All Forum Posts by: Jay Strickler

Caution against blindly buying from China w/o firsthand knowing the quality. Also, might be better to leave the politics out of things.  Not really necessary on a real estate forum.

I have heard several stories now of landlords sourcing materials ( particularly for multifamily flips) in China.  What are readers experiences with this?  Is anyone using Alibaba?  Or attended the big Canton show?  I own 175 ish units and can see potential for flooring, paint, fixtures, and a few other items.  I could see working with other small-scale owners to run a coop. 

One example is vinyl plank flooring.  I saw several prices at about $2-3 sq meter (10.75 sq ft/sq meter).  Seems promising even after shipping.

Please post your success stories or ideas you have.

I have been counseled more than once to always have at least some debt against a property for liability reasons. If you (or your LLC) get sued, a plaintiff's attorney will see a nice big juicy unencumbered target to go after.

That said, if you do decide to pay cash, you can cross pledge properties and borrow against that unit to buy more.  I go into some of that in this blog post:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/15-year-m...

Good luck

Jay

Jeff, I have a couple of properties like this as part of my collection.  Pretty sure the only way you will get this financed is a local bank.  Here is my blog post that lists a lot of the benefits of going this route.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/15-year-m...

My two cents - the hard and private money out there is difficult, time consuming and expensive.  A friendly local banker is a great person to have in your corner.

Jay

Sorry, wrong link:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/15-year-mortgages-for-new-intermediate-investors/

The may be available but I cannot get them in my local market. I recommend using a virtual second mortgage or cross-pledging property. Different method, same results. Just limited by overall LTV.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/15-year-mortgages-for-new-intermediate-investors/

Lots of factors but I can usually close within 7 days in my home market using relationships I have in place.  This includes my banker, real estate agent, lawyer and insurance agent.  I recently wrote a blog post related to this 

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/do-the-ri...

and have another one coming about my One Email Wonder process.

Even if you have cash the attorney work might linger depending on their workload. Late in the month would be a challenge. I don;t typically have appraisal issues as banks I use do in house evaluations or a cross-pledge other properties and keep under a specific LTV.

Think through why it is important to you that you close fast.  For me the key is evaluating and locking up a contract in short order is the key to getting good deals.  Actually closing can then be a 30-60 day process that a typical buyer will expect.

Hey Cody, Good luck on getting your second (or third) career off the ground.  I am not familiar with Pittsburg so can't offer city-specific advice.  What I will say is that you should consider starting now if you will be in that area until 2021.  I just finished listening to the podcast #288 with Jason and Carrie Harris ("75 Rental Units in Their Early 30s") who started RE investing while in school.  They house hacked and lived for free or very little cost.  When you end up moving from Pittsburg the property can either be placed under property management or you can sell and roll equity to your new location.

I rent about half of my 150 units to college students.  Every summer, even though they are on 12-month leases I have a high amount of vacancy simply because tenants move out without paying for the last month or two of rent.  As it stands today I have 13 openings.  Legal costs and the time involved make chasing these folks unprofitable. I am looking for suggestions or proven strategies that this audience has used to incentivize folks to stick it out to the end of the lease.  Thanks

Jay

AppFolio!