All Forum Posts by: Lawrence Rutkowski

Finding your own deals will certainly be more lucrative per property, but it’s quite the opposite of passive. You need to find a distressed property/motivated seller, find their contact info, get them to talk to you, get them to agree to sell and actually go through with it all while verifying everything they’re telling you regarding payoff/Title/liens etc. In a situation such as yours, real estate being more of an income diversification or retirement vehicle, turn-key or minimum value-add would be the way to go. Wholesalers typically work with homeowners in some sort of distress, meaning the houses need work. I live and work in the San Antonio market and know it very well. If you want chat about it and your personal and financial goals pertaining to real estate I’d be more than happy to discuss.

@Daniel A Lee Kim

What is your budget? How much do you plan to finance? What is the time frame for your move? What class area are you looking for? B-A? Or are you ok with C if it's safe?

I specialize and live in the N/NE area of town. You'll mostly find duplexes there and most of those areas are very good.  East is very patchy. You can be ok on one street, and a few over could be a war zone. Odds are this is where you'd be able to find something close to what you're looking for. 

Demand for multis is extremely high and as such I would recommend working with an investor friendly agent who is scanning the MLS and off market inventory daily if you're not already.

I own two rentals and represent landlords/MFR buyers only, in addition to my own investing activities. If you are not currently working with someone I'd be happy to discuss your goals more and start your search.

@Ethan Jackson

IF you can find a MFR, not in a war zone that will actually provide a decent enough return to make house hacking worthwhile, jump on it. That's a big IF. MFR demand is through the roof and as such prices are very high in relation to market rents.

Blue collar SFR's provide a much better return. In better areas.

I purchased my current home 2 years ago on the N/NE part of town. 78247 ZIP for $132,700. Put $9k into it and have strong comps for $186K. I plan on selling, tax-free and doing it again.

Inventory, although slightly improving the last couple of months is still near record lows, especially for multis. 

My advice to you is this: 

If you can find one, find a value add multi-family. Do a slow rehab so you learn what needs to be done, how it's done and how much it will cost. Refinance out after a year, leaving 20%-25% equity into the property and do it again. OR do the same with an SFR. The key here is value-add, meaning at least a light rehab to force value. Without it, odds are you will leave too much money tied up for too long and you will stunt growth. DO NOT try to justify a multi if the numbers aren't there.

Good luck, and if you need any assistance don't hesitate to reach out.

@Alex Kamunyo

Do you plan on investing IN San Antonio, or AROUND San Antonio? Do you have a farm area or know what types of projects you want to take on? 

San Antonio of course is a huge, and diverse market, with different neighborhoods being better for different strategies than others. 

I ended up getting my license to facilitate my investing because I was struggling finding any investor friendly agents or wholesalers that had accurate rehab budgets or ARVs. I found many others had the same issues, so in addition to rentals, wholesaling and rehabbing I represent serious buyers looking for smart acquisitions.

Let me know what your strategy is and I'd be happy to help!

You could get a hurricane insurance policy, however depending on the class of house/area and if the area is designated as a "high" or "low" risk zone it could be reasonable, or extremely costly.

My advice would be to at least start and scale in one of the cities and get a feel for it. After you get the process down successfully start looking all over.

If you're interested in San Antonio I'd be more than happy to discuss your goals/criteria and work with you. I know this market very well. I can't speak to Austin or Dallas however, I just know that properties there are more expensive.

@Bryan Tasumi

As long as the deals are lucrative enough, anything is possible, although yes, it would be wise to use property managers being so far away from your properties.  

Why do you want to spread yourself out so much? Why not scale in one of the cities to increase your ROI?

@Anthony Finger  Welcome to the community, and real estate!

Some questions:

How are you locating deals? Where are your search areas? 

In this scenario what are you paying in taxes, HOA fees, insurance, closing/holding costs, what are the market rents for the size and condition of the house you purchased? If you are trying to recoup all of your cash out of pocket within 12-18 months, a deal such as this makes that iffy. These are tight numbers.

I'm assuming numbers for a 100k house of $1,000 Rent, $2500 annual taxes, $1000 insurance, no HOAs, and a 75% LTV refinance (It is possible for 80% as well), initial closing costs of $1200 and refi closing costs of $1200 you're looking at a pretty tight deal regardless. From initial loan to refi, including rehab costs you will be out of pocket about $31k. Cash on cash return of 11.9% with only about 10k in equity/capital gain. So basically, you probably won't get to pull that money out within that time frame allotted. These are of course estimates, but this is what I see.

Also, using a conventional loan will make it more difficult for you to find a discounted property as they take much longer to close than cash and hard money. If done right, the discounts will more than offset the costs of the hard money.

I am a licensed investor. I look to buy properties for myself, wholesale, and perform agent activities for other investors like yourself. If you'd like to connect, just let me know. I look forward to the opportunity.  

@Account Closed  How's it going these past 3 months?   I am currently planning this out myself. Has it been worth your time and $97 a month?

Know your investment. Know your market. Be conservative. 

Hello, 

I have several friends in my network that are interested in investing in a flip with me.  None of them have enough available funds to cover acquisition and repairs by themselves, but by utilizing all 3's resources we could. How would you recommend structuring a partnership where they lend the money, and I handle the acquisition, rehab and sale? (I'm licensed)

On the other hand, how would you structure a deal where I partner with one or two, use my money for the repairs in addition to my sweat equity?  

Would you just pay them all a % on top of their respective money? What would you back each's loan with? Can you split a 1st lien 3 ways?

Thanks.