All Forum Posts by: Elliot Wagner

Thank you for the insights! What is a realistic range for compensation for a BD? I'm seeing anywhere between 1-8%. How do you operators go about finding people like yourself? LinkedIn and Google are not very helpful or it is that we don't know what to look for.

Wow those are some big numbers! Is your BD actually helping raise funds with a captive sales force or are they acting as just a managing broker dealer?

We are operators with a $15M portfolio generating good returns over the past several years. We are looking to raise a $30-$50M investment fund to scale. We have spoken with some syndication/fund formation attorneys and are ready to prepare a PPM. However, we're unsure of how to search for broker dealers that can help raise the funds. Is there a database or a specific Google search I should be using?

We tried searching for "broker dealer mid market" and "broker dealer private placement" and got some hits that look like they could be a good fit, but not very many. Not sure if we're missing some obvious way of searching?

The story is really incredible, and I wished it was true because I was very inspired, but it doesn't hold water. She claimed she had 16 Airbnb rentals, but she actually only has 6 and has some very negative reviews (unsanitary, deceptive listings etc) from guests and LOTS of empty calendars https://www.airbnb.com/users/s... She claimed $64K/mo cashflow from Airbnb ($80K - $16K/mo cashflow from section 8), but it looks like she only has one listing booked currently for about $1500/mo. After PITI and utilities, that's probably about $800/mo cashflow.

Looking through the older guest reviews, it looks like she used to have some Airbnb arbitrage units in a building with a landlord that didn't allow Airbnbs, which I'm guessing got shut down and is why she now only has 6 listings.

Her Furnished Finder reviews are likewise all 1-star reviews as well, with guest complaining about unreturned security deposits and misleading advertising https://www.furnishedfinder.co...

IF the claimed section 8 cashflow is true, I estimate she is at most making about $17K/mo cashflow. That's great, but a far cry from the $80K/month figure. Also given these inaccuracies, I'm skeptical even the section 8 figures are authentic.

She sells a $2K 4-week real estate investing mentorship program, which must be getting a nice boost in students from all the podcast viewers. It should help make up for the empty Airbnbs and shuttered arbitrage units.

 That's a helpful data point and it aligns with what I've seen with my credit as well!

We have a few HELOCs with 97% - 99% utilization rate with balances in the range of $70K - $200K. How do these affect mortgage FICO scores 2, 4, 5? 

I keep reading completely conflicting advice where some sources say HELOC utilization rates don't affect credit scores at all, while others say they do affect scores significantly, and some others say that they don't unless you really max out the HELOC. Some say the impact is big, while some others say the impact is small.

What is the truth? 

We're closing on a 1.3M home in Sevier County, TN and we got quoted $4K for Owner Title insurance in our closing costs. Does this sound like a good price? On our previous purchase, we paid much less, so $4K seems like a lot, but the previous one was also a much lower price home in a different state.

We're buying a second home for vacation purposes financing it as a second home, but renting it out when we're not there. In the first year after purchase, we're planning to live there for 3 months, which will help us meet the second home occupancy requirements without a problem.

A couple of questions we have:

- Down the line (say after a year), can we convert it to a full time vacation rental? Would the lender have problems with that? I know that for a primary residence, you can convert it to a rental property after a year, but not sure what the rules are for second homes. Haven't been able to find any guidelines related to this.

- Down the line, if we are able to convert this property to a full time vacation rental investment property, can we then buy another second home (with second home financing terms) in the same area? Second homes need to be at least 70 miles apart, but since technically, the original property will have become no longer our second home, would we then be allowed to finance another second home in the area?

If anyone has experience with this type of situation would love to hear how this is handled by lenders. Depending on how it's viewed, we'd like to optimize our strategy for the kind of property we want to finance as investment vs second home and how to sequence the property purchases.