All Forum Posts by: Charles Kao

@John Tran As @Sean Sloop said the book on estimating rehab costs is a good one. I contributed to the second volume so am bias though as a brief disclosure. I would try to steer away from big rehabs at this point or find a partner locally if you are investing remotely. Labor and the market is hot so you don’t have alot of room for error unless you are buying and holding.

@Gus Lembo Absolutely horrible return in Michigan, especially Grand Rapids. Stay away!

@Frankie Arguelles

If you have interest continuing to flip with an equity partner reach out.

@Mallikarjun Reddy Pateel

If you want to go into commercial I would consider starting at an actual commercial specific brokerage. There is alot you have to learn and your clients likely know alot more than you do at this point. Being at a brokerage like KW can be beneficial because you get alot of referrals both good and bad from residential agents but they will not refer you anything if they don’t know you know what you are doing. One of my biggest gripes with residential agents is they get mad when homeowners think they can do their job but turnaround and think they can do commercial listings just like that. Commercial can be very frustrating. I just spent 13,000 on a commercial listing that fell apart 8 months into the deal.

Take a closer look to see if you have the skillset and patience to wait a long time for your first check. I would expect to lose money your first 6 months-9 months or barely anything but if you keep plugging away it can be very lucrative. My suggestion is if you are serious learn from

a big commercial broker and when your name becomes a brand on your own you can make the decision to leave for bigger splits or even start your own brokerage.

@Jimmy Barrett

Hard to analyze with so few details. How sure are you of 200k value, bed bath count? The hardest thing with newer investors if you are one is you are asking for advice assuming you know your numbers but the real analysis is whether your assumptions are correct. So we should be analyzing how you came to those numbers. 200k in GR though I will say sounds very doable. If you can make a quick 40k Id consider that because then you can use that as a downpayment on another rental without going into your current cash stash. I prefer getting at least a 5 but closer to 7 years of return now if I sell. So if cashflow is 5k a year I want at least 5 years of cashflow or 25k to sell now or I will just keep. Also keep in mind what tax bracket you are in.

@Dustin Brackins

I am not concerned with vacancy often with everybody around is high unless the product is poor. A good website presence, SEO, social

media and aggressively picking up phone are helpful. Depending on market size I like to use price per sq ft comps but also look at the rent per net leasable you are getting and will get as well.

@Chris Schorre

Don’t own real estate long term with a Solo 401k. There is already many advantages to rentals so its redundant to keep them in a Solo401k. If you must do it in a Roth but I think Solo 401ks are better suites for lending or flipping because the nature of the Solo401k allows you to offset the high taxation rate of flipping and lending.

@Brandon Koster TJ Simmons one of our admins for Metro Grand Rapids Real Estate investors does one monthly and the RPOA has 2-3 as well.

@Bud Ramkissoon. Depends on market. Want to find a local bank comfortable with doing portfolios as many do not like doing them

@Brandon Koster

I think Battle Creek is 20

years behind Muskegon in the economic cycle. Great opportunity to get a steel on well built homes but not sure when it will rebound but when it does it will explode. I look at homes I bought and sold 10 years ago and where they are at now in Muskegon and wish I bought more.