All Forum Posts by: Eunice Villarroel

Great post Ruchit Patel,

HI THERE ELISHA, Looks like you have the ‘want to’ just not the ‘how to’. Start by joining a local real estate group and becoming part of a meet up that’s the best way to meet people. Unfortunately through these forms are just one in 1 million trying to make it. There is no replacing face to face communication. Becoming part of a real estate group meet up and you get to meet the most amazing professionals that are just as goal driven as you are and have put in blood sweat and tears to get to where one day you may want to be. You can learn from these people.

in the meantime I suggest you listen to podcasts and read books about what it takes to handle money and what it means to become an elite performer. These books will change your mindset. When you are young you want to change the world but as you get wiser you realize that changing yourself is changing your world. This world has enough people trying to change the world and not enough people trying to change themselves. If enough people try to change themselves rather than to change the world then truly we would live in a better world. 

Best of luck in your journey my friend. I wish you a lot of success. Do not you lose your drive.

Wow recently happened to me with a PROPERTY I PURCHASED. This is a very hot market in Florida not sure if you're experiencing the same thing where you're at. I as a BUYER was desperate to buy and the property had other offers So I was willing to pay for the termite repairs. Main thing for me was that the property pass FHA inspection, get insurance and pass appraisal. The property also needed a couple more fixings so we were able to split the cost between me and the seller. Might be something you might want to do, see if you can split the cost. You are the seller though, you do not have to do anything specially if you're selling the house and as is condition. However depends on how important it is for you to sell, understand that the buyer might back down if this is a dealbreaker for them.

Hey everyone. Just wondering, did  everybody else have a hard time finding the place lol. I definitely did

Quote from @Yannier Ponce:

Hello everyone,

I'm really excited and getting ready to purchase my first rental property. I would love to connect with the biggerpockets community and make a lot of long lasting friendships. I'm located in Miami and would be awesome to meet some local investors. 

I know a lot of investors have their Real Estate license but I'm license in Florida and, I also have a lot of experience in I.T (computers, network, copiers) happy to help the community anywhere I can.

Hey there welcome to the BP community. Full time Fort Lauderdale real estate agent  here, but I travel a lot to Miami since I have rental properties that I manage over there. Really nice to meet you! So excited you’re about to embark on your real estate investment journey on a rental property. Super excited for you! Try going on Facebook groups as well, there’s plenty of meetups in South Florida.

Hi there, I personally have out of state properties that I manage but not that many yet so I HANDLE THE MANAGEMENT so far.

1. I purchase in good areas (VERY IMPORTANT). The quality of the area determines the quality of the tenants. One of my properties is located next to an army base center so I get a lot of military families Who are excellent at keeping the place spotless.

2. I vet my tenants very carefully to make sure they are good. I make everyone that’s interested in the property fill out a application that lets me know who they are, what they do, and what their intention is with the property.  Once I have a good amount of applications I look through them and I select the best one from the bunch I do not go with the first tenant that walks in and says they want the place. Once I select a tenant I run their background check at their expense. Very important because there’s always a probability that they will be someone that will lie to you in their application.

3. When investing in out-of-state properties and wanting to manage them by yourself it’s always a good thing to have a friend in the state you’re investing in or a family member that can check in on the property for emergency situations just in case. The state I invest in I have my sister that lives there and if anything were to happen she can always go in and check on the property however it doesn’t really happen too much

4. Try to establish as many connections in that state as possible especially when it comes down to service provider such as handymen, plumbers, etc. that you can call in at anytime and they would be available to go solve the problem should it arise. You don’t have to do this right away. You can do it as you go. I found my servicing company after experimenting with different contractors, I was able to build rapport with this particular company I know I have it set up so if anything were to break or leak my tenants notify them directly and then they notify me to confirm. My tenants love this feature as it makes them feel like their needs will be met.

5. Invest in a state that you do not mind visiting. It is inevitable unfortunately to manage an OUT Of State PROPERTY by yourself 100% remotely. I check in on the house once every six months just to make sure everything is being kept up with maintenance wise. As a homeowner you always have to look after your property, it’s the responsible thing to do. I love going to that state to vacation so honestly it’s not a big deal for me sometimes I even go in every three months but just too vacation. 

As I grow my investment portfolio however I may start looking into a management company once I get overwhelmed with tenants. But so far all my doors are occupied by amazing tenants Who look after the property very well, and and my systems allow for Easy management.


best of luck to you on your journey, I hope this helps 

Quote from @Matthew Wilson:

Hey folks! This sounds fun, are rookies welcome?

Lol I'm  a rookie.....planning to go. Looking forward to talking real estate, meeting people and definitely sharing knowledge.  I'm new in fort lauderdale...this would be my first meet up 

Quote from @Tyler Solomon:

Josh, to contradict what Greg just said - W2 is not needed to still receive great leverage. Non QM lenders do not verify W2/1099 and still provide great leverage, even for first time investors. Shoot me a message if this is of interest - I know the Raleigh area quite well. 

