All Forum Posts by: Joe Harper

If I woke up in your shoes, First thing I would do is research all the active listings and all of the sold listings in the last six to twelve months. I mean do a spreadsheet and get inside the numbers. If you're not good at spreadsheets, have someone assist you. This data one shot will give you a better picture of the market than just one comp next door.

The rest of your questions, are simply an individual preference based on appetite for risk, education on the different products available, and time available for a side gig. It's not a one-size fits all situation, the answers are based on your life situation.

If you want to do real estate full time, or not have to work and live off income from your new found cash, then turnkey or syndicated deals are the way to go, but research and education are required to get a gut feeling on the risk of the investment and more importantly - the skill of the turnkey manager. I would pick a market that you're already familiar with or have a local contact, or a market that you're pondering moving to.

Probably not, in my experience. Hard money folks despise second mortgages because there is no equity and because they have to negotiate with the first mortgage holder. Especially if that first mortgage holder is your aunt - she isn't going to help anybody except you. 

If you have good credit, and existing relationship with a bank, they might let you borrow under an Equity Line or Home Equity Line of Credit HELOC. But, if you're doing seller financing with your aunt, I infer that you're not in a position to an equity line. There are maximum "combined loan to values" requirements. In other words, if your aunt finances 80% of the price of the townhome, you may not be able to borrow much more than 10 to 15% of the price on top of that.

Can you provide the actual numbers and I can be more specific. Have you good credit? Why do seller financing instead of regular bank loan at 3 to 4% ?

It is oft repeated because it's true:  there is no substitute for education than your very first deal. Think of yourself as a juggernaut, undeterred by negative people including the ones closest to you. Only listen to people that have what you want, only about 10% of people have the drive to be financially independent. THe other 90% will feed your thoughts with negativity. that's why the REIA really opened my eyes and let me see that real estate is wonderful but overlooked as 'too hard'. Do not give up, ignore broke people.

It makes sense if one of these is true:

1. You want to buy the townhome from your Aunt, and then pledge any equity as a non-cash down payment on a second property, as a second mortgage with no payments.

2. You want to find a lender to give you the equity as cash for a down payment on a second property.

If you buy the townhome from your aunt, you can't sell or borrow against her "interest in the deeds", but she will likely be bombarded by mail from people wanting to cash her out of that note, at a discount from the face value.

Can you clarify if you meant your equity or her equity?

I wouldn't get the llc or bank account going yet, especially if you're not going to hold a property long term until you pivot to rentals. That's about $500 expense in Florida - with the $250 minimum initial deposit.  

However, if you have a killer company name, I'd look into locking up that web domain, and business cards are a must, and a facebook page for the company to get your friends' antenna perked up. Get the inbound word of mouth marketing machine fired up today so that maybe you can bring a deal to your first meetup. Jump in the pool and make some waves!

To reiterate @Jeff Greenberg's thoughts: personally, I had to spend twice as much time learning as I did trying to do deals. This meant two years of learning, reading, printing out ten listings and driving by them. I had no idea about the local REIA meet-up.

But, to answer your question simply: money always finds deals. A hard money or Joint Venture investor will not give you 100% loan-to-value. Period. So, your obstacle is not knowledge or experience, it's the lack of a deal in your hand to shop around to the funding people. Even it's just an informal deal with a family friend, shopping your deal to local investors will teach you so much, so fast that you'll see how easy it can be --- IF you have the cash down payment, credit cards to fund the rehab, or a third party buyer to make a quick wholesale fee.

I was amazed how easy (embarrassed really) it is to find money from friends that have good jobs but no time to manage investments. Think of yourself as a mini-hedge fund, managing others' private equity.

Alternatively, scour the local craigslist for 'owner' or 'seller' key words, you're looking for seller financing, usually investors ready to cash out but afraid of the capital gains taxes.

Another option is 'subject to' deals, where you give a small down payment and simply take over the existing mortgage. These deals are usually available from known quantities - not strangers. Ask your family and friends if they know any investors that might be wanting to sell any units.

To summarize, you have three options:

1. find 20 to 30% cash to put down and find a hard money lender

2. find seller financing

3. find a subject to deal

Think of somebody wealthy that has been a longtime friend, or family friend, and ask them how they got started, I found a three-property package deal just by asking a wealthy friend how he got started in the biz.

This is how you start to build your network. Start where you are, with what you have - existing relationships.

Don't let lack of funds hold you up, and get your a$$ to the local meetup asap. They won't bite !!!

edit:  I didn't mean rent roll, I meant tax roll. 

Yes, they have the full tax roll in Excel readily downloadable on the county Property Appraiser's websites. 

Florida has a broad public records law aka Sunshine Laws where anonymity may be maintained for public records requests. 

Welcome 

I buy anything in Bartow west of 17

hey guys

I've been appraising for 22 years

I've lived in Bartow for 13 years and Lakeland before that for one year. 

I started buying houses in Bartow in 2011 and now have ten in the city, and six others in The county. 

Bartow does indeed have "screaming deals" and the reason is location. Anything east of US 17 is going to be half of northwest and southwest Bartow. West of 17 say within 10 blocks, use a 25% discount. This is a culturally southern town with very clear neighborhoods. 

I could rent out 50 houses in Bartow. When I advertise on craigs, my phone blows up in a positive way. There is some flipping in town but there just aren't enough qualified buyers. Inventory remains tight because nobody is flipping and nobody can bring $40k hard money plus $20k rehab money. There is a distinct opportunity here in Bartow and Mulberry and Lake Wales. 

But it's only for the fix and rent and cash out refi niche. I welcome any JV and mentor opportunities.

I've got one under contract for $52k rent as is for $925. I've got another 3/1 concrete fronting a lake for $35k easy $850 rent after $6k rehab. I paid $26,500 for one and put $1,000 in it and I'm getting $800.