All Forum Posts by: Lillie MAnon

@John Gerard Williams That’s awesome! Welcome! It’s very easy to stuck in the paralysis analysis phase and because you are young, there will be someone that will discourage you. Stand firm in your knowledge that you’re making a good decision.

Continue to educate yourself. You can never learn enough. Get linked into the local real estate investor scene. There should be a local reia, meetups, there are sometimes events posted on here.

I always suggest starting by buying a multifamily with fha because you only need 3.5% down but there are so many ways to invest.

Oh and craigslist isn’t dead, Facebook marketplace has stuff, Zillow, trulia, I’m sure there’s others...

@Gibby Brook as I’m sure you know, Boston is quite expensive. If you are serious about saving up quickly to buy, it may be a good idea to househack (do the Roomate thing) for a little while. This may or may not be feasible given your personal preference/spouse/children, etc.

I suggest your first purchase be a multifamily with FHA - max it out if you can, up to 4 units.

Live like few will, so later you can live like few can 🤷🏾‍♀️

@Reggie S. Have you all considered investing passively? Investing in a syndication could be a great way to put your money to work without dealing with the headache of being a landlord.

If you are more interested in investing actively, I would suggest you take some time to educate yourself.

Maybe consider a home study course or pick up a few books. Definitely get linked in to your local real estate investor network. There are typically REIAs in every state, as well as local meetups. A quick search on Facebook, meetup.com, on here and perhaps even google should help you find what you need.

Learn the market, what you’re looking for, educate yourself and come up with a plan.

@Bernadeau C. Are you looking to purchase smaller multi families of your own in your local market or is your goal to scale and do large multifamily a properties through syndication?

@Serenity Fox the easiest way to finance a multifamily is probably FHA. You only need 3.5% down.

If you can get owner financing that’s always a plus.

Hard money is very expensive and should be a last resort, particularly if you plan to hold the property for a long time.

If you find something that is significantly below market value, you can use hard money to renovate it, then refinance at the ARV (After Repair Value) once the renovations are done.

@Juaneka Brim, Post some more details...

Cashflow above $200 per unit after all expenses is considered decent, obviously the more the better.

Make sure you review ALL of the expenses. Utilities, snow and landscaping if applicable. Water, etc.

will you self manage? If you plan to self manage, is there room in the income to pay a management company if you decided to get one eventually? As you scale, self management may challenging or more of a headache than it’s worth. You want to make sure you can still cashflow.

Will the utilities be tenant or landlord paid? If landlord paid, ask to see copies of recent bills.

What’s the condition of the units?

If it’s turnkey, is it truly “worry-free” turnkey meaning that it was gut renovated with everything all new or is it just in decent enough condition to continue to rent it out without immediately doing work?

If you plan to renovate it, have you gotten written estimates on the cost and do your numbers still make sense?

What’s the rent in comparison to market rent? Is there room to increase the rents?

@Ashley Gish

My suggestion would be to purchase a multifamily.

If you have enough cash you may be able to buy 2 - one with fha and one 20% down through traditional financing.

You can refinance your student loans. Banks are offering around 4.25% or so right now depending on your credit.

It obviously depends on your age and overall situation. But The rule of thumb when deciding to pay off student loans more aggressively vs invest, is that if you can earn more interest than what you would spend paying off the loan, invest the money instead.

The longer you wait to purchase properties, the longer you wait to pay them off and have some financial freedom.

Nothing really happens if you don’t pay off your student loans other than the fact that you have them.

If you can refinance over 10, 15, or even 20yrs, I don’t see anything wrong with it. Just accept that it’s a part of your everyday expenses.

But I wouldn’t wait to invest to pay off your student loans. Especially since you have a lump sum like that. Depending on what you do for work and your discipline with savings, it may be very difficult to save up enough to buy something anytime soon.

It seems like you guys are on the right track financially, and will be fine regardless, and I know idea of being free of debt is very attractive, but I think you will be much more greatful years down the line having purchased the property when it’s paid off and you have significant income coming in.

Oh and SCREEN your tenants, so you hopefully don’t have to do another renovation project just because of them - eviction history, credit, background. And actually talk to their previous landlord and get paystubs!

@Zackarias Aitchison @Zackarias Aitchison I currently own 10 units in Connecticut and want to venture into syndication so I am currently educating myself and trying to decide the next best step. Id love to connect with you guys and bounce ideas.

I came across a real estate broker awhile back, can’t remember where I got his info but I’ve spoken to him a few times and just recently presented a deal. He’s out of state so I cant just go meet him He seems very knowledgeable about real estate but I don’t want to be burned tying up a property and potentially losing my deposit and the deal. He says he can do an sba loan on a non-owner occupied all residential commercial building with just 10% down. That Iss unheard of. He wants an upfront fee of $795 and he says it gets credited at closing. I’ve always been told to be wary of people who ask for upfront fees. He also says his company doesn’t do an appraisal, the do AVM. I thought it could be a fishing scam because he asked me to fill out an application upfront. There was another broker that I’ve spoken to in the past who seemed to be offering too good to be true terms and some information that I found out later was not true. I met him on craigslist. Anyway, once he got my application, I never heard from him again. I’ve been watching my credit. Anyway now I am very wary. When something seems too good to be true, it usually is. I purposely didn’t include my social and instead put a screenshot of my credit report and that was enough to get started at least. He has a broker fee, 5.5% interest, 5yr lock on rate with float, 3 yr prepayment penalty. He says most of the closing costs could be rolled into the loan. Terms aren’t amazing but if I could get into a 6 unit with only 10% down, I would take it and refinance later. His name is Ken Willman with First Commercial Capital out of Cincinnati, OH. Can anyone vouch for him? Can anyone speak as to the validity of the sba loan claims because everyone I speak to says no way, not possible.