This is 100% true too. These loans do have higher down payment requirements and interest rates though, if I’m not mistaken. Also. Do these loans qualify for owner occupied properties? Genuine curiosity 

Hello Josh, to start off with thank you so much for your service. I can’t imagine being in your shoes for those 12 years. 

First thing I would like to do is set the record straight, real estate is not easy especially when you're starting off. But it is definitely worth it. If I were in the position you're in the first thing I would do is see what kind of programs are available for me to purchase an FHA home. In Florida we have programs for first responders where the state contribute to $20,000 towards home purchase. Of course I cannot speak on behalf of North Carolina since every state is different but maybe there is hope, might be worth looking into.

The first home I would buy would be a multi family that way I can live on one side of the house and rent out the other which would lower my mortgage payments or cover them completely. If you do not want to buy a multi family home you can always purchase a home that may have a basement/attic, mother-in-law suite or any additional dwelling unit that you could use to rent out.

you want to aim to get conventional AND FHA loans when you're beginning because they are the ones with the lowest interest rates and Low down payments. The only caveat to the loans is that you have to live in the property for at least a year and you need to have proof of income if you could just hold onto a job for 2-4 more months till you lock in a good property it would be worth it. Flips can be very tricky and risky and difficult specially nowadays where contractors are in high demand and are very difficult to find. What I would recommend is that you begin networking with flippers if that's the route that you wanting to go. You can meet them at your local real estate investor groups. The easiest way would be on Facebook groups. Get connected with people that are already doing house flips, ask them if there is anything you can help them with and the only thing you ask in return is for them to allow you to tagalong and acquired knowledge. Of course if you're going to be partnering with them you wanna talk about the percentage of profit split. Please make sure that they are experience at what they do and you're not just partnering with just anybody.


another important piece of advice when you’re buying an investment property whether it be to rent long-term or whether it be to flip the interest rate is going to be a lot higher and the down payment requirements will be very high. You will be looking at the very least a 20%-25% down payment. Therefore before you invest in any investment property do the numbers very carefully and make sure that you know what you’re doing. Work with a good real estate agent that knows the market and will give you good advice after listening to your goals. You’d be surprised at the level of incompetent real estate agents that there are here in Florida i’m sure N.C is no different.

Best wishes on your journey. Real estate is not for the faint of heart but if you stick to it You will never regret it. Sending many blessings your way

Quote from @Jeffrey Myers:

Hey everyone!

I'm sure this isn't the first time this has been asked, but here it goes...

Is it better, or smarter to pay cash for a property, say $45,000.00, or just take out a mortgage and use someone else's money?  I have been running the numbers and the cocroi varies greatly from one to the other.  Any input?  Again, sorry that this has probably been answered a thousand times before, I'm new into this and would really appreciate the help.  Would it matter if I were using this as a fix and flip, short term rental, or long term rental?  Do the same rules apply to each?

Hello, welcome to the community. Don't worry about asking questions here there's always somebody to help you. We all started somewhere and I would be very glad to help you and give you some advice along the way if you need me. The answer above is very good you do have to do the numbers and see if it works out however I would like to address the final question that you asked whether it would matter if it were using as a fix and flip or a short term rental or a long-term rental it definitely does. If I were in your shoes I would definitely pull out a HELOC in order to do a fix and flip just because I would be able to temporarily use that money fix the property flip it and then repay the bank without having to pay the ridiculously high interest rates long-term. If I were doing a short term rental I would definitely try to do rental arbitrage first. For a long-term rental I will definitely go out with a cash out refinance kind of situation of course if the deal makes sense and the numbers make sense (this can also apply to the short term rental).

Quote from @Patricia Steiner:

Floridians need to stay out of this discussion because if you dig a hole 4 feet down in our state, you'll hit water or limestone or something that isn't "basement" worthy.  From having lived up North many years ago, the answer is generally no. You can go to the Property Appraiser's site, put in the address and it will show you what the living square footage is and illustrate what that includes.  I don't think you'll like the answer.  Here's a couple things to know:

The bad..."It's not usable, so don't include it in square footage. To be considered “living area,” a home's rooms must meet certain criteria — including the basement. Height clearances, whether it's heated, and the presence of windows: all of these make a space livable."

The good..."a finished basement is an asset to your property value.

Valuation is more than square footage so just make sure you let potential buyers know that the basement offers even more space for that prized media room, man cave, more.

 Wow kind of hurt at you saying that Floridians should stay out of this lol. As someone who owns property in other states like Utah I know for a fact that sometimes basements are considered part of livable square footage specially if they meet certain requirements the main one being a legal ingress or egress which adheres to the building code requirements of the state. In other words it’s varies state by state. 

A very amazing point that you made though is that it does increase property value as a whole specially if it’s a finished basement Even if it does not qualify as additional livable space .