All Forum Posts by: Juan V Lopez

Hey Jeff, I'm an investor in the Vegas market too brother – definitely been seeing much higher inventory and investor activity lately (thus resulting in more wholesale deals).

This is happening in a lot of cities, not just Vegas. Inventory is going up, people are realizing they missed the window to sell their home to a buyer who would pay $20K over listing and now they're more motivated to sell quickly. Who buys properties quickly? Investors.

Regarding whether it's a good market to buy or not – my opinion is yes, so long as you're buying with enough margins.

Example: If you buy a house for $300K with $40K rehab and $440K ARV, but then when it comes time to sell it, you can only get $410K for the home, you'd still take that $70K gross profit. All day. As long as your margins are wide enough to absorb a dip, you're solid. Yes, houses are taking more time to sell, but that's a normal market. What we saw in 2020-22 was bonkers.

Having clear criteria on what you can buy and what margins you need is the biggest key for us investors right now.

Hey Anthony, a friend in my network told me New Western recently opened a location in Chicago. They do wholesale-type deals, but they double close everything and all of their agents are licensed. I know it's a fast-paced place, would be worth checking out! Wish you the best.

Great work, Jessica and made a great return! What was your holding time? Why is it your last for now? My first flips gave me a huge itch to do a ton more lol

Amazing work & congrats! More success to you.

I think purchasing with a HELOC is a fantastic idea IF:

1) You are planning to refinance the property immediately after to pay off the HELOC and keep the investment.

2) You are planning to sell the property to pay off the HELOC.

If you are using the HELOC to add value to a property and then use the project proceeds to pay back the HELOC, I think you're in great shape. But I wouldn't use a HELOC to acquire a turnkey property or something where you can't add a lot of equity quickly.

Hope this helps.

Hey Fernando, I used my virtual office address when completing any of these types of forms. I don't want my personal address anywhere. Mailing address is a local PO box I have, but the physical address is a virtual office in Chicago for me.

Hey Russell, I would run this question directly through the QI you want to use. I've done 2 1031's and if something goes wrong, you want to be able to hold them accountable.

With all due respect, if your realtor has given you incorrect advice, you will be unable to hold them accountable for anything and you will be left holding the bag (and tax bill).

I used First American Exchange Company for both of my 1031s in Chicago. Very helpful and educated me on the process. Plus, they're up to date on the latest 1031 laws. Hope this helps, good luck.

Hey @Caleb Scott, BRRRR would work anywhere as long as the values make sense. As you're seeing in Missouri, sometimes the rents don't justify a BRRRR. In places like California, the purchase prices may be so high that it wouldn't make sense to BRRRR.

My best advice to you is to get clear on what you want (it sounds like you want higher cash-flowing doors), and get to the areas that can offer this. I have a friend who completed 2 side-by-side SFH BRRRRs in Galveston TX and will be cashflowing about $1500/mo on each home. There's areas like this all over the US.

If you continue to hit a wall in your specific market, get outside of your zone and run numbers in bigger markets that have higher rents and higher appreciation. The entry cost might be higher, but you can use hard money (or private money) if you want to get into the market. There's always a way in. Just need to make up your mind on what you want to do an execute.

And who knows – maybe you do a couple BRRRR deals in Springfield, MO to get a feel for the process and then move into larger cash flowing cities.

@Zachary Inman, you hit it on the head. I have some money in Crypto (not a self-proclaimed crypto expert), but a majority of my wealth is in real estate and brick and mortar businesses. The more we get into fluffy stuff like crypto, NFTs, the metaverse, etc, the more it makes me lean into tangible assets.

Do I believe in Crypto as a viable investment in the near future? Yes. Are there a lot of good-intentioned people holding the bag once something pumps and dumps, like NFTs? Sadly, yes.

The people who I feel for are those who do not have strong conviction in what they're doing and are persuaded to put their money into something they don't know much about (like crypto, NFTs, etc) and they can't afford to lose that money in the first place. They get preyed on a lot by flashy headlines on social media.