All Forum Posts by: Elenis Camargo

@Jonathan Perez Have you tried calling other flooring companies to get estimates on it? We recently redid the floors in our 1300sqft property. We used glue down vinyl plank flooring and the cost for the materials and installation in Florida was $3,000, which was a great deal when comparing to other companies fees. At 300sqft that's over $6/sqft. Maybe the laminate you have to match is pricier? It does sound like a lot to me, but if you think that they have to remove the old floors, buy the materials, and install the new floor, maybe it's on point. I would call around for sure before committing to that though.

Sorry to hear that @Christopher Cadenhead. Does it say anything in the contract about ending it? It should state everything in there clearly. If you aren't sure, post a copy on here with the private info crossed out and we can try to help.

Hi @Account Closed. In a perfect world, sure, it's not a total loss or a terrible deal to get the properties in your scenario. Now in the world we live in, think about how one single tenant won't be living in your property for the entire 30 years. That means you'll be dealing with vacancies, evictions, and fees to get your property rented to new tenants. Then add in the maintenance issues. Our first month as new landlords we had an AC blowing hot air and a broken pipe in the backyard. Three months later our tenant didn't pay rent and we had to start an eviction which ended up in her abandoning the property and us spending $8,000 in a cleanup/rehab of the property. Now we finally got it rented back out and the property has bugs so we have to spray for bugs and the AC is old so we needed to do an acid wash on it. That's another few hundred bucks. The roof is at the end of its life so in the next year or two we will have to spend another $8,000+ on a new one. And the AC once that's gone another $6,000+. Of course we knew these things going in. We knew the floors needed redone, the AC and roof were old, that the property needed updating. But still. There are those things that pop up and break that you'll need to fix. Whether or not you want to live off the cash flow, why risk your money for a property that doesn't cash flow? Real estate is risky. What if in 30 years when you want to retire the market is down and you can't sell and you held on to this property for so long and have to wait another 5 or 10 years for it to pick back up? Anything is possible. If you're going to take this risk, make sure it at least cash flows so that you cover any expenses that come up along the way. It's not a slam dunk to invest in any deal and wait for appreciation to happen. I recently read that appreciation should be seen as the icing on the cake, not as the reason to invest. I hope this helps!

@Addam Driver Hi Addam. Just curious as to why you want to start out with a larger building. Have you thought of starting off with a fourplex so that you can get a residential loan? I have the same dreams as you, but I started with single family homes, next we are going to do a fourplex and after that see how to get into an apartment building.

@Nadine Delille It's definitely not easy, but nothing good in life comes easy. If I would have started with wholesaling, I would have been as stressed out as you were. I think most people make wholesaling seem so easy, but it's really not. They say you find a deal and a buyer and boom, you're rich! But no, it's not like that. I think it takes even more work than investing in your own deals. 

I think house hacking would be a great way to go. If you have a full time job and you're saving money, you can put the 3.5% down on a duplex, triplex or fourplex and live in one of the units while you save more money for another deal. I live in New York where it's extremely expensive to buy so I could not do a house hack. My husband and I saved money for about a year to purchase rental properties in Florida. We bought our first one in February of this year and are closing on the second one now. It took a ton of analyzing deals. I don't know how many hours/days/weeks I sat in front of the computer searching. So although it sounds easy to say we have two rental properties, it wasn't that simple. I hope the house hacking can work out for you. Start with something simpler, get your feet wet and then get into the more complicated deals. We started with rental properties using the 20% down conventional mortgage and after this we will try hard money for a flip. If we started with hard money and a flip, I'm sure we would've been in the hole right about now. Good luck!

@Ryan Behnke I look for over $300 per door. If you can’t find anything above $100 in your area then try investing out of state or at least in another city.

@Derrick Burtle Either find a new agent or deal with the listing agent yourself. You are free to contact the listing agent and say that you are interested in the property and if they would like to represent you in the deal. The listing agent will be more than happy to do so since they will get double the commission. Don’t give up. That agent either doesn’t understand how to work with investors or doesn’t care. Also make sure to explain why you are offering a certain price when dealing with any agent.

@Jacen Lehman I’ve done that before. If you really want to deal I suggest to call. When I’ve tried emailing, they don’t reply. They would of course expect some sort of compensation. Even if you find the owners contact info I’m not sure if they are under some contract to sell with that realtor. I’m not sure how those relationships work yet. But yes, I’d say contact the agent and be persistent till you get a hold of them. Also, some realtors don’t even know what seller financing is, so you have to word it correctly or explain if they don’t know what it is.

@Jessica Wood Wow that's a tough situation! Do you have an evictions attorney? We went through an eviction a few months ago and I was very worried about entering the property until I knew for a fact that she had abandoned it. We started the eviction then the tenant emailed us saying she moved out and that was enough to allow us to re-enter. Every state has different laws about this. It's VERY important for you to follow these laws so that the tenant doesn't win the trial!!

@Matthew Burns It's so awesome that you're wanting to start so young! I wish I had learned about REI at 22 (I'm 30 now so still not too old). I don't think you have to wait to settle down into one location to start. I live in NY now, originally from Florida, and I'm investing long distance. My husband and I have purchased 2 properties sight unseen. As long as you have the right team in place, there is no reason for you to ever even step foot in the property. We purchased our first one sight unseen and people thought we were crazy. Then I read this book by David Greene "Long-Distance Real Estate Investing: How to Buy, Rehab, and Manage Out-of-State Properties" and I knew I wasn't insane. I highly recommend it. It'll open your eyes to a whole new world :) best of luck! Feel free to reach out with any questions about long distance investing and managing. The author does not manage his own properties but I do and it's not so bad.