All Forum Posts by: Ivan Vargas

 Yes you're absolutely right Joe. Advanced rents are classified the same as security deposits. Every landlord should definitely know the laws in the state where the property is located. However it is not advanced rent if your lease term is 1 year as opposed to 12 months.

For example, if your lease reads 1 year for $12k/year and not 12 months for $1k/month. Then the tenant paid for the current term and nothing more. Of course finding a tenant that is willing and able to do this is more difficult, but by doing this you (sort of) weed out the bad tenants, and most importantly in my case eliminate the potential for non-payment due to loss of income caused by the pandemic.

Must pay all 12 months up-front. Did that in March 2020 during the pandemic.

I once found a big pile of poop with soiled newspaper in a walk-in closet of the master bedroom just 5-6 feet away from the bathroom/toilet. 

@Brian Garrett said it well. Hard to find and high rehab cost results in small profits. Golden Lakes comes out in the auctions here and there and there's plenty interest in there with winning bids usually exceeding profitable levels for flips. Century Village comes up very often and its almost always the same buyer that wins them, he must have 100 units by now between both CV (West Palm and Boca). I can't imagine they make good flips considering there are over 300 units for sale in the west palm CV with one asking as low as 12k. 

Its tough to get high margins down here. I believe he was referring to the whole south Florida market including Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties. There are a few guys who buy 100s of houses a year so they are ok with tiny margins as they make it up with volume.

If you took the money out of a 401k then I assume you were taxed and penalized when you withdrew it. If you put it back in wouldn't you get taxed again when you pull it back in the future? Maybe even penalized again if too early? 

Depending where in the country u are 70k might go a long way in real estate, while in some places that's barely a down payment. If you can buy 2 rentals and have positive cash flow maybe that would be a good start. If you know how to play with stocks, now might be a good time to double your money in a year or less. (You already missed the chance to triple your money in a month). 

 Are you absolutely certain that the missed or deferred payments will be due in a lump sum? It was my understanding that they would be tacked on at the end of the loan term by extending the life of the loan by however many payments they missed. 

Also as mentioned above in another comment, if and when the foreclosures due to the pandemic are commenced, those homes won't go to auction for at least 1 year but maybe much more because borrowers will most likely defend and drag it out. 

I do believe the market will see a slight drop in prices but not like a recession drop. There will be more sellers than buyers and these desperate sellers (who missed and possibly continue to miss payments) that will lower prices over and over until they find a buyer. While most would be buyers who lost their jobs are no longer looking to buy, some will have a hard time qualifying for loans. But don't expect that to be a 2008 like drop. 

Hey @Gene Maltsev, I can help with your cottage remodel. I actually saw your request on Buildzoom but didn't reply in time so I can no longer bid on it there, but if you haven't yet hired someone I can come by for an estimate.

The company I work with is a licensed contractor in Florida since 1986 and I specialize in fix & flips and rental properties with tight budgets so I can give you the best price on quality (permitted) work in Palm Beach County. 

As @Greg mentioned this is clearly Reg CF with a $1.07M limit. As for how the developer will handle all the investors, they don't have to. Reg CF has to go thru a portal which will handle all the investor communications for them, they just have to provide updates on the platform and all investors will get notifications. 

Sure they can have 1k, 2k or even 4k investors, it doesn't matter to them its structured as 1 investor entity with 1 manager appointed by the platform. Although not widely used for real estate, this is IMO probably the safest form of crowdfunding platform for investors considering the rules and the process to get a project live on a "registered "crowdfunding portal"". 

@Paris Williford you said you stumbled across this opportunity, but you didn't say where. It's not a scam as long as Its on a Registered Crowdfunding Portal. There are only a few here's the list: https://www.finra.org/about/funding-portals-we-regulate. If the deal you found is on one of the portals on this list then its legit, if its not then they are violating SEC regulations and its a scam. 

@Michael Ealy made a very good point which is great advice. $250 for the knowledge and experience is a way better deal than a $1000-2000 training course, book or seminar. If its on a legit portal and you don't need the $250 back any time soon u should go for it.

I only buy at county foreclosure auctions. Those mentioned here are not always official foreclosure auctions. Sometimes they are REO listed for sale by the bank in an auction style format but the auction already happened long ago and nobody bid and the bank ended up owning the property. They list them like this to try and get more for it than they normally would if they sold it as an REO on the MLS.

Find your county foreclosure auction and learn how to research properties and bid there.

Foreclosures are risky business mostly because of this detail right here. Not only are you buying blind and have no idea what you will find once you finally get inside, but you need to know how to research the property before bidding so you know how much to bid if at all. Make sure you know what you are doing before you make a very expensive mistake.

I've learned how to search in Palm Beach County pretty well but, while every county is the same, every county is different. They all have a website where you can search or you can go to the courthouse/recorders office, but you'll only find recorded liens and only if their names are spelled correctly.