All Forum Posts by: Jimmy Deringer

@Christopher Lombardi

You have a good point about the full time employee. I didn’t realize some cities require a full time employee on site if the unit has as few as 15 units. I was with a group of friends last night and someone mentioned that’s the minimum number in Los Angeles. Seems to be very location specific.

@Erik McKenna

When I first got started I used excel for accounting, excel for lead management, mile IQ for tracking mileage, and I put my crappy systems into directions that I made in Microsoft word.

Now I use quickbooks for accounting, CallText for lead management (@Michael Quarles did a pretty good job making this), hum by Verizon for tracking mileage and I still use excel here and there but I've been doing more on google sheets to give to my VA when he needs to do research or format things. For a few dollars an hour it's worth my time to implement more google sheets and use excel less since it's so easy to share documents.

When you’re starting I think the answer is. “Get really good at excel!”

Hope that helps!

@Lindsey Spivey

People take offense all the time. Just don’t pay more than you can just to get the “deal”

Also, I wonder why this is the only deal on the market. Is there something that you’re missing? I’d be interested to find out how many times this has gone under contract and why the buyers backed out in the past.

@Jim Growfer like people have said before, best to find the owners information and call. Don’t sound scammy or like you’re trying to sell something. You’re calling another investor like yourself, it could even be a better networking opportunity than buying opportunity. Just talk to them like you’d want someone to talk to you.

@Francisco Rivera

Don’t start your real estate career by lying :) best to be honest.

@Isaac Galli there are a TON of hoops to jump through for the 203k loan to do it successfully. I found it so much easier to get a house that could use a little value add. Go to Home Depot and get a loan for materials and then start plugging away on the value add.

I haven’t successfully navigated the 203k waters so I might not be the best one to answer this.

@Gabriel Williams most lenders won't allow you to refi to the point where the property doesn't cash flow. If you're in a strong rental market and don't foresee a decrease in rents then pull that cash out and do it again! If it's a slightly riskier rental market I'd think twice about pulling out the max $$$ on the refi or just be prepared to have a property decrease it's NOI in the future.

@David Wagner we found undervalued off market deals and used hard money. If you have equity and can put it to use on a good deal then that’s less money you’ll spend off fees, points and high interest payments.

@Erik K.

If a higher cape rate means a riskier investment then this takes the risky investment to the next level in my opinion. If your apartment building totally goes to down hill, you still have a physical structure and land. If the construction company goes down hill you’re stuck with some depreciated assets and a business name.

I’m aware of a couple people who buy businesses and are successful at it. However it seems like a totally different ball game. Although a very intriguing one.

@Andrew Angerer this is my opinion so no facts here.

I feel like the people who are the loudest about real estate don’t profit as much from real estate as they do from people who get into real estate. So the loud people get a bunch of “newbies” in it and proclaim how easy it is. When the newbies realize it’s harder than the gurus say and the gurus have pulled the profit out of the newbies already, the newbies have no real mentors to turn to and the bail and move onto the next idea.

not saying all gurus are bad but they do tend to oversimplify industries to appeal to the masses.

My 2 cents.