All Forum Posts by: Ke Nan Wang

Hi Mike,

Thank you for your service. About 1/3 of my life was a submarine officer in the navy so I have a good feel for both sides of the world. 

The best thing you could have from the military, from the business aspect, is your network. Hope you have had made a good impression to your surroundings and people would trust you to do business with you later down the road. If not, not end of the world, just mean you have to build new network. If you left a wrong impression to the persons you've worked with in the military, or even a mediocre one, it would be hard to change that impression. Then just forget it. If you've built a great reputation, then it's definitely in your favor to capitalize that. That's your pool of warm leads for whatever business you do in the future. 

The leadership skills we developed in the military is very different than the one that would worked well in the civilian world. In the military, we are putting in a position where our rank/title matters, and we can be an iron clad and order following machine and that's a favorable trait, both to your boss and your subordinate. That's a great trait for being an employee, but not a good trait to be an entrepreneur. In the business world, title doesn't mean a thing. You would see many people print the title CEO of XXX on their business card. At the end of the day, what matter is, did we have a win-win when we did the deal. Did I make money and did I enjoy working/collaborating with you. 

I do say in general, on average, the mentality of a personnel who work in the military is very different than the entrepreneur spirit required to be a successful business man in the civilian world. The keyword is on average. If you are a go-getter, hard charger, humble and eager to learn, coachable military member with leadership experience, then you could be a successful business person as well. 

As far as building a real estate portfolio to retire comfortably, that's really easy to do. You shouldn't have any problem achieving that part. For most people, the question is how far do I want to go. 

Hope that helps a little. Happy to chat more if you'd like. 
 

Congrats on the win. 

I'm curious when did you put the house under contract with the builder?

It's not uncommon in hot growing area where houses taking a long time to build for a builder and when the new home buyer put a new construction under contract, once the house is built, the market has appreciated a lot and you sold the house right after certificate of completion and enjoy all the appreciation accumulated during the construction period.

Another story for you but on the losing side: before 2008, the market is hot. Builder is building all over the place and the houses in a community was sold out before any houses began to build. Naturally, the properties that sold last in a community, prices were much higher than the prices sold earlier. Some realtors I knew thought it's like winning a lottery. When a new community starts, the realtors will purchase some of the nicer lots in that community in the very beginning, hoping for the lots to appreciate at the end of the development phase. And if you've read this far, you probably guess what happened. Market crashed, the builder had to start building the houses on the lot, the realtors couldn't delay the build anymore and have to get money to build the house. Now the houses worth less than the build cost. So in the end, they lost all the money they gained from winning earlier. 

It's still a huge win for you no doubt. But I don't think it's a repeatable process. It's riding the upmarket.  

Recommend who ever you hired as the real estate attorney is very knowledgeable and experience in the sub to deals. As you know, law is a practice, not all real estate attorneys are alike. Some will tell you not to do it and will battle you in every step of the way but others will embrace it and guide you through the process and educate you on the risk and mitigate such risk as much as possible. 

But based on the voice in your question, I feel like this is better off structured as a seller financing deal than sub-to. For a seller to accept a sub-to, there has to be no other better options. Either you let the bank foreclose you, or you sell the house at a loss and lose tens of thousands in the transaction. If you are still worrying about the buyer defaulting and such, then you probably do a seller financing, collect 20-25% down payment to get your interest protected. 

What's the closing cost and interest rate in private money lending right now?

Fortunately, both my mother and my brother are practicing CPAs. Consequently, I have the privilege of gaining insights into the behind-the-scenes discussions that occur when individuals like "OP" walk into their office. Typically, those who opt for TurboTax tend to inundate these professionals with a barrage of nuanced questions, expecting to glean free expertise and believing they can handle their taxes independently.

The reality is that 99% of these individuals attempt a DIY approach and inevitably encounter problems, eventually come back for their assistance, often years later. This is a testament to the complexity of tax laws. Professionals in the field undergo initial and ongoing training, regularly attend IRS seminars to stay current, and accumulate a wealth of nuanced knowledge through decades of daily practice. Attempting a DIY approach without being deeply entrenched in the profession is a challenging endeavor. Moreover, the professionals often avoid explaining complex concepts quickly because it can lead to a cascade of further questions, which can be time-consuming. They are compensated for what they know, not just for what they do.

