All Forum Posts by: Julian Sibley

This is from one of J.Scott's posts/articles, good luck with your rehab!

@Robert Freeborn Welcome! My wife and I both graduated from WWU, and certainly miss Bellingham!

The forums are great resources for finding information, I would also highly recommend you listen to the BP podcast. As previously mentioned, start looking for meetups in your area so you can meet local investors and start building out your team/network.

For your personal goals, I would start looking into house hacking to get into your first couple properties. Figure out what your long term plan is and what type of properties you want to focus on, from there you will be able to search the forums and find answers to a lot of your questions.

Feel free to reach out if you ever need anything, and good luck!

@Rachel Luoto sounds like you answered your own question. If you're an underwriter by trade you understand the process well, but you want to see another flippers process from start to finish. I would avoid the term "mentor" and tell people you are looking for a "partner" (more of a give than a take), what you have to offer is expertise with numbers/management/relationships, a capital partner, and potentially manual labor from your boyfriend Julian.

If you are alright trusting your strengths, and can't find a flipper that is looking for a partner, I would just finish out your team. Find a good general contractor, and an agent, and do the deal yourself. Your boyfriend can do manual labor on minor jobs, you and your capital partner make a good profit, you will build a relationship with your contractor, and you will certainly learn from the process! The thing with a "normal split" for profits is that you generally want to make your capital partner happy so that they will fund your future deals, everyone will have different numbers for what kind of return they want to see with their capital, you just have to sit down and ask around their expectations.

@Ryan Tremblay Welcome! The forums, as you mentioned, are a great place to ask questions as well as search for answers to your questions. For details on financial analysis you should check out the Real Estate Deal Analysis and Advice forum. You can also look for local networking/REIA meetings to find other like-minded investors and start building out your team.

@Rachel Luoto Why not find another flipper at your REIA and offer free labor if you feel like learning from other's mistakes? If you don't want to offer free manual labor ask them what they need help with, or something they don't like to do. That way you see their project from start to finish, and can see their process, but they also receive something of value in exchange. Then save your flip deal for yourself to make some money. I would second what was previously mentioned, if you want a professional to do the work why not just hire them to do the work and you manage the project/receive some of the profits.

My other thought, if I was your capital partner and I was putting up all the cash, I would want more than 50% share of the profits. I don't know the relationship between you/your friend but that's just my $.02

@Papa D. One option is to have a family member add you as an "authorized user" to one of their well established cards. Make sure it has no late payments, and is at or below the 33% credit utilization as mentioned previously. This allows you to borrow all of the payment/transaction history (which is roughly 35% of the weight to your FICO algorithm/score) all the way back to when the card was opened. You don't even have to have a card for the account, but being added as an authorized user will allow their card to report to your credit profile.

In addition, open your own credit card and keep it below the 33% utilization, your bank will likely be able to offer you one. Referencing the example given by @Rebecca Peters if your limit is $1000 keep it below $300. Many people find it best to completely pay off the card every month and only use it for a small bill, which I partly agree with. Personal opinion is that if you can leave some money on the card (Don't completely pay down to $0 every month) it will actually help build your score faster. Just make sure you are always paying on time. 

Option one will could give you a score worthy of obtaining a loan in as little as one billing cycle, the second option will take a couple months, assuming you pay all your utilities/tradelines on time.

In regards to your house hack, what makes you lean towards FHA? Do you intend to BRRRR or buy and hold from the start? FHA loans carry a form of mortgage insurance for the life of the loan unless you can put 10% down, but they are much more lenient in regard to credit and DTI ratios. In WA we have several conventional programs that offer 3% down, as opposed to the 3.5% FHA minimum down payment. Once you start working on your credit find a good lender in your area, NYC might even have a couple 0% down options for first time homebuyers.

@Rudy Manna If you're still searching for an agent send me a message, there's plenty of agents up here who can help you acquire good deals, familiar with neighborhoods, etc.

I'd want some more info on your investment model and goals before I pair you up with anyone though.

@Mike Hendrickson USDA isn't going to make you refinance out of the loan, depending on your reason for moving out some underwriters will question your intent when you go to get your financing on the new home. Primarily when downsizing they question your occupancy intent (Claiming primary residence on a fixer upper for favorable LTV terms, with intent to convert to an investment in the short term) but everything can be worked out with proper documentation. Just be open about it with your lender and they will help you out.

If you intend on managing the rental on your own, I'd recommend searching the forums for tips/tricks on dealing with renters. My favorite one is make sure they transfer utilities into their name BEFORE you give them keys. Good luck!

@Erik Romo There is your start brother! Start with your schedule, build out what you want your "perfect day" to look like. Everything from when you eat, meet with clients, make your phone calls etc. The hard part is sticking to the schedule.

The "big rocks principle" is an old time management saying, you'll hear many recreations but the main point is this: Schedule the important things (Big rocks) first, and fit everything else around them.

You have rocks, gravel, sand, and a vase. The vase represents the hours in the day, depending on how you structure your calendar many people say you can't fit all the rocks, gravel and sand into the vase. If you focus on the things that matter, which for most people are income generating activities, the rocks go in first, then the gravel which fills in the holes between the rocks, then the sand goes in and fills the gaps between the gravel. Even though you think the tank is full, some recreations will have the presenter then pour liquid into the vase. You can read the full article here: http://tech.mit.edu/V118/N44/choy.44c.html

@Justin Whitfield You will want to look at your child's 529 plan "offering circular" or more commonly known as a "disclosure statement". I like where your head is at, but not sure if you could consider a child's mortgage payment to be "room and board" costs.

Who do you have your 529 plan through (which state?)? 

Also, you will want to consider that for a student living off campus in non-campus housing, their room and board expenses can't exceed the limit set forth by the campus for financial aid calculations (and be drawn from a 529 plan). You could instead own the home and have your student pay you room and board for living there, in the case the room and board limit is not enough to cover the mortgage. Should double check with your financial planner and CPA to be certain though