All Forum Posts by: Jody Sperling

If it's safe to occupy now, seek a HELOC. Because you have 100% equity position, you should be able to get a HELOC worth up to 80% of the appraised value. I have to imagine between that and a credit card you could get the 100k you need. Then, when the repairs are done you can start dumping all the rent back into the HELOC/Credit Card and pay down the debt in no time.

If you comfortable with more leverage, refinance the 4plex with a different bank and pull out 80% of all your money. Best of luck!

I have a 1st Lien HELOC over two rental properties with a local bank in Omaha. The first time I called the bank and asked about such a product, the person I spoke with said they didn't have anything like what I wanted. Then, by chance, I saw a post from a local guy on one of my REI Facebook groups and asked him where he had his HELOC from. Turns out, I needed to know the name of the commercial banker who can offer the product I needed.

The moral of the story is, go to local banks, not national ones, ask to speak to commercial lending, and if you get a "no" see if there's anyone else who works in commercial real estate lending. Ask twice, three times, even more before deciding a bank doesn't offer what you want. Best of luck!

1) Know your neighborhood. 2) Know where the money is coming from. 3) Know your goal—both short- and long-term. 4) Offer on a house in your target neighborhood. 5) Pay when accepted or repeat step 4 until successful. 6) If necessary, put together a list of repairs. 7) Complete repairs. 8) List for sale/rent. 9)Sell or rent to a qualified prospect buyer/renter. 10) Save the overage between rent and mortgage in case needed for repairs. 11) Repeat. Don't make it too difficult. It's only overwhelming because you haven't done it before. Once you're familiar with the steps, you'll feel comfortable and energized by the process. Best of luck!

Call all the local credit unions in your area. No banks in my area would do a similar refinance for me, but a credit union here did. They tend to have easier lending requirements. Best of luck!

New trends are definitely impacting housing markets. With the vast influence of BiggerPockets, it would be impossible to deny certain markets have benefitted from never-before-seen appreciation and lack of inventory. In the past three years Zillow started ibuying. Then they just sold off all their inventory. BlackRock has gone through phases of buying single family homes and selling them off.

All of these trends effect various housing markets. COVID, though, in my experience is bigger than all the other influences. Here in Omaha, where I invest, housing has appreciated slow and steady for the last 100 years. No joke. Even through the 2008 recession, Omaha slowly appreciated in housing prices, but people's behaviors started changing suddenly and strangely with COVID. My inventory has doubled in value in 20 months.

The thing is, it doesn't matter why or what happens. If you're on the inside, you stand to gain, and if you're on the outside, you stand to lose. My guess is the divide between wealth and poverty will only increase over the coming years and this new social-media-style real estate investing will contribute to that problem.

(One note on cash buying. Don't wait to raise cash. Find private or hard money lenders to back your offers with cash and buy distressed property. If you use your own money, you'll never get into the game.)

Learn to find private money. Jobs will rarely give you the kind of money you need to invest, but if you can mix hard money, crowdsourcing, business credit, and one-to-one private money, you can focus your attention on buying houses below market value and either flipping them or rehabbing them, renting them, and refinancing them.

I prefer the second method because it allows me to keep a flow of cash growing behind me, but to make it work you need the best deals so you never have to leave your money in the deal.

I do think in markets where ibuying was active, there will be a small housing correction. That seems unavoidable since supply will be greater than demand for a time.

It could be a good moment for people who have cash to scoop up underpriced merchandise, but I also think the underlying strengths of lending at this point will prevent the larger panic crash we saw beginning in 2008.

Hey, I know you're looking for people with experience buying property in Mexico, which I don't have, but I did read your post and feel it was worth commenting that while you're asking a lot of great questions to protect your money, you are perhaps missing the point of an investment. None of your concern was for how you would make money on this purchase, just about how you might lose it. Do you plan to rent it to people? Long-term? Short-term. If not. It isn't an investment.

And if you aren't using it as an investment, the risk profile goes up so much it's hard to even comprehend the purchase. If you really enjoy Tulum so much, continue creating the lifestyle where you can visit as often as you want for as long as you want, with who you want. And that means buying and managing sound assets that make you good money. Best of luck!

College students have been great for me as tenants. Two of my rentals are close to the largest college in my city, so I get quite a bit of interest from that crowd. You can rent by room, increasing the overall rent price of a house, and as long as you screen the same way you would for any tenants, you get respectful, quiet, hard-working tenants. Focus on credit score, timeliness of payments, and work history and you'll do great. Plus, the turnover tends to be every two years which fits very nicely with natural rent cost increases.

I'm always open to tenants with the Housing Authority. I've yet to rent to any. The issue that comes up for me is three-fold. Timing on vouchers can be finicky. A lot of people using the voucher are still a month or more out from moving, so your property would sit, not making money. The second hurdle has been attitude toward landlords. I don't know their situations, but it comes up almost always that when I ask why someone with a voucher is moving, they immediately badmouth their current landlord. Maybe their landlord is terrible, but it has me wondering if they might just be very challenging tenants. Life situation is the third thing. If I'm talking with a prospective tenant and they say they have a really aggressive pit bull and they just got out of an abusive relationship, those are red flags. 

I've wanted to find a good section 8 tenant because I believe everyone deserves a safe, clean, nice place to live, but I also am running a business. So my experience with Housing Authority has led me not to rent yet to someone with a voucher. And I have a property on the market now, so we'll see. Best of luck to you!