All Forum Posts by: John Powers

Hi BP,

Looking for some insight on the current competitiveness for FHA loan shoppers looking to house hack in the greater Boston area. What type of offers can I expect to compete with? I hear of cash offers coming in well over listing price, waived inspections, etc. We will most likely be getting pre-approved in April and will start looking with our agent.

Also, has anyone had experience with all-cash offer programs offered by lenders like accept.inc?

Any advice or tips on how to compete would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

John

Hi BP,

My partner and I started a service business as a way to generate cash for our first multifamily. We are hoping to house hack next September in the greater Boston area and are trying to figure out which financing route we should take. Properties would be anywhere between $550k-$700K for a 2 unit. Next summer we can roughly expect to have $50k cash in our LLC account, and $10K-$20K cash saved up in each of our personal savings.

Any thoughts on how we could put the LLC cash and our personal cash towards the property in the most taxed advantaged way possible?

Thanks,

John

Hello, 

I wanted to get feedback and thoughts from Investors and Real Estate professional on a potential tool that would use machine learning and AI to create scores or ratings on real estate markets at the zip code level. This model would factor in dozens of variables from traditional and non traditional data sources. These scores would vary based on the type of investor (flippers, buy and hold, etc) and different weights would be give to certain variables.  As an investor would you find any value in this type of software? It would be able to identify potential trends and opportunities in markets that would be over looked by the average individual.  Let me know what you think!

Thanks

HI BP,

My roommate and I are looking to house hack in Austin within the next year or so. Our thought is that one of us would purchase our first property with an FHA loan, live there for a year or two, then the other will get an FHA loan on a second duplex, and we would rent out both units of the first duplex. Is it realistic to think we would be able to cash flow that first property after 1-2 years with an FHA loan?

Obviously, it will depend on the property. I ran some numbers on a duplex with a lender and this is what it looks like:

Property Price: $306,000
3.5% Down FHA loan @4%

Unit A Rent: $1,050 2 bedroom (We would live here)
Unit B Rent: $1,350 3 bedroom

Total Monthly Payments ~$2,125

• Includes: Principal & Interest, FHA mortgage insurance, homeowners insurance (estimated) and actual property tax
• Noted that tax and insurance can rise over time

Living in the house, our monthly payments would be ~$775 ($2,125 - $1,350).

Once we moved out, and are able to fill unit A with a new tenant, theoretically we would be cash flowing $275 ( - $2,125 + $1,350 + $1,050). On top of that, we would need to factor in other expenses like repairs, utilities, and vacancy.

Is it realistic to be able to cash flow a House Hack with an FHA loan after a year or two? What factors am I not accounting for here? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
John

Hi BP, 

My roommate and are looking to relocate from Boston to Austin.  Would it be better to sublet/rent for 6-12 months to learn the local market and find a better deal, or to network online and purchase a multiunit property right off the bat. Wanted some feedback from investors in the area. 

Thanks,
John

You can push your Facebook ads through to Instagram with the click of a setting. Could be worth giving it a shot and comparing the results. 

I recommend spending time putting together a high converting landing page that clearly explains the service your offer. 

Additionally, if you link your Google AdWords account to your Google Analytics you can identify potential negative keywords through filtering paid keywords by bounce rate. If you have several clicks on a paid keyword with 100% bounce rate, i'd recommend adding that to your negative keyword list.  

Search engine optimization is the most important, and most underutilized strategy for driving leads and sales online. After years in the industry, its apparent to me that SEO is often overlooked by real estate and property management companies. SEO generates, free high quality traffic to your website. In an industry where digital advertising costs are rising over 6% a year, SEO is a must for any business that is looking to cut marketing costs and drive long-term results. I am starting this thread to share the strategies that I use, and answer any questions. I have implemented the following practices to dozens of website, and have seen positive results that drive more leads and sales every time.

1. SEO Audit and Google Analytics: A proper website audit includes comprehensive keyword research, competitor analysis, website code/structure analysis, and analysis of your company's entire online presence (local listings, linkscape, social media, etc..). You also need to ensure you have proper website tracking set up so you can track progress, measure results and make adjustments accordingly.
2. Foundational Improvements: To rank well on Google, you will need to fix any issues with your website code/structure that were identified in the initial audit. If your website is not coded and structured correctly, the search engines will never see the content you create.
3. Website Content Creation: With the foundation set, and keywords identified, you will then need to update the content on your website and create new pages for any additional keyword opportunities. Google doesn’t rank websites as a whole, it ranks individual pages. Each page on your website gives you an opportunity to rank for a specific set of relevant keywords. I am adding new landing pages/articles on a consistent basis and constantly thinking of creative ways to get in front of potential clients.
4. Content Marketing/Blogs: This is a great way to provide value for potential clients and build a trusted brand. 78% of visitors prefer to interact with your business through an article rather than an ad. Well written articles will help you stay fresh in the eyes of Google, and will help solidify your brand as a trusted source.
5. Claim Local Listings and Optimize Offsite Factors: It is incredibly important to create, optimize, and claim your listings on third party listing sites such as Google My Business and Yelp. Each site is a new opportunities for a client to find your business. Google will crawl these sites, so you will want to make sure you have accurate and consistent info across all platforms. Additionally, you will want to take advantage of any opportunities for another credible website to link back to yours. Think of links from other authoritative websites (REIAs, local chambers of commerce or the BBB) as votes of authority or digital recommendations. Reach out to me and I can provide you with an email template that use to reach out to other businesses to request a backlink to my site.

I only touched on a a few of the higher level strategies that I typically see overlooked in this industry. I can almost guarantee if you implement the strategies above you will see an increase in website traffic, leads and hopefully sales! Let me know if you have any questions or if you have other SEO related strategies that you see work!

Yours truly in digital optimizations,

John

@Steve Maginnis , curious if you ended up launching this campaign. If so, please let me know what kind of results you saw! I've got a few additional ideas. 

@Steve Maginnis Keep me updated, let me know how it goes!