All Forum Posts by: Jerryian Francois

@Michael Plaks I agree with what you are saying to an extent; however, my issue was not with trusting them with my money. When I scheduled the initial call after going through their initial process, I was led to believe that I would be speaking with an attorney from their firm. Instead, I received a call from what seemed to be an out of country virtual assistant who provided no additional information and promptly asked for my credit card number to schedule the consultation. This really caught me off guard and I personally felt as if this was a bad way to establish a relationship with a new client. Instead of going with RLS, I decided to seek out a professional in my local market (Miami, FL) and I have not been asked to pay an upfront fee by any of them for the first consultation. 

Just curious, do you charge an upfront fee for an initial client consultation? Thanks for your feedback.

I contacted @Scott Smith of Royal Legal Solutions here on BP and told him I would like to discuss structuring my business. He said to give him my email address and phone number which I did.

3 or 4 days went by.

Instead of calling me or emailing me, he apparently handed my number off to someone in the Philippines named Edward Losloso. Edward emailed me and said that he has been trying to get a hold of me by phone. (1) I never asked Edward to call me (2) My email clearly works... why didn't he try that after the call failed? (3) When I said my phone never rang, he listed my phone number and it had two number reversed. (despite my giving Scott the correct number.)

I emailed Edward the correct number, and waited several more days. Edward never called. So I tried calling the number listed in Edward's emails, but he never answered. (He was probably sleeping since it was 2am in the Phillipines.)

So I went on https://www.royallegalsolutions.com/freellc and called the number in the text below the video. I received a recording: "You have reached a non-working number..."

So then I went to https://www.royallegalsolutions.com and called the number at the top of the page, listened to Scott narrate his own menu, and pressed #2 "to inquire about our services". No answer. I called back later, still no answer. So I left a message with only my first name, my work number and what I wanted. (Mind you this information was different from what Edward had...)

A week later, no calls from anyone.

So then I went to https://royallegalsolutions.com/product/consultation/ and paid $150 for a free consultation. I figured if I actually PAID for a service, then I could get Scott to call me, right? After I paid, I saw this screen:

3 days went by... at which point I wrote to them and asked for a refund since I had not heard from anyone.

If any anyone knows an attorney that can provide better service than this, please let me know.

Quote from @Jaron Walling:

@Jerryian Francois Welcome to BP and congrats on closing the duplex property. That's difficult to do now days. It's important to remember the meaning of the BRRRR strategy. You can't just buy buy buy and think these properties will pane out as great investments. It's easy to run out of money, run out of reserves, and start negative cash-flowing. In my market that's dangerous. In yours maybe not based on appreciation and other factors.

What value are you adding to the duplex? Are you forcing the value or increasing future cash-flow? Buying another property with a low down payment right now is tempting but I think it's a bad idea given how you described the situation. Absolutely nothing wrong with house-hacking. I'd be patient and have solid game plan for property #2. That's just my 2 cents. 

@Jerryian Francois Welcome to BP and congrats on closing the duplex property. That's difficult to do now days. It's important to remember the meaning of the BRRRR strategy. You can't just buy buy buy and think these properties will pane out as great investments. It's easy to run out of money, run out of reserves, and start negative cash-flowing. In my market that's dangerous. In yours maybe not based on appreciation and other factors.

What value are you adding to the duplex? Are you forcing the value or increasing future cash-flow? Buying another property with a low down payment right now is tempting but I think it's a bad idea given how you described the situation. Absolutely nothing wrong with house-hacking. I'd be patient and have solid game plan for property #2. That's just my 2 cents. 

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If you own the triplex and it's all rented out, you might consider doing a HELOC to use for another purchase if you can't do a re-fi. But the interest rates would be a key factor of those options as well as getting another mortgage to purchase the next property. Whenever you can use OPM (other peoples money) you save yourself from using what you have in reserve. 30k is a decent amount but you might want to consider other options that could help you keep most or all of that amount. Your goals and strategies will also play a role in which option you choose. It'll come down to what are you willing to move forward with and still sleep at night. The way I look at interest rates are that if I get into a mortgage that is a little high, I will refinance when/if they come back down. If they don't come down then I'll have an interest rate lower than future current market. Also if the rates don't come down then I would look at doing a HELOC which my mortgage rate will still be lower than rest of the market and I can use the money to move forward. Hope that makes sense.

Quote from @Jerryian Francois:

View report

*This link comes directly from our calculators, based on information input by the member who posted.

curious to know how my fellow bigger pockets members feel about this deal I recently closed on duplex with a extra Efficency unit would love to hear back from you guys ‼️‼️‼️

I have a few question regarding the configuration of the 3 units and the rate for each not just the total. I think it was a good purchase. Things to note is if you have an efficiency you will most likely have to include water and electricity and you did not take that into account. The taxes are around 1% of purchase price expect them to go up significantly next year but I think you will do well.

Quote from @Jerryian Francois:

View report

*This link comes directly from our calculators, based on information input by the member who posted.

curious to know how my fellow bigger pockets members feel about this deal I recently closed on duplex with a extra Efficency unit would love to hear back from you guys ‼️‼️‼️

Obviously pick numbers you’re comfortable with but 2% vacancy, 2% cap ex, and 2% maintenance is aggressively low. I also noticed 0% for management. Even if your self managing k suggest you put in the “market rate”. I don’t know about you but I don’t like working for free. 

For a point of reference most commercial banks take away 25% of the gross income to account for vacancy, Maintance, cap ex, and management. Your taking 6%. I tend to use 23% (5/5/5/8) with management being 8% because that’s what I charge myself. 

also interest rate looks pretty low at 3.6% I recommend you talk to a lender and see what they’re lending at these days. We’re starting to see rates creep over 5% in our markets.

if the gross income and price is accurate my guess is this will still look “okay” after updating the numbers to reflect the way the bank is going to be looking at the deal. 

Best,
Jon