All Forum Posts by: Jim Stout

Definitely keep it, that is the best way to build wealth and it is your goal so I think the answer is obvious. I know the market is hot but so is the market for loans (i.e. There are low rates). Either way it's a win obviously, but your better to think long term. Looking back I wish I had held on to more. Best of luck!

Sounds like BRRR is the best way to go, but as Mike mentioned make sure to look at what holding it costs you in "Opportunity Cost". I you could take the cash now and buy 2 rentals that may bring in more rent in the long run then selling may be better even with the tax implications, but I doubt selling to roll into another fix-n-flip would be better for opportunity costs because of the taxes. At some point you will want to hold on to the cash flow to stop the capital gain pain. Great problem to have though!

The North end of Lakeland is where people prefer to move for primary residences, but Lakeland is growing West toward Tampa at a rapid pace. Lots of national home builders are buying land in the West and slowly transforming that rural area to the new Lakeland. For now see if you can find something to the North closer to I-4.

Great advice Erik. Definitely use the soft approach question. I've gotten more leads that way. Some people are shy to invest, but want to be helpful so they throw you some good leads. Unfortunately Ethan at this point it sounds like you will only be able to use hypothetical until you get a few deals under your belt. You could study some of Brandon Turners deals on his site Open Door Capital to show you how the deals break down and what investors are expecting in a deal.

Agreed Bruce. I would not use the leveler on a property I would be selling as a flip in case there were future issues.  In my 2 cases both properties I used it on were rental properties. My experience in Florida is homes that have been sitting on their land for over 50 years have done most of their settling.  Both of these properties were around 75 years old. I'm not a contractor so your advice is probably better. However, in my 2 cases I have not had any noticeable issues with cracking beneath the finished floor coverings. I made both repairs a little over 10 years ago.  Who knows maybe I was just lucky.  

Obviously it could be a problem and I agree don't purchase without an inspection. In two older properties with wood beam floors on crawl space that I remodeld in the past we made sure the beams were still structurally intact and only sagging in areas. You can attempt to jack the beams and reset the posts, but we chose a less expensive route that has held up for years in both properties. We sealed up the subfloor with caulk and filler boards and the poured a nice coat of "floor leveler". It dries perfectly level. Once cured we put down a solid wood floor on one and a laminate plank on the other. We were done in 3 days. Recently I suggested this to a friend of mine rehabbing a Duplex built in 1910. He decided to rip up the floors and splice new beams (level) to the old sagging beams. Unfortunately for him he ended up spending a fortune and it took him over 3 months to finally have finished floors again. So to answer the question my experience has been good as long as the integrity of the floor is intact.

Nice summary Justin. It's good info for new investors.  A limited partner in the syndication should be updated and informed regularly and timely for sure. Another aspect they need to understand if new to the process is to understand to let the GP(s) do their job.  It's important to vet your sponsor and rely on the scheduled updates and not try to micro manage by asking for updates constantly.  We do a lot of land development deals and it can be a slow process taking the land through rezoning and entitlement. MF can see progress and income almost immediately, but land can be 3 to 6 months before significant headway is accomplished. Thanks for the post Justin.

Very good points @Patricia Steiner. I became a broker over 18 years ago because I got tired of taking an agents word for their "marketing" figures and listing details. Alex, one of the best ways to know if the rental income they are promoting is real is to request tax returns from the seller for the past 2 years relating to the property. They may lie to you in the listing, but it's less probable (not guaranteed) that they'll lie to the IRS. Patricia is also right about the institutional buying shifting to SF rental properties lately. The shift to more personal space and more private amenities due to Covid is real. However, I do still invest in apartments as I can acquire more units faster and easier than buying dozens of homes at a time.  I try to stay 35 minutes or less from major cities and job supply though.

Looking forward to meeting as many of you as I can at BPCON.  We are starting a new syndicated fund for not only passive income, but also land development throughout FL, GA & NC mostly, but open to other areas of the country, as well.  We have been very successful buying raw land and getting it entitled for development through the local municipalities for high profit sales to national track home builders.  Can't wait to meet like minded folks and hear about any opportunities others may have available and that may want to join venture on.  See you all soon!

Hey Joe. Look into the subject of "submetering". If you submeter the building for utilities then you essentially become your tenants utility company. There are companies and software that you can use to accomplish it. You pay the overall utility bill for the building, but it expenses out the usage for each unit and then you invoice each tenant for their share. You can even mark it up a little if you want depending on the system you put in place. I'm not an expert on it, but have been looking into it some myself lately. Great way to increase your NOI and you aren't technically raising their rent because you are billing them as their utility company and not as their landlord. Hope this helps some.

I found the info below in an old post from someone here on BP from about 3 years ago.  You can search other forum posts here for "submetering"

RUBS is not allowed in North Carolina so you'll need to sub-meter the property. On average we've spent around $200 per unit to submeter our units in Charlotte and Gastonia. Not all properties are immediate candidates for sub-metering. For example, we have a large apartment complex under contract where we won't be able to submeter because the units don't have individual shut-off valves for the water. We are working on an alternate solution but it will require re-doing a lot of the plumbing, a venture that is very costly but if done right will save us $$$.

Sub-metering the property is only step one. Step two is the implementation. We've taken the approach of doing the installation and only clawing back water costs when we renew the lease or on new leases. Depending on the size of the property this could mean that it will take up to a year to implement across the property.

In terms of savings, you need to look at the water bills and determine how much of what you're paying today is water vs. sewer charges. Changes are that you can claw back 80% of your water expenses, but sewer expenses may not be that easy.

Reach out to Guardian Water & Power. That's the company we've used and are very happy with their level of service.

Hope this helps!