All Forum Posts by: Don Van Nguyen

It is a tough market and if you are going with a turn-key property, expect very low cash flow per month which won't meet your 1%. If you are okay with some cash flow and as an appreciation play then the Dallas market will work out for you. I live and originally looked for houses in Dallas to no success (the numbers just didn't work out). Hit me up just for any casual information as I like to connect with like-minded people.

As an update from my side, it has been great with FundRise. I been with them for four months now and got one dividend payment straight to my bank. I switch from balance to pure supplemental so the holdings automatically shift to all rentals instead of rental + debt with commercial companies. Pretty cool to see that option and they continually update us on all of the properties. 

For everyone here is the response from FundRise on Realty Shares Closing down their business and how they compare to Realty Shares. Financially they are in a bit more healthy shape but in my opinion still has the same risks as a lot of the other crowdfunding websites.

From FundRise:

Thanks for reaching out. We can appreciate your concern and want to ensure that you are confident in your decision to invest with us. Although we are hesitant to speculate as to why RealtyShares may be shutting down, I think it's worthwhile to note that we ultimately operate very different business models. We believe there are serious issues with their model of raising capital for individual deals online, which is why we departed from that model years ago. The most recent audited financials for our parent company - Rise Companies Corp - are available on the SEC website here.

Let us know if we can be helpful as things unfold. If you have any additional questions, please let me know.

@Thomas Berry I have been doing my due diligence on FundRise and really like this honest review. It doesn't look to good when compared to other investments. Is there any FundRise representatives to counter all of the negatives to this review? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVIe1pBtfZ8

Congrats on your story and appreciate you being so transparent! Awesome success.

@Lane Kawaoka I echo your statements. I have worked with both Memphis Invest and Norada. Both have been a great experience but definitely my experience so far with Memphis has been superior. I get quicker responses, guidance, relationship building, more trust, and overall feel like their quality is a lot better in terms of inventory/customer service. I usually do double to triple checks on their properties and everything they have pitched to me and it checks out okay.

@Nick McCandless  I would recommend doing your own DD on anything turnkey investors says to you in terms of cash flow, type of properties they sell, and their turnkey model. I met and talked with at least 4-5 turnkey investors where they bought a property from someone else with a tenant and try to sell it to me, doesn't know the condition of the house at all, and had all sorts of the third party and didn't do everything themselves. At the end of the day, I'm risking quite a bit on a $150k-$230k investment for $200 per month. I scratched out about 100%  of the inventory based on the numbers alone so far. 

@Greg Zabel I'm a new investor and been looking for a decent rental property in my target areas (mainly DFW, ddTX area) for about 6 months. You can throw away the 1% rule in the well-known areas and neighboring cities. Either you invest in the future with low cash flow or you go further out like some have suggested.

Yes, property tax is a killer but the growth is definitely in terms of jobs growth and people moving to TX. I personally don't think the ship has sail just a lot more difficult in finding a decent bang for your buck. I'm at the point do I get a mediocre cash flow and start my investment journey now or do I wait for the market to go down (don't know when that'll happen). I have been looking at FundRise and GroundFloor with a few other REIT crowdsourcing investments as an alternative.

@Nathan Allan Awesome! I have been impressed with the customer service as they were very prompt and like the overall user-friendly interface. I just started my pro account yesterday and doing a test run for now with a small amount.

Very interested in this idea. I looked at Fundrise and Groundfloor so far and still doing my DD. @Nathan Allan since you have been using it for a little bit. It is easy to set up the bank account to the Fundrise account, quarterly dividends have been easy to process to your account and on time? Is there a specific date of release every quarter?

Just overall wondering if the actual details of it is easy to navigate and see your earnings on investment. I checked with Groundfloor and think it is an innovative idea but don't know if I'm willing to wait 9 months to 12 months on the interest. @Kristiana Kenny I also will check it out. Let me know how it is working for you too please! Thank you

@Ryan Blake I don't think you are a minority at all! I struggle daily with focusing on Houston or DFW. Houston does take a hit during an O&G recession but it is quite robust and hangs in there during the worst times. They do have a diverse economy in terms of technology, O&G, hospitals, and universities. I think of DFW the same but not as many O&G companies and a bit more heavily toward the financial and technology sector.