All Forum Posts by: Jacob Repreza

If you're a turnkey investor then I understand the hesitation. You will have to look for real deals if you don't want to worry about a downturn. The investors that get distressed properties and fix them up should be pretty decently insulated from a drop if they have been making smart purchases. 

That being said I absolutely think we see a decline in home prices in the next year or so. I really don't think it'll be anywhere close to 2008 because that specific recession was caused by real estate and the industry spearheaded the decline.  

Also last note, one of our partners let us know that some companies are doing more and more stated income loans so saying the banks learned from the last time might be wrong thinking. 

@Carlos Pelegrina @John Prucha Yea we're in the same boat with our projects. GC's in Cleveland just have not worked out so now we just have our project manager manage the subs for the project. There's been some bumps along the road and it's done a little slower but we prefer slower and well done than fast and lazy unfinished work. 

@Dave Poeppelmeier brings up a good point when it comes to brokers who focus on investors. That is an area that would be very difficult for the tech companies to completely phase out. So I think like with most things technology is getting ready to replace, if you're specialized in a specific niche then you should have an advantage to stick around when the time comes, but if you only help the average consumer purchase their home then you might be in trouble. Do keep in mind though thats not the piece of the pie that the tech companies want. Last year investor purchases reached an all time high at 11% for the year, so it's still a small fraction relatively speaking. 

Most agents now have become glorified hand holders. The consumer now has zillow, redfin, realtor etc at their fingertips so there's no need for an agent to look for properties for them. The ratio of agents that actually provide legitimate help and advice to the consumer, compared to the ones that just passed an exam and paid a realtor membership fee has a larger discrepancy than most people think. Those agents(which would be hundreds of thousands) will be ostracized quickly. 

@Mike Mocek We don't! And don't get me wrong it hasn't been all fine and dandy. The main surprise that has popped up were burst pipes which were in 2 bank owned REO's we purchased that weren't properly winterized. So you best believe we're at least checking all of that prior now but we just move quickly with access and have someone walk it, even though we don't formally have it in the contract.

Yup we waive inspections on our offers in Cleveland and we just plan for the worst possible state and go based off of pictures. With that being said, between submitting the offer and getting a response, we're usually able to send our project manager out or one of our boots on the ground to go take more pictures and walk around so that we know what we're getting ourselves into. So it's not a formal inspection by any means but we do have people from our team walk the house and give us some basic feedback. 

One thing I will say is make sure you factor in Shaker Height's crazy property tax into the equation whenever you're running numbers. As well at the 130% escrow hold they make you do for POS repairs. It's more money you will have to come in with up front. Besides that yes you're right. Many multifamilies(we have a duplex in shaker on chagrin) and a really nice area to purchase in. 

@Omri Biderman for home insurance we always use Mark F. Jochum over at Jochum Insurance. Always gets out policies to us really quickly and at good prices. 

@Account Closed Yup! We do both. We got 5 Rentals at the moment and from those 5, 2 are already rented out and the other 3 are finishing rehab. We just closed on a flip and we got 4 more in progress as well. 

@Krishan Khalsa I'll step in really quick with those questions. LTV is the Loan to Value. So it applies on the front end and on the back end when you refinance. On the front end your LTV might be high if you go FHA due to the low downpayment, hence the 97% or so. On the back end once the repairs are done and the value is higher your LTV will go down.

And then I wouldn't recommend auctions to a new person on their own. We purchase from auctions quite often and they're usually sight unseen, here in cali you get a lot that are occupied with makes it worse, and vast majority have a really quick closing date which means most people use a hard money loan or cash. So it would be a lot on your plate to handle as someone new. 

We're finishing one up in Cleveland Heights. Buy right. Best advice I can give you. 

Like they always say in the podcasts, the money is made when you buy it. We dealt with some contractor BS and went over budget and even then we'll be able to cash out about 15-20k once it's all said and done.