All Forum Posts by: Justin Cooper

Thank you @Sean Blomquist,  Nice to meet you @Jennifer Slaughter. unfortunately there is no website I know of that would tell you about off-market deals. and if there was, it would quickly be picked over by investors and be just as hard to find deals as the MLS is today.

are you doing any direct marketing?  sending letters, postcards, putting out bandit signs, have a website of your own? I like Craigslist where you can post your own ads trying to attract sellers and you could also troll CL looking for people posting places for sale.

Also on CL, you could be trolling for rental listings.  when you see one, call them and ask if they are wanting to sell.  you are catching a landlord at their most vulnerable time, when there is a turnover.  you will probably hear no a lot but there might be a Yes in there!  you will also talk to a lot of property management companies as they are posting on CL.  have that same conversation but as k them if they have any other clients that might be wanting to sell. There is a website that is specific to NoCo, something like Northern Colorado Rentals or something, you could probably just google it but that is another place to find places to rent and hit them up and see about buying their rental.

Wholesalers are another great option as they usually pull double duty as they play the MLS game as well as do direct marketing.

So the short answer is no, there is no website but the longer answer I hope has brought some value.

Coop

Hi Korey and welcome!

I lost $9,000 on my first flip.  I talk about it so much I actually put together an hour+ presentation on it!  and of course how not to repeat what I did.

The highlights (or low-lights) are, not having a solid ARV (I was off by $50,000), not having a repair budget at all, not having any cash or reserves, not having a good team around m, and obviously not running the numbers. It is hard to run the numbers when you don't even have one of the important ones!

I am happy to get into more details if you would like!

Hi Sonja,

Welcome!  I am in Denver and Colorado I am happy to chat more about those price points and neighborhoods.

Colorado is a crazy market right now.  There certainly is money to be made, if you can find a good deal!

Coop

Hi Evan,

Welcome!  All three of those are great strategies and all of them are working today in Colorado and Denver.  But all three of them are very different.  I would continue your diligence and encourage some introspection to help you determine what your true goals are and then go with the strategy that most closely aligns with that.

to your question about the rental market, Yes, prices are high and climbing but so are rents.  Interest rates are still super low.  looking back historically, the markets have always risen so I would not be worried about how high they are but pay more attention to the basics of buying a good rental property, like cash flow.  if you buy a good deal today, that should still be a good deal down the road.

Best of luck and let me know if I can help along the way.

Coop

Hi Jeremy and welcome to Bigger Pockets!

If you are looking to be buying rentals, I would say that you have not missed the boat yet.  The market here in Colorado is a bit crazy but but there are still a lot of good rentals to be found. Just make sure you are buying based on sound principals like good cashflow and have enough in reserves to handle any unknowns. There is a lot of great info here on BP to help with that as well.  I am a hard money lender and an investor and also see people buying properties with "less" out of pocket.  There are several strategies to be doing this like using hard money and refinancing, using creative financing or bringing in a partner for the down payments.  I agree with Bill, most hard money lenders want to be paid back in under a year so if you are looking to be buying rentals with hard money, you would need to be prepared to refinance out of that loan into a conventional loan.  Using a hard money lender can be great as you get started because they will be a second set of eyes on your deal.  You generally don't get that when you are dealing with private/family money because they are looking to you as the expert and may not fully understand investing in real estate. The good thing about private money is the terms and rates are much more negotiable.  A good rule of thumb there is to be fair.  You might be able to get a very low interest rate from Grandma but you want to be fair so that she sees it as worth her time and effort and is willing to lend to you again on the next one.  

Hope that helps a bit.

Coop

Hi Scott,

I am not in my 20's any more but am looking to expand my rental portfolio this year.  Would love to connect and stay in touch. How many units do you have?

Coop

Hi Dianne,

Welcome!  I am a local hard money lender.  I have a lot of contacts in NoCo and would be happy to help any way I can.  

Good luck and hope to connect soon.

Coop

Myisha,

Welcome to investing!  You have some really good questions.  You also have a leg up on a lot of beginners because you are an agent.

I might be biased because I am a hard money lender but if you do not have the cash to buy your first property outright, I would reach out to your local hard money lenders. BP has a great list of hard money lenders. I would start there if you do not know of anyone. Hard money lenders can be a great resource because they are usually investors themselves and you can lean on their experience as well as their money. Each lender will be slightly different so be sure to ask a lot of questions. Depending on your cash situation, you might want to find one that will lend both the purchase price and the repairs. These lenders will base their loan on the after repair value (ARV). In doing their due diligence on you and the property they will be able to double check your math and make sure that it is a good deal. a good rule of thumb is to have your purchase price and repairs be as close to or under 70% of the ARV if possible. Of course if you find a lender that will give you this much money, it will not be cheap so be prepared for higher points and interest rates.

Once you get a couple of deals under your belt and have more confidence and the experience to back it up, you might be able to raise some private money from friends and family.  This is usually cheaper than hard money.  

Being an agent, I think that you have a leg up on most investors when it comes to finding good deals. Most of the market is on the MLS so having access to the MLS gives you an advantage. I would also be networking with wholesalers whose job it is to find good deals and then assign them to fix and flippers. you might also want to be calling those bandit signs, the ones that want to buy houses, they also generally sell houses too.

Once you think you have found a good property, I would run the numbers to be sure it is a good deal. Put together a quick but accurate scope of work (SOW). Pull some comps to be sure of your ARV. Take a look at what your acquisition costs would be (purchase, repairs, closing costs to buy) and compare them to your net after sale (ARV minus closing costs to sell, usually 10%, minus your holding costs). If the difference shows a profit you are comfortable with, get that deal under contract!

Once you are under contract, put together a more detailed SOW, Line up the financing, and get those crews ready to tear into that property as soon as you close.  Time is always of the essence on a flip so you want to be in and out as fast as possible.

I hope this helps.  Good luck and have fun!

I think Theresa's idea could be a great one. I might suggest looking into rolling over the IRA into a self-directed IRA and try using that. There are some strict rules about how you can and cannot partner with your SDIRA and I can never remember them but I would look into that before you roll it over just in case. You could also roll your IRA over into a self directed IRA and then "trade" IRA's with someone else, basically you could loan them money from your IRA and they could loan you theirs. If you roll over into the SDIRA, you will be able to also use it for other deals in the future. You might also be able to change the type of IRA so that you can contribute more to it each year and grow it faster that way. Having a SDIRA can be very powerful. I just bought a non-performing note with mine, something I had never even thought of but because I had the SDIRA already set up, I was able to move quickly and get it done. Speed can be very powerful in Real Estate. I would reach out to New Direction IRA if you want to look into rolling into the self directed IRA. They are local here in Colorado and deal with real estate investors all the time. They also do a ton of free education. Let me know if you would like an introduction.

Good luck!

Looking forward to this!  Going to be another great event!