I understand that your aim may be to grasp the bigger picture so that you can speak intelligently about taxes. However, if you are serious about your financial affairs, you should seek a competent and trustworthy tax advisor.

What @Sean O'Keefe said is undeniably true. Firstly, DIY filing errors may not become apparent until years later when they come back to haunt you. At that point, you may find yourself paying a substantial sum to a CPA to rectify the situation, whereas you would have paid a fraction of that amount annually for professional guidance—similar to the concept of preventive maintenance versus repair maintenance. It always cost more because people have to undo the mess and redo. Secondly, you might be unaware of the potential tax savings you're missing out on, which often exceed the fees paid to a CPA. Thirdly, having a tax advisor can provide invaluable guidance for your financial decisions, leading to significant benefits or the avoidance of unnecessary tax costs in the future.

In conclusion, when it comes to handling your taxes, it's important to recognize that tax professionals bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table. While TurboTax and DIY approaches may seem tempting, the intricacies of tax laws and the potential for costly errors down the road make seeking expert guidance a wise choice.

 Each application/screening charge a fee. They range somewhere from $30 to $50. The applicant paid zillow to screen them once and they can use that to apply for different rental listings on the zillow platform. You didn't know they've already paid Zillow. If they apply on Turbotenant or Transunion, someone, either you or the applicant has to pay for the screening again. Hence I said double pay. 

If you receive a Zillow application with credit score and background check, usually that's good enough for me. I just need to verify their SSN, DOB and Government ID. I have had an experience in the past where I received an application with the background check, I when I verified the name on the background check, it's the applicant's mom's name. I called the applicant and make sure that wasn't an honest mistake and all of the sudden she got very defensive and started calling me discriminate towards her application, major red flag and I denied her and blocked her and that's the end of that. So SSN, DOB and Gov ID are important for that purpose and also for future collection purpose in case of a default. 

You can do this very smoothly when you have them come signing the lease: "Hey XXX, when you come signing your lease, please bring a copy of your SSN, and DL so I can make a copy of them." I do this with every applicant if I didn't receive a digital copy ahead of time. No legitimate applicants will contested to that. 

 If these are serious applicants, just ask them to provide those information. No need to pay for a duplicate application. Any serious applicants with nothing to hide would glad to provide those information to you. 

I actually do not reject Zillow applications if I do get one. I know it's more affordable on the tenants' end and I don't fault for them using it. If someone who hasn't paid zillow yet then I would require them to use turbotenant. Also, once you have them accepted as your tenants, you can onboard them onto Turbotenant and you can manage them on that platform. I know Zillow has that service too but the first time I used it last year I ran into a payment problem so I haven't tried it since then. My neighbor is the Zillow rental platform manager and he keeps wanting me to come back to try their platform again because he's taking my feedback and incorporating them into their product. I just haven't given it another shot yet. You are welcome to try it. 

Buyer pays a mortgage service company. They charge a small fee for the service and there are probably thousands of them out there. Once it's setup with automatic payment it's on autopilot. Just like how you pay your own mortgages. 

I use Turbotenant for application. Turbotenant gather those info for you and also ask the applicant to upload a copy of their ID. 

I've used many third party platforms in the past including zillow, rentredi here and find Turbotenant is the best platform to use for DIY landlords in terms of easy to use, least or no technical glitches and most affordable (you can use it completely free if you want to, I use the paid version for some added extra services and even the paid version is extremely affordable - $99 a year). 

RE is not a get rich quick scheme. It's a long term investment. Think in terms of 5-10 years. 

Here is a treatment for you and this will sound opposite to what everyone else is telling you here: what you are experience is burnout, seeing so many success stories around you (I call them toxic motivational stories) but they aren't you discourages you. I would recommend you unplug from any RE and social technology for a quick break. Go out enjoy the nature, family and friends. Don't use computer or phone unless it's work related. You will recover and come back in a week or two. 

There is really no need to hurry here. The only urgency you are creating come from you and your social circles.