All Forum Posts by: Maarten Stevens

Yes great episode. Two things remain unclear to me / I struggle with...

1. In RE, we are often negotiating with agents representing a buyer/seller. This makes it difficult to truly understand the other side, and to create rapport. How do you deal with this?

2. The Ackerman method of offering 65% of what you want to pay will get you laughed it in most (hot) RE markets...

So I just bought a multiplex property and currently arranging financing. I'm in the lucky position that I can raise the cash to buy the property using my own money, if I sell most of my stock portfolio. I just don't know whether to leverage the current property now, or to buy the property outright. This leaves me with 2 options, not sure what you guys would recommend: 1. Buy the place outright using cash (sell stocks). For any next purchase I would then go back to the bank to raise a loan on the current property to get the liquidity to fund part of the next property. 2. Leverage 30% of the current property (don't sell stocks), and use the stock portfolio whenever I'm able to find a next property together with increasing the loan on the current property. You must realize it has been difficult for me to find places, and I'm not sure how long it will take to find my next purchase (a year, longer?)

Grateful if I could be added to the discussion...

Folks, curious if this meeting took place. 

I am Dutch but temporarily living abroad so unfortunately could not join.

Interested in hearing how it was and to connect virtually.

Regards

Hi, i have found this new forum catering for investors in The Netherlands (Holland). They are just starting out, but already some posts there about Amsterdam and The Hague (where I am active). www.vastgoedbeleggersforum.nl (realestateinvestorsforum)

@Tim Uittenbroek

I'm from Netherlands as well, currently living in Brunei. At the moment about to invest in my first rental property in The Hague.

I realize that US is arguably the best market for investing in rental property, however, how would you do so not being present locally? Living in SE Asia and investing in The Netherlands is daunting enough, even if it is my native country.

Nobody?

Hi Everybody,

I am currently working on pre-arranging financing for my first deals. As I am currently not living in the countries where I want to execute these deals (Eurozone and Turkey) , I am limited in conventional mortgage possibilities. I do have some cash (say, 500kEUR) to put into the deal.

I had a discussion yesterday with a financial advisor, who floated the following possibility:

- Use 500k cash to buy bonds, which render a ROI of 3-4%.
- Banks would be willing to provide a loan with the bonds as a collateral, up to ~70% of the value of this collateral.
- The interest on the loan could be as low as 1-1.5% currently (= Euribor + 1%).

Now, sounds interesting, but I am unfamiliar with this type of structure. My questions:

1. Is this something heard of in the industry?
2. What are the risks? I see that the value of the collateral (=bonds) could go down and then the bank will probably ask me to top up the collateral.
3. I don't fully understand how the received interest on the bonds could be higher than the paid interest on the loan. Even if there is currently a spread between the 3-month Euribor and Bonds, is this sustainable?
4. Would a deal like this be better than just putting up the cash directly for the property?
5. Any further matters to be aware of? and where can I find more info?

Thanks a lot!

Hi folks,

I am developing my universal model in excel for quickly analyzing deals. One question I have is how to incorporate depreciation of fixtures (kitchen, bath, floor) and furniture (including curtains, etc). I am not active in the US, so not really asking for the tax implications, but I have not seen this in models around nor in reference books.

Fixtures and furniture loses value, and need to be replaced at certain intervals. How do you guys include this in your models? (depreciation period, or replacement of the kitchen every 15 years, or not at all)?

thanks!

or at least.... That's my current thinking... Tomorrow I may look at it differently again, so any insight from more experienced people very much welcome....

:)