All Forum Posts by: Jacqui Whalley

@Joe Villeneuve ah, so more a ‘know your strategies/market like the back of your hand’ broad knowledge application and the opportunities will be easier to spot? 

Thank you for the patience in dealing with my newbie-ness! I find that discussion/hearing other peoples’ opinions really helps me to get a better grasp on the concepts. If you’re open, I’d love to learn more about your investing journey sometime! 

@Joe Villeneuve Point(s) well made! 

When you say that I should not be ‘looking for deals, but instead looking for opportunities to turn into deals’, can you elaborate on what you mean by that? Are you saying to target off market, or otherwise get creative with rehabs to minimize cash out of pocket/optimize returns?

@Nicholas L. Yes, you’re totally right-both related (but different) things! 

We picked the market we’re in currently because of the ratio of renters to owners (roughly 45%:55%), trend towards appreciation in our state moving south, and distressed homes in that area being within our budget. Depending on the specific neighborhood,I’d probably rate the area in the B/C range in terms of school district/crime/etc. Happy to take additional advice on explicit factors to look for!

@Joe Villeneuve—sorry, I should have clarified that what I meant is that cash offers are best in terms of trying to overcome competition…but to your point, not necessarily in terms of ROI depending on what you expect to get out of it! Thanks for catching that—very valid points.

@Joe Villeneuve and @Ziad Hamati—thank you for the grounding! Definitely too much on my head, and it totally makes sense that if the numbers aren’t working with what I have, it’s not my market. 

For BRRRR-it's been unclear to me if you HAVE to do all cash offers up front, or if that is just the BEST way to optimize margins? Obviously cash is best, but if we switch to cash offers, that definitely changes our strategy a bit where we'd put all our cash out up front, then probably finance the reno.

Since this will be my first property, our focus is a bit more on cash flow with appreciation taking a bit of a backseat. Once we get a few doors, we might look to target more moderate cash flow and higher appreciation. appreciate the tips!

Newbie here still trying to learn the ropes and avoid analysis paralysis as I try to refine my target market. 

I know I want to stick to single family homes. I know I want to stick to the BRRRR methodology. I know I want the purchase price to be no more than 100k. I THOUGHT I had a good idea as to where to target our investment market, but now that I'm starting to look at listings in said area and run calculators on them, I find myself doing two things: 1) Running the numbers at list price, then going back and manipulating factors to see what would 'make' a good deal, and 2)Getting distracted by other listings in non target market areas and then wondering if I should be looking elsewhere.

For those of you that can relate, or who have experience, can anyone share what characteristics you looked for in your target area that solidified your decision? In other words, how did you know that your target area was a good one?? 

Second, and more tactically, when using the BRRRR calculator to familiarize myself with an area, should I plug in the list price and see where it lands and move on? Or do you find it worthwhile to go back and tinker to see WHAT a good deal would look like? I'm afraid all of my manipulation might create a false sense of urgency to want to put an offer in when what I should be doing is learning the area like the back of my hand haha

I would love to hear anyone's thoughts/tips & tricks in validating and familiarizing themselves with their market!

@Justin Windham and @Julio Gonzalez thank you both so much for the warm welcome and tips! I’m looking forward to learning from everyone! 

@Greg Kasmer Ah, the financing forum definitely helps clarify for me the point you are trying to make-thank you! Our existing HELOC is at a fixed rate, so I wasn't thinking about the long term mortgage rate vs. the variable rate option. If we were to use existing HELOC funds, then it's just up to how much mortgage rates change in the 6-12 months we'd have to wait to re fi.

To your point, if we can do REALLY well on the BRRRR methodology, I'd rather be efficient in terms of aligning with our long term strategy, and it sounds like we might be able to do that if we choose carefully. That's great that you can realize the extra cash flow on the refi on 30-50% of your projects—definitely good to hear!

@Greg Kasmer Thanks so much for your input-those are all great points! 

Wouldn't inflation in the case of a BRRRR strategy be a bit of a double edge sword? My ability to raise rents and realize cash flow would be subject to the rate that I could secure a cash out refi, wouldn't it? In essence, the bottom line would then be choosing between the risk that inflation rises faster than re fi rates and vice versa…or that they rise at equal rates…does that sound right?

Initially, hard money admittedly makes me a bit nervous with the volatility in the current market and in knowing payback will be contingent on re fi at good appraisal rates, but I should probably look into those more and consider leveraging it to potential expand price point.

I’d love to chat more/learn about your journey if you’re open to it! My Dad grew up in the Upper Darby area, which is quite a bit different now than it used to be 😃

Happy Wednesday all! 

I am new to BP and have recently taken a dive headfirst into learning all about REI and how I might be able to leverage some of the investing strategies to create passive income into retirement. First and foremost, I'm located in the small (but mighty!) state of Delaware, I have a 9-5 job that I plan to keep, 2 young kiddos, and am currently exploring the Dover area as a potential target market. I'd love to connect with other investors in the area to learn about your experiences if you are willing to share!

Second, I am starting to define a very rough business plan/goals for investing, and wanted to float two potential strategies with folks who have more experience in the field. Ultimately, my desire is to not necessarily make REI my full time career (although if things go well, I'm open to it), but to look towards creating an extra passive income stream in retirement to act as extra padding for our 401k/mutual fund set up. Not looking to create an empire, just some flexibility. With that in mind, my goal is to acquire (min of) 10 rental properties in the next ten years to buy and hold. We have ~$30k liquid cash to start from a leftover HELOC we used for some other primary residence renos, with an extra $100k in equity we could look at tapping into if needed.

With that said, I'm debating between trying to flip a couple of houses first, then convert to a BRRRR strategy vs. just trying to start off with a BRRRR strategy from the get go. The thought with doing a few flips first was to potentially grow a bit of a nest egg (that's not tied to our home) to serve as the foundation for BRRRR, vs starting with BRRRR and potentially having that money tied up for longer/risk having rates rise when trying to re fi and cash out the equity. Can anyone chime in on any clear pros/cons on either strategy within the context of our goals? I just want to make sure I'm considering as many factors as possible when developing a more robust plan!

Looking forward to connecting with everyone!