All Forum Posts by: Erwin Groenendijk

@Fredrik Kaarem, @Dougan Milne, @Alexander Svanevik, here is our Meet up link: 

https://www.meetup.com/Real-Estate-Investors-in-Ba...

Looking forward to meet you guys having a beer

A good choice to come to Barcelona, @Fredrik Kaarem, although the weather today is feeling like North Europe ;-)

Good to see that already experienced and knowledgeable people are responding to your post. Like @Dougan Milne, @Alexander Svanevik, and @Adrià Creixell, they are definitely the ones to talk to with the local feeling.  

As there is input given by multiple people, what do you (and the others) say about coming all together after the information has sinked in? Adria and me are organizing a Real Estate meet up the 28th of March in the evening. Interesting to hear several backgrounds at once.

Cheers,

Erwin

Hi @Eli Lisway,

Thanks for mentioning @David Fernandez, appreciate it. We met David in one or our meet ups organized in Barcelona approx. 6 months ago. In the meantime, mainly because of the political instability in Barcelona, we have been focusing our investment journey in Valencia. We have done 4 projects there now, and signed our last one yesterday! 

As you can imagine, we are quite excited about Valencia and agree that it is a good option to focus on. Prices are still relatively low, for example. The situation in Valencia is an up market. The expectation is that the overall buying house prices are going to increase 10% in the upcoming year, and rental prices similarly. 

Open to help you with additional questions if you have them. 

Cheers, 

Thank you for the explanation @Bas LandI think indeed that networking in this is going to be very important to find the better deals and to be able to have the first shot at it. For the upcoming Meet Up organized by @Jen Mendez, I am going to try to be there if I am in the Netherlands around that time. You should come and have a look at it too. 

Jen, is the construction of refinancing also applicable in the Netherlands and on average accepted by banks?

Could you by any chance explain a bit more in detail the averages of rents in comparison to house prices from what you are seeing around you? Perhaps describe some example deals that you have been analyzing.

And did you consider another investment strategy, like Flipping for example?

Count me in as well! Are those around the whole country or do you guys have a specific location?

Hi Bas, thanks for the reply. The crowdfunding space is indeed getting more interest and more initiatives coming up. Would be interested if anyone else knows some creative tips how to handle with creative financing in the Netherlands. Although, the rules and regulations are differing between the countries, there should be ways. This because in Spain a lot of things are regulated (there is relatively quite some bureaucracy), and still constructions like this are proven to be quite successful. 

Good luck with your first real estate investment!

Dear all,

Originally, I am from the Netherlands and for two years now living and working in the city of Barcelona in Spain. It is also here that I started investing in Real Estate investing. In this forum post, I would like to discuss the topic of Creative Financing for Investing in the Netherlands.

The reason for that is because in Barcelona there is a creative way of Fixing & Flipping a house without being the 'official' owner. This is done via a 'Contrato de Arras', meaning a down payment of 10-20% which gives you the right to do the rehab and sell within 6 months without officially needing to buy the property yourself (excluding all involving costs of the process of doing so, as e.g. notary costs, taxes etc.). Then, if things go well, you never own the property but you do get the profit as a contractor for selling it for the rehabbed price. This way, taxes are lower and with a relatively small amount of money you are able to Buy, Rehab, and Sell properties. Of course, the downside is that you need to be able to sell the property in 6 months, among some others.

Are there similar creative financing set ups in the Netherlands? Do you know/use particular smart ways of buying, rehabbing, or selling properties and would like to share? Tips for beginners or the tricks for more experienced investors?

Please share/comment! 

@Marielle Walter I agree here with @Alexander Svanevik. Various banks should be willing to help you. In terms of prices, if you do decide to look for places in Barcelona, keep in mind that 100k is the bare minimum to look out for. This is rather towards the 200k+. A lot of interest for investing in Barcelona at the moment, and the availability of properties are decreasing by the day.

@Marielle Walter Unfortunately not having all the knowledge to say this 100% sure, but as to what I have seen so far it is quite hard to find a property in a prime rental area for prices as 40/50k. Around Barcelona and the Costa Brava area, in the prime rental areas, prices towards the 100k+ are more common. On the contrary, distressed properties you can find for those prices. I am from the Netherlands, living and working in Barcelona, and investing in the city of Barcelona. A tip would be to have a look on 'idealista.com' and to scan through the areas where you are interested in to get a better taste.