All Forum Posts by: Jamie O'Brien

Hey Richey. I'm local to Birmingham and Invest and Lend in the area. Would love to connect. 

@Holly Peterson - I'd say it depends, but tend to agree with the three above me. I want the meet and potatoes of the deal, and I want to understand who you are as a person and investor. 

When I approach my true private lenders (family, friends, personal connections) with a flip project I have upcoming, I present it as an opportunity for them. Yes, it's a benefit for me as well, but it's an opportunity for them to put lazy cash to work. I provide details of the deal, my background and experience in Real Estate and will provide more than that upon request.

As a lender, I want to see much of the same. I need the address, your numbers for purchase and repairs, what your experience level is, etc. I will then underwrite that deal and ask more questions as needed. Hope this helps!

@Marco Morkous

MLS is a non viable lead source for deals in Birmingham... right now anyways. I'd say that competition is on the high side with a good amount of people trying to ride the wave of this market. Institutional buyers have driven up wholesale prices in rental markets to a point that doesn't make sense to me. I've been working towards sourcing my own deals over the last year or so.

@Alicia C.

Birmingham is a great cashflow market, but I’ve heard the same about parts of MS.

Calera is a great B market south of Birmingham and is growing. Homes tend to be newer since it’s a more recently developed suburb. Purchase prices tend to be higher than where I typically invest and rents seem to be closer to the 1% rule if you’re lucky. However, you tend to have a little better renter pool to choose from and a higher likelihood of appreciation. I keep my eye on it for a one off great deal or a flip opportunity.

Do you have any specific questions I can help answer?

@John Davis

Sounds like you've got a great foundation to be successful! I'm in the Birmingham Market as well and focus on rehabbing distressed properties to hold or sell. Aka BRRRR or Flip.

There’s a great network of investors in Birmingham, many younger, that I’m sure you’ll be able to network with.

Let me know if I can ever help you with anything.

Jabari - I skimmed through the comments on this so it may be redundant to some. I've been using IBC for almost 4 years now and just started my 4th policy. I believe its the most powerful FOUNDATION for wealth generation available today. I work with the guys at Wealth Without Wallstreet in Birmingham, AL. They were mentored directly by Nelson Nash himself and act more as coaches than as insurance agents. They have a really cool app and community that I would highly recommend. In there you can find videos and "courses" to help educate yourself on IBC, or to fine tune your process of using IBC to generate wealth. 

Someone mentioned using their cash to buy rental properties versus IBC, well the guys actually have a case study video on using IBC vs Cash on a $100k house. The outcome is an extra $240K+ at the end of 30 years by using IBC to buy the house versus cash. IBC is a very individualized process and the guys at WWW will help walk you through your current situation and how IBC could work for you. Give them a call.

Here is a link to the community where you can learn more about IBC and see how the guys at Wealth Without Wallstreet are helping coach, not just sell insurance. 

https://app.wealthwithoutwalls...

@Ashley Wynn - I've been having this conversation with my lenders up here in Birmingham as well. Small local banks are open to portfolio lending, but the property will remain in the LLC with a commercial loan with 20 year ARM's.... Not ideal.

In the past, certain traditional mortgage lenders would cash out refi with a single member LLC into your personal name, no problem. My broker told me they are now requiring 6 months seasoning on these types of cash-outs, if they will cash out an investment property at all. I posted a video on my YouTube page and Facebook page of our interview where we discussed this issue specifically a couple of weeks ago. Just search for O'Brien Homes

@Andrew Shelton - @George Pauley made some very good points. I live and invest here in Birmingham, Alabama and recently made a similar decision to increase my cost of living to make my family more comfortable and give my girls a better education. I encourage you that you can do both, increase passive income AND live a comfortable life. Would it be quicker and easier to reach financial freedom with lower expenses, sure, but where is the challenge in that! HA

I think one of the important things you mention is that you have a large positive gap in income versus expenses. I agree that a lot of people would be extremely excited if they could put away $4300 a month. With your reserves and monthly savings, you should be able to purchase an additional investment property AND move into the larger space. Just remember not to buy the investment before you close on the condo!

Have you looked at investing back in Oxford, Anniston or Birmingham?

Lane, thats an interesting statement as I've never heard anyone make that argument, however, I don't agree nor disagree. You make a valuable point about extra liquidity, which IBC requires, to get the policy(ies) rolling. The arguments about using your 401k or other qualified plans, I totally disagree with on some level. All I can speak to is my experience with IBC.

I'm only 3 years in, so I don't have a wealth of knowledge... yet. What I like about IBC is control. I believe that tax rates must go up in my lifetime, and I never plan on making LESS money as I age, meaning my tax bracket should continue to go up. Just because I don't pay takes on qualified plan gains this year, doesn't mean I won't. I think there is a real chance that tax rates will be much higher by the time I reach retirement than they are today. Don't even get me started on the uncertainty and lack of control of investing in the stock market. I use my IBC policies as my savings account, that just happens to earn 3-5% interest, plus dividends (when structured correctly with a mutual company). I've been able to buy property, and make several short term loans using the policies I currently have set up, while my cash value of the policy continues to grow, uninterrupted. Could I have done that with a 401k, or a regular savings account, yes, but I would have given up opportunity cost of my net cash value growing WHILE earning interest elsewhere. I have policies on my two children that will pay for their first car, college, weddings, and hopefully first house or a good portion of it. I'm not against leveraging from banks, in fact, in our interest rate market, I think it's smart to use lower interest from banks, while it's available, and earn higher interest returns on my IBC money.

Understanding YOUR current financial picture and FUTURE financial picture is important while building one of these policies. Also, working with someone who practices this concept and fully understands the structure and the process has been super helpful.

I encourage anyone interested to real Nelson Nash's book, Becoming Your Own Banker (multiple times) and find resources that can help educate and coach you through the process. I'll be happy to put anyone in contact with my coaches here in Birmingham. They mentored directly under Nelson and I actually was able to have lunch with Nelson before he passed at their office. 

There is a great podcast that these guys put out called "Wealth Without Wallstreet" that dives into IBC as well as the many ways to build passive income using your policies. 

I'm not an expert yet, but I do believe it will be a powerful tool in my wealth creation and pursuit of financial freedom!

@David Chapoell

I’ve used Wayne Pickle in the past and he’s done good by me. 205-283-89four1