All Forum Posts by: Jason Lam

I'm sure I'm going to hit road blocks along the way but my goal is to close on a cash flowing unit by the end of the year. I currently live outside the US so everything I'm going to be doing is remote so thats going to be my biggest challenge but I'm taking it one step at a time my current roadblock is cash but I have an action on that.

1. Wait for my amended tax filing to be processed which will give me the cash needed for a down payment.

2. In the meantime I am just trying to learn and research areas to invest in. I as I am going to be remote anyways it doesn't matter what area I start in.

3. Once I nail down a location I'm going to find a good property manager.

4. Find a good broker and start looking at units. This is where I see the biggest road block as most units will require some type of rehab. I'm still not sure the best way to estimate the rehab cost so I can figure out what to offer. My plan is to find something either turnkey or as close to turnkey as possible. I know this will give me a lower return but its going to be my foot in the door so I can start getting units that require more and more work.

5. con-current with finding a broker I'm going to get pre-approved for a loan so everything is all set.

6. Find a unit and close on it and hand it over to the property manager.

If anyone has any resource they can point me to that will help with the rehabbing estimating that would be great.

This may seem like a very basis question but I just wanted to make sure it got this idea correct.

So I’m currently living outside the US and want to start long distance investing. I will be purchasing sight unseen so I ideally looking for turnkey but it’s hard to get a good deal on turn key for obvious reasons.

When it comes to purchasing non turnkey homes let’s say I find one I like but may require a small amount of modernization, paint, etc to become rent ready. How do you estimate the cost on this so you can know the right amount of offer on the house? Since these aren’t really deficiencies but more cosmetic this I assume wouldn’t normally covered in any inspection contingency so i don’t believe I will be able to back out if I make an offer and a contractor says it’s going to require more than I expected.

I apologize is this is a really silly question as I’m not really familiar with the process. If someone can send me resources detailing offer through closing that would be great. Should I find a contractor to walk he property and put a quote together even before I make an offer?

This may seem like a very basis question but I just wanted to make sure it got this idea correct.

So I’m currently living outside the US and want to start long distance investing. I will be purchasing sight unseen so I ideally looking for turnkey but it’s hard to get a good deal on turn key for obvious reasons.

When it comes to purchasing non turnkey homes let’s say I find one I like but may require a small amount of modernization, paint, etc to become rent ready. How do you estimate the cost on this so you can know the right amount of offer on the house? Since these aren’t really deficiencies but more cosmetic this I assume wouldn’t normally covered in any inspection contingency so i don’t believe I will be able to back out if I make an offer and a contractor says it’s going to require more than I expected.

I apologize is this is a really silly question as I’m not really familiar with the process. If someone can send me resources detailing offer through closing that would be great. Should I find a contractor to walk he property and put a quote together even before I make an offer?

@Tyler Kress if your dad’s cousin really hated it that bad he would have exited the business long ago. Something fishy is going on.

@Tanner Kier thanks for the info. I currently don't live in the US so house hacking with an FHA loan. Seller financing is interesting though. I'll have to dive into that more.

Did you happen to figure this out? I’ve been trying to figure out notifications for a while now.

@Tanner Kier should a new investor explore non traditional financing that allows you to put less down? I’m just starting out and don’t want to get in over my head.

New perspective investor here and I’m trying to just learn as much as I can reading and listening to BP podcast/webinars. An episode of the podcast the investor said he’s looking for at least 20% cash on cash return while on the webinar I heard the investor was looking for at least 12%.

Running the numbers assuming rents bring in roughly 1% of purchase price and I put 20% down I’m getting closer to 5%-6%. Am I missing something here?

Here is an example of my calculations

Purchase price: $150,000

closing cost: $3000

Rental income $1,500/mo

Mortgage assuming 20% down at 5%: $645

Insurance and tax: $200

Vacancy (5%): $75

Repairs (8%): $120

Capex (8%): $120

Property manager (10%): $150/mo

Cashflow: $190/mo

Cash on Cash: $2280/$33,000 = 6.9%

How can 12%+ or even 20% be possible with 2% rent?

@John Warren thanks, I’ll take a look and see what I can find

Anyone here use roofstock.com before? I'm looking around and there aren't many good deals but 1-2 options look promising. I am new to REI so I'm inexperienced and trying to get as much info as possible. They have pretty detailed inspection reports on file. I think it's pretty obvious if I want to buy sight unseen I need to find my own inspector to verify.

To those who used it what have they done to make things easier?