All Forum Posts by: Jordan Decuir

@Joel Allen

That's a great point! To me, the seller would either need to be in a desperate situation that can't otherwise be solved without selling, or would have to have no reason to maintain his/her VA entitlement, e.g. they have no desire to purchase another property at all after selling or some other reason. Thanks.

@Jennifer Gore

Houston IS great! In case it is a material factor in your decision: Regarding your ocean comment…I assume that the beaches close to Houston would be very subpar compared to CA and probably also compared to FL.

@Marshall Leipprandt

I think I understand the overarching point in your example. In that case, it could make sense for an investor that can, and planned to, plunk down a sizable sum of cash to give the seller his/her equity, correct? And, Due to the run up in home values over the past few years, presumably those homeowners have a nice bit of equity that they’re sitting on and would likely want to be compensated for. Am I following correctly?

Apparently ~60-65% of existing homeowners’ outstanding mortgage loans carry a rate at or below 4%. With new mortgage rates averaging above 7% per the Mortgage Bankers Association, I’d think that there should be opportunity to do deals by assuming those low-rate mortgages (if an investor can find the homeowner that desires to sell).

I’m not too familiar with the process of loan assumptions, so what are their pitfalls, risks, etc…?

I understand that FHA and VA loans are assumable, so what are the best strategies to find homeowners with assumable mortgages that want to sell? And what are the best tactics to convey to them the benefits of selling and allowing the purchaser to assume their existing mortgage?

Obviously this concept is pretty new for me, so please excuse if I’m not clear or if this is just a silly post.

@Colby Zeller

Kudos to you for thinking strategically about your future at such a young age. I’d echo most of the points made here so far, and suggest that you speak with at least one lender about your situation and explore your options. Also, keep in mind that all lenders are not the same in terms of what they can get you qualified for and the loan programs that they offer. Many people hear something and assume that it applies for all lenders across the board…and that is not necessarily the case. Best of luck to you!

Fellow BPers, I usually don't look much into Commercial RE, but I found this article by Andrew Syrios (link below) to be very interesting. Projections of greater than 50% vacancy in some downtown office markets?!?! 

The Coming Collapse of Downtown Office Real Estate (biggerpockets.com)

I wanted to share as I assume others will find this interesting as well. I'm curious as to what others see as the potential opportunities coming in downtown (and possibly also suburban) office assets in the next couple of years as pre-covid leases expire and tenants choose not to re-up:

1) Find and short REITs that focus on downtown office space, especially in particularly-vulnerable regions/cities/industries?

2) Assemble funds and acquire downtown office buildings as they decline in value? If so, what is the strategy to make money there (for example, convert to condos or apartment units?)

3) Wait for downtown-office owners to get antsy/desperate and lock in some bargains on leases...then sublet or some other arbitrage type of strategy?

4) Literally any other ideas....

Anyway, I found this to be an interesting read with some links to more interesting reads as well. I'm interested to hear about what others think about the wave of potential opportunities that may be coming in downtown office real estate!

@Ethan G.

Perhaps we can get another started. I’m happy to help if you (and any others) would like to get something started again.

Looking through all of the comments, perhaps a strong Property Manager could tie it all together for so many investors. Here's what I mean: Aside from the obvious functions of a good property manager (collecting rent, placing good tenants in a property, maintaining good lines of communication with tenants and property owners, etc...), a good property manager would also have strong connections with good, trustworthy, and AVAILABLE contractors that would be easy to get in touch with, and would show up and do their job as expected, on time, and (hopefully) within budget. Would you all (mostly) agree or am I oversimplifying things?

@Gonzalo Gutierrez

Like Steve mentions, it may be simpler than you’re thinking. TX’s Real Estate Commission’s promulgated purchase form has a place in it specifically for Seller Financing. TREC also promulgated a Seller Financing addendum to add to a contract to lay out the terms for buyer and seller. It may be as simple as that in CO too. As far as what the payments would be: there should be some simple calculators available online or here on BP to nail down the numbers and whatnot if you input the purchase price, term of loan, interest rate. I may be oversimplifying things and CO may not be analogous to TX…but perhaps it’s not as complex as you’re thinking.

Are you using third-party property management for your properties? If so, the property manager(s) should likely be keeping some books for each property, at least at a minimum level of "cash in and cash out". Bookkeeping may be another good reason to use a property manager if you aren't already using one. A good property manager will have systems and tools in place to handle bookkeeping for its clients. This would free up your time to conduct value-generating activities.