All Forum Posts by: Eddie Gonnella

Hey Tyler, welcome to BP! Almost every real estate agent is looking for a great contractor, so you'll be in high demand once you start networking. I would agree, go to a meet up ASAP and you'll find tons of others. 

Also, if you browse the forums and search for keywords like "Maine" "Southern Maine" you'll start recognizing people who are answering a lot of questions and would be a great person to connect with and send a personal message. 

Good luck growing your real estate investments! 

Hey Taylor - we found it on the MLS. Acted pretty quick, toured and offered the first day on site. It's in Fulton Hill - 1520 Williamsburg Rd. We really like that area right now for the cashflow and for the future appreciation if some of the projected development happens like Stone and the Fulton Yard! Can't bank on either of those but they'd be a nice boost if they happen in the future. It's also our first deal as a partnership so there have been some awesome learning opportunities there

@Ben Sears, I'm really enjoying reading along to this! If you ever get a chance, I'd love to see how your actual costs stack up against what you had budgeted and what you learned from that process. Estimating costs is the toughest part for me these days. 

Thanks!! 

Just closed today on a BRRRR property in Richmond, Virginia. Bought this one with three partners @Elan Radbil, @Ben Hutto and @Jake Guhy using a commercial line of credit.

Purchase price: $95,000 4bd/3ba

Rehab budget: $40,000

Scope: Paint in/out, foundation work, new plumbing, new flooring, new decks, counter tops and converting a master bedroom into a 1/1 in-law suite. 

Closing/holding/finance costs: $20,000

ARV: $215,000

Rent: $2,200

Next step: Locking in contractors and getting the rehab moving

Any Richmond friends, give a shout if you'd like to check it out sometime!

Good luck, Sam! Welcome to BP! You're in a great state to live and invest.

@Andrew Postell Thanks for writing this. It's very detailed and I'm incredibly impressed by your patience in responding to so many people, many with repetitive already answered questions. I am looking forward to trying this strategy out in the near future to speed up my BRRRR. Thanks again!

I haven't looked into the spray foam for the basement. I've always heard that better encapsulation will give a better ROI than the heat system upgrades itself though. For my situation, the quotes to fix the insulation, windows, basement, etc were so high that it didn't make sense for me. My heat bill for a 2-unit is $4,000 for the year. The house is only worth around $110,000 so I can't justify the quoted costs of $20,000+ to fix all the encapsulation issues. The high utility costs are built into my cashflow budget and I'm still in good shape so for now, I'll deploy my cash on hand in other ways. I'm sure there are situations where it does make sense to focus on insulation, basement, windows, etc., I just don't see it that way for me right now.

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@Eddie Gonnella

Thanks Eddie! I really appreciate your perspective on this. Great to have a fellow Mainers take on the situation. I feel the same way about Portland in general.

You’ve definitely eased my mind about going with the gas boiler upgrade. $10k was about the quote I got for the wall unit. It would have to be wall hung due to the wet basement issues.

Do you have any thoughts on the value of spray foam in the basement when running natural gas in the building?

Thanks again Eddie!

I would keep it. You already have the HELOC which gives you the liquidity that the sale would provide, maybe slightly less $107k vs $150k but still, if you want to get more active with your investing you can use that $107k HELOC to make cash offers, other down payments, etc.

I'm not sure if you've looked into boiler costs, but in my area of the state, it's about 10k to do the change from oil to gas. Then you take care of the roof. Both of these I believe would increase your eventual sale price, probably about as much as they cost, if not more. Heat systems are a nightmare and to say to a future buyer that the heat system is new and upgraded I think would easily garner you an additional 10k sale price. Same with the roof, so neither of those seem like major issues to me.

For me, unless you need the cash badly or have a better spot to put it immediately, while you've made a great investment so far, this seems to be only more of a home run the longer you can keep it, especially if you've already upgraded most of the rest of the house. Portland isn't going anywhere but up in the next 10-15 years so if you can hold it that long, which your cash flow suggests you can easily do, this deal just gets better and better for me the longer you hold it. The only thing I can see hurting this deal is if for some reason you were forced to sell at some downturn in the future, but based on the income produced by the house I don't see why you would need to do that. 

@Matt Higgins thanks Matt that is helpful info. In your experience is it difficult to accomplish the refi on the back end if the property is owned by a multi-member LLC?

Eddie

Hi Charlotte! Congrats on getting the renters placed. So you all lived there for a few years and now have purchased a new primary residence and are renting out this condo? How long ago did you purchase the condo? I'm wondering if it has appreciated since then and you could tap into some of that to continue other with further RE investments.