going to sell this lot to someone who will build on it, so I can't promise the city that I will build on it, though maybe I could say that a new house WILL be built on it. The bottom line is that I lack the knowledge of how one goes about cutting down on the actual amounts the City wants - no one ever goes into detail about the execution. 

What has been your experience?

For anyone wondering, there is a File in Biggerpockets containing a JV Agreement on page 3 in Forms under File Place (found under Tools, above). I don't know if it's for co-wholesaling though. I'm in a rush right now, but will check it out (read it) later and update.

Hi,

@Renier Walters

Check this out: http://epicrealestate.com/crafting-creative-offer/

This is a free resource provided by investor and podcaster Matt Theriault. In the downloads you'll find two versions of the 3-Option letter of intent that he uses (at least the ones he provides to the public/students), as well as a spreadsheet you can use to calculate what you actually fill into those letters of intent. Finally, there is a playlist of videos at the top that lets you learn how to use the spreadsheet calculator and some more. 

Enjoy! Good luck. 

You could probably also modify the documents to be 3-Option contracts as well, but check with a trusted RE attorney. 

P.S., I am not a student of Matt's, I don't know him personally, and certainly not being compensated in any way for recommending his *free* resources and site! But I listen to his podcast and I think he's a good investor with great philosophies.