All Forum Posts by: Holly Hansen

Hi Joshua,
So I have been doing a lot of research on Virtual Assistants for Real Estate Investing for a program I am writing.
I would be happy to make some recommendations if you can answer a couple of questions
[b]
1) What kind of tasks are you going to ask them to do and how specialized are they?
1) Do you want a freelance virtual assistant (an individual who has the specialized skills you are looking for) or hire a Virtual Assistant Service firm?
2) Do you want to work with virtual assistants, from US, Canada or UK or from countries where English is a second language?
BTW - there are no wrong answers, to these questions, it really depends on what your needs are and your personal preferences.
So if you take a moment to answer I would be happy to provide some suggestions.

I read it and I am already working on my "muse" and plan on using funds from that muse to fund real estate investing using virtual assistants!

Hi Joshua,
So here is one stat to add to the pile:
According to the National REIA http://www.nationalreia.com/about-us/history/ - they have over 40,000 members - so that should start to help you with the # of real estate investors in the USA

I am also looking for a Mentor - for a specific area - l multi-family real estate investments out of state for cash flow. ( am personally located in Santa Cruz, CA.

Answering your question, I would definitely step up and do grunt work.
However, I also work for Realtor.com as a product manager, so I have other professional expertise I can help whoever mentors me - like marketing, online user experiences, web copy, project management, property analysis, deal finding, researching emerging markets

I am definitely willing to use my skill set, in trade for experience and a small piece of a deal.

Great question!
Thanks for asking it

There are three main "buy and hold" investing strategies we all consider on when looking at a property:
1) You are either looking for great cashflow (10% cap rate or higher)

2) Decent cashflow and equity play (any positive cap rate with the intent to sell within 2 to 3 years for equity profit)

3) Pure quity play - (could even be negative from a cash flow perspective) , but it is a hot emerging market and you hold onto the property for maximum of 6 months (or no longer than a year) with the intent to flip for profits.

Having been born and raised in San Jose, and still work here (at Realtor.com), I can tell you to get any cash flow at all for the Silicon Valley is remarkable.
When I first started looking at investments here, any property would automatically be underwater on your rent to mortgage ratio.

You were lucky if you could have someone cover most of your mortgage.
So to see a 6 to 7% cashflow is pretty amazing here.

Personally I would never invest in this area for cashflow. (If you wanted great cash flow you would have invested here 10 - 20 years ago).

The only investing strategy I would recommend for Silicon Valley (as also called out by JScott in #2), is to invest for an equity play. But you will have to hold to this property for 2 or 3 years for a real pay off.

If you want good/great cashflow - you will have to look outside the bay area and more than likely out of state.

Can you provide a bit more info?
Any known repairs needed for property/ any recent major repairs done?
Any other costs you are responsible for? ex.: landscaping, snow removal.
Other OPEX (operating expenses) to consider - cost of oil.
Property and neighborhood type (A, B, C, D, F)
I like the deal well enough that it is worth digging a little deeper on the due dilligence.

As this is my first investment purchase and it would be an out of state investment I would have a property manager continue to run, I would REALLY appreciate any feedback or input!!!!

VERY Long Term Tenants (claim is 20+ years) in each unit are family members (brothers)
Unit 1 - One is section 8 – check straight from govt. ($350)
One is on social security and is disabled – other pays rent cashiers check ($275)
Unit mix 2 x 2 bd/ 1 bth
Here are the numbers:

Price $26,000 (they will only accept cash) I can come up with about 10k in cash but would have to take a personal loan to cover the rest

Gross Rent:
$7,500 (100% occupancy consistently)

Expenses –
A) $1975 (owners claims with property mgt included)
OR –
B) $3000 (if I assume a 40% of rents =expenses)

NOI:
$5,525 (if use A expenses)
OR
$4.500 (if use B expenses)

Even if I was to 100% LTV at a $26K price at approx 7.5%
Annual Debt Service would be: $2340

So Annual positive Cash Flow would be:
$3185 (if expenses A – owner claims) (or $265 a month)
OR
$2160 (if expenses B – using 40% of gross rents) (or $180 a month)

Repairs known (before property inspection) needs new exterior and interior paint (additional $1,500), Roof is approximately 10 years old
The money seems small but consistent

Duplex Located in Buffalo, New York

There have been a lot of foreclosures in that area – some I can tell were investors
On the plus side, these tenants don’t seem like they are going any where soon.
When I ran the cash on cash return and looked at the cash flow it looks pretty good, even if you were to finance it at 100%

So what do you think?
Thanks!
Holly