All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Paz

Welcome to the Space Coast @Niv Kaikov!  I have been investing here for the past 10 years.  I’m up to about 50 units now here, variety of houses/duplexes/condos throughout all of Brevard.  I also use to run an AirBnB business but out of my Hawaii property until they also banned it there.  Feel free to reach out.  I’m also going to be setting up an investor meetup here soon.

Hello @James Tolson.  I’m also an engineer, local in Brevard County, but now full time real estate investor.  I was able to get out of the rat race, and it’s definitely possible in your timeline.  It took me 9 years of buying properties to replace my salary with rental income, which I’m happy about it and own a lot of my properties free and clear now, but could have achieved my goal much faster if I embraced good debt and went bigger earlier on.  Now property values are very high, returns are smaller, so risk has increased substantially.  If you ever want to chat more, send me a DM.

@Salvatore Lentini Yes that describes me perfectly! I'm looking to make the shift to full time real estate investor so the W2 income may not be there. At this point, my rental income is plenty strong enough and exceeded what I was making with previous W2 employment. My tax returns schedule E is complicated due to all the rentals. My concern though is affordability. A lot of the portfolio lenders I have come across are basically like hard money lenders with their rates, or their rates are low but they want to charge a ton of points and give a low LTV. I don't really want to get a bunch of more properties at high rates that the lenders are making more money than me lol! Maybe you can Private message me your Portfolio lenders and examples of what kind of financing/terms you are getting?

@Craig Yarnell I use the BRRRR method. So the properties typically need work and purchased from a distressed seller with cash. I then want to pull out a good amount of appraised value to hopefully get back all or close to all of my investment. @Sam Martin

Seeking a Florida Portfolio Lender with competitive rates/terms to finance future residential (1-4 unit) acquisitions along with some properties I own free and clear.  I have strong cash flow, credit, equity, and reserves.   I do not qualify for conventional financing as both my wife and I each have over 10 financed rental properties.  My market is Brevard County/Space Coast.  Thanks!

@Tchaka Owen Primarily it has been due to financing. I own only own 1 bundle of properties in an LLC with a commercial loan, and I'm not a big fan of commercial financing terms for residential real estate. I cover my risk with an umbrella insurance policy.

@Mary Frangakis I own a few different rentals (condos, townhomes, single families, and duplexes) in Brevard County and all are doing well. I think the best ROI is on condos, but they are the hardest to finance for non-owner occupants. Therefore, if you are trying to do cash out refinances, the single families/townhomes and duplexes work best. But if you are going cash purchase, and plan on owning debt free, condos work very well in Brevard County. I've got about 15 of them and loving the peace of mine, low maintenance, and appreciation both on values and rents I have seen. If you are interested in buying a turn key already rented and under professional management property in the area, send me a DM and I can give you a few options of some I would be willing to sell.

Thank you all!  So good to know!!!!  Yea I probably should find another more helpful QI for future use!

Hello.  So I have a question and just wanted to make sure I am in the clear.  I am doing a 1031 Exchange where I sold a condo property I owned free and clear for $144,357, whereby I netted $133K that my 1031 exchange company is holding on to.  Today I found a duplex replacement property that I negotiated a cash purchase price of $145K, with a seller credit of $7,500.  Closing costs are almost nothing with cash purchases, and you even get pro-rated rents and security deposits that cover costs like taxes.  So I am assuming that I will be all in for buying this replacement property for about $138,000 (after title uses the $7,500 credit to basically reduce my cash to close) which is only a couple thousand more than what my 1031 exchange company has.  I find this a HUGE win.  My question is, is it allowed to use seller credit to basically reduce your purchase price, without actually reducing your purchase price?  Reason why I negotiated it that way is because I knew I needed to buy a replacement property for at least the price I sold my property for ($144,357), but I didn't want to pay that much for this replacement property, so I instead had them provide me seller credit which basically does the same thing as reducing purchase price, but at the same time I believe I am meeting the 1031 exchange replacement property requirement.  I just wanted to post this on here and make sure there isn't some rule against using seller credit, and really the only thing that matters is the contracted purchase price of the replacement property being at least same or more than property sold and that your total proceeds are reinvested.  Thanks!

@Anthony H. @Maurice Smith I really like the idea of putting the money in a separate account other than your general real estate income and expenses.  I am also still struggling to understand if you can use the money to make mortgage payments if you have tenants that are all current on rent.  However, it does sound like you can use the money for general repairs and maintenance (working capital) without any issues.  So I may just wait for there to be a big expense, and then write the checks out of that separate account and keep those receipts.  I do have a septic tank removal/sewer line installation job coming up next month that is more than my EIDL loan amount, so I may just use it for that.  I would consider that a repair job to get off septic, as the septic system is failing and city has mandated me to get off septic and connect to public sewer, so that should be acceptable use of funds.