All Forum Posts by: Henri Meli

You probably need to re-evaluate the "WHY" you are investing at all. Yes, you have described your current situation today. But projecting into the short term (1-2 years?), the mid term(3-5 years) and the long term (5+ years). Which investment gets you closer to where you want to be in the future? And do you need to learn to delegate some of the work you doing, so that you can focus more on finding deals? You could lose 10-15 % of your profit to property management, but the extra time could help you find more profitable deals in the future? 

I don't think we can answer those questions for you. I think you need to find answers to those questions yourself and those answers will help you make the right decision.

Good luck.

Have rented for Foreign Nationals, who recently moved into the country and didn't have credit history to get a mortgage. Have rented to people who had good credit, but didn't want to deal with home ownership hassle. 

Try this web site. http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/ . It is quite helpful.

It is important to remember that many plan providers won't allow you to take your own money out of your 401k. You can borrow up to a certain amount (sometimes up to 50k or some percentage of what you have). 

I remember, I wasn't allowed to take money from my 401k. (except for the $50k limit). You should always contact your plan provider to understand what your real options are. But you also need to understand the tax implications of taking money out of 401ks. Your tax bill might be huge the following year.

The Raleigh (Wake County) market has been growing quite a bit lately and with growth come changes, including rezoning. The real estate people I know (there are plenty licensed RE Agents on this board) are well aware of these changes. Of course, if you chose one randomly, they might not know what's going on ... 

The best way to protect yourself ... is through knowledge. If you are dealing with the town of Cary (suburb of Raleigh), i.e., i know that you can find such information on the town website. I don't own property in the city of Raleigh, so I'm not familiar with that information. Find the web site for the city of Raleigh.

@Dustan 

I have not completed such deal myself, but I'm on the market for something similar and I have spoken to a few brokers as well as commercial lenders. I'm assuming you are talking commercial loan here. 

All lenders have told me, I need to have some skin in the game for them to even consider. 

Sellers financing doesn't have to be 100 percent of the deal only. It could be any portion of the deal. In my case, I'm looking to finance about 10-20 % (depending on the size) and the  seller to finance the remaining % to reach 25-30%. You need to take into account that you will need cash for repairs and all types of expenses to make the units ready or fix up things. I have run my scenarios by lenders and they have told me, they do such deals routinely. The last multi family I analyzed, my first question to the seller's brokers was if the seller would be willing to provide some financing...

Right off the top of my head ... How old is the Duplex? Depending on the age, I think you want to put aside more money, just in case lots more work needs to be done in the very near future.  The rent price compare to purchase price is really very good.

How long are the leases of the tenants? Depending if they might be leaving soon, you should consider some $ for recruiting the next tenant as well. How expensive are similar houses in the area? 

Great Job and Congratulations. Great purchase price. 

If he has a bank account (since he writes checks), why can't he just do bill pay? It is free for all the banks that I know.

what type of investment you looking for?