All Forum Posts by: Kelvin Duen

@Jaysen Medhurst, I've looked into so many areas that it's starting to make my head spin. New Jersey, NY (Poughkeepsie, Buffalo, Newburgh, Rockland), Texas (Austin and San Antonio), Orlando FL, Philly, Southern Vermont to name a few. A lot of traveling to say the least. I just got back from Ft. Lauderdale to take a look at what a friend's cousin is doing down there and to look at the RE market.

I've thought about partnerships but am a bit hesitant. How did you find your current partners?

@Jaysen Medhurst. I've looked at 5+ units as well but as a new investor I'm hesitant about going too big for my first investment. Acquiring off market deals seem like a good route to explore so I'm reading and learning about ways to do that. Being in a HCOL area, what type of properties are you investing in? How are you finding your properties?

Hello fellow investors! 

Can anyone recommend house cleaning/handyman/shoveling services from a company or local individual in Southern Vermont (10 to 15 minutes from Mount Snow) area for AirBnb purposes?

Also, for those doing Airbnb (especially in the Southern Vermont areas), how accurate is Airbnb's monthly potential earning number for your property location? I know this can always vary but was just curious on everyone's experience

Thank you in advance!

I'm still new to REI and I understand how BRRRR works but it seems like it only works out in low to mid cost of living areas. I'm trying to understand how the expenses for a property in a HCOL area, like the boroughs of New York of areas in California, would be covered after a refi. Let's say a property's ARV is $750k. Acquisition and rehab costs is $600k and you're able to refi at said ARV. Assuming a 4.0% interest rate over 30 years, your mortgage payment is ~$3,000 monthly. That's not accounting for expenses like insurance, taxes (taxes in my area can be $1-$2k a month) , repair & maintenance, cap ex, property management, and other expenses. Are you really renting the property at $4000-$5000? or are you renting just to cover mortgage and insurance? Am I missing something? Outside of BRRRR-ing and using FHA loans, how can someone invest in RE in HCOL areas? How are you guys investing in HCOL areas?

@Joseph Scorese solid advice. What's the typical turnaround time on setting up an LLC? Is it wise to make the purchase before setting this up if there were a partnership?

@Chris K. , that makes a lot of sense. I didn't consider a difference between capital contribution and profit allocation. I can definitely see my friend and I doing more deals in the future. If this was the case, can the structure of an LLC be modified later on? Current situations just allows me to pursue REI fulltime while my friend can't. It's definitely not necessary for a partnership but we both see the potential in this deal, both financially and as a first step in REI. Further analyzing the deal, it appears to be a pretty good deal but still small (cash flow less than $1k a month).

@Bradford Behrins, I can definitely see how this situation could get dicey. I noticed you're an investor from NYC. Would it be ok if I DM'ed you?

My best friend has approached me with a deal, that on paper, is just okay. It's not a homerun deal but it'll cash flow. The deal is in Philadelphia and we are in New York City. Here's the situation:

We are both new to real estate investing. I may be a little more versed than him via books and involvement with family rentals, but for the most part have no direct experience. He has a full-time job/career while I am pursuing real estate investing full time. He found the deal and is in contact with the owner. It was initially approached as a partnership with a 50/50 split on all expenses and profits. I brought up that this structure may not work. Since I am pursuing REI full time I will be doing more than 50% of the work since my schedule will allow it. I tend to be very diligent and involved with everything I'm apart of. He has his full-time job so he is essentially only available in the evenings and some weekends. This never occurred to him so I told him to think about it before we talked about how to structure the split.

We technically don't need each other to make the deal work but there's comfort to know someone is in the trenches with you. It'd probably be more difficult for him on his own but I'm confident he can make it work. We both see REI as a mean to achieve financial independence and create time wealth. I am not going to poach deal from him so it would be a partnership if I'm involved. What is the BP's opinion on a partnership structure like this? Is this kind of thing typical? What kind of split would be more reflective of a scenario like this?

@Elwyn D., did you ever figure this one out?

What the... i didn't know you can see member's portfolios. Still learning to navigate through this site. Awesome work @Jordan Moorhead

Wow, that's amazing! What part of Austin? I'm heading there in August to check out the city

@Stephen Anderson, I went just to see how auctions in Philly were. It's very intense and I can see how a newbie can get caught up in all the excitement. You can definitely find a deal during an auction but it's a huge gamble since you don't know what the condition of the property is. You should find time to attend one. It was way different than the one I attended in Westchester. I'm still figuring out my go/no go criteria as well as what neighborhoods to focus on. Philly is challenging since it's one of those cities that literally change from block to block.

@matthew irsh-jones, I would love to attend a monthly meetup. Perhaps I can make my way up there next month. What market changes have you noticed in the Western NY area in the past 5 or so years? When I was last there, the Allentown/Elmwood area was starting to develop quite a bit, they were developing downtown a ton, and the Tesla factory and UB medical campus wasn't a thing yet. 

@eric Hrlbock, did you move to Poughkeepsie solely to invest in the area? When is your next meetup and/or tour? There seems to be a lot of potential there.

@Aaron Belt, thank you for the kind words. I'm definitely going to utilize BP as much as I possibly can. It's such a great platform for help.