All Forum Posts by: Ben M.

Welcome to Bigger Pockets Cory. Where do you live? If Chicago as ur profile states, u might wanna start out there first. Long distance isn't easy to manage and amplifies the risks. What the main segment ur looking to start with? Commercial or residential...also needed is the price range...

Best of luck.

@Derrick Holmes, first off, welcome to BP the bestest of all REI sites...I would commence by warning you off of land, as an investor that bought, sold, rehabbed, subdivided and rezoned land both raw and improved, it's by far the trickiest of all real estate endeavors; HENCE more rewarding. The issue with land in general is its stark trickiness, there's no way to set a general rule of thumb as to what prices ought to be offered or what an approximate value would be, the reason? Fluctuation, zoning, REzoning, demand, topographical data, etc...

To give you simple examples as to how big of a spread between one deed transfer and the next; I have seen land that was bought for 1.25M only to be resold for 80K, a multiparcel that previous owner bought for 500K resold for 5K, etc...

Bottom line, in REI land is by far the most rewarding yet the most devastating of investments; and, since you're new to real estate, I think it's best to read about it and do extensive research first and foremost. Also, there are no reliable comps you can count on simply because of the huge disparity between one transfer and the next along with scarcity of information sharing.

A good tool that can give you an approximate value & help is the GIS system, most GIS will breakdown the land value and the improvement value. So can go into a neighborhood's GIS system and look up what the individual parcels are assessed at and omit the building (also referred to as improvements), typically the real value of nearby parcels is somewhere between 50% and 75% of what the county claims; example: if the Fredericksburg GIS system claims that a certain house's land is assessed at 50K then your investor should NOT buy it at more than 37,500 at the VERY most.

One MAJOR point to take into consideration is: an investor that you will help buying a parcel of land is an investor that will have less money to make future purchases.

Good luck, and fee free to shoot me any questions as I'm very familiar with the Fredericksburg area and won't hesitate landing a helping hand to fellow BP.

@Lauren Lusby...I was under the impression that Hard Money landers ad set interest rates across the board and that the only variables were the ARVs' % vs the actual money being borrowed. That the computed interest had to be disbursed upfront with terms not exceeding 12 months.

As of references, its very simple use coworkers before friends and leave family last.

One more advise is to check with lots and lots of Hard Money lenders before you settle for anyone, be upfront and go for the jugular, ask for their terms and their interest rate and the required/acceptable ARV%.

Really wishing best of luck bc real estate is awesome and BP makes it easy for us to connect and share ideas.

btw, what city/state ru planning on investing in?

Geoff Bishop Richmond is an awesome market where you can thrive and realize all your dreams; YET, you need to be very careful bc it's full of sharks. So don't rush into anything, take your time and do your homework and profits will follow. I work the Richmond market too and loving it.

Julie Marquez it's the equity that was built in the house that would reflect your actual profit, obviously the increase of value of the house will be the value to which your equity ought to be indexed to not the original price.

Hello Quintessa & welcome to BP; was wondering if u checked with the assessor's office, typically that's public information that has to be always shared. If they don't have a comprehensive list, they should direct u to one of their online portals where the info is made available. You might have to do some work in order to get the actual low-end Warzone buyers; it should easy, just tedious work to sift through the names and prices to pick-out the ones that fit within ur segment market. If at all, all fails and no one wants to assist u, u can still hit GIS mapping system and look for the right parcel mapper and pick-out the buyer's names and their addresses then either send them a letter or give them a call. One more good tool is to post a free ad on Craigslist. Good luck with all the great work ur doing ma friend and feel free to shoot me a question if u needed anything.

Barry; ur in MS and that's one state where REI is easier than easy. Ur a construction worker so ur in a better spot to know approximate values of possible repairs; if at all u wanted to do that; start looking at cheaper housing units that can be bought cheaply, have some fun repairing and painting then turn around and flip them to investors (for a quick turn around). Repeat the same process until u save up a good chunk of change; THEN, buy a piece of land in a nice area and BUILD a property on it...what ever u invested thus far will be doubled AT THE VERY LEAST depending on how fast ur looking to collect.

Soooo; YES, u can NOT ONLY make it; BUT, bc ur a construction worker ur poised to do MUCH better than the rest of us...

Good luck + feel free to in-box me for assistance, I might NOT reply right away but I WILL reply.

Welcome to BP Mrs & Mr Morrison, best of luck is the first and for most of what I wish u guys. Secondly, I personally advise AGAINST getting investors involved; and the reason? Out of three investors that replied to ur post only one gave u good genuine advise the other two asked ab ur collaterals and ur deals (which I'd never disclose my deals to an investor no matter how desperate I am for funding). So what's the best avenue? Creative financing, just look it up on google and learn how to structure deals in order to buy properties for as little as zero down, I can most def assist u guys in ur quest of getting properties at great prices although I am sure u won't need anyone's help (just feel free to in-box me any questions and I'll gladly assist within reason).

First and for most, wishing u best of luck as this is one major endeavor. 1- U asked ab what house hacking was; well, that's when u make more use out of a house than just a roof over ur head. Some ppl will do something as simple as renting rooms so the house pays for itself; other ppl, would invest more time, patient and money and turn a SFR (Single Family Residence) into a duplex, triplex or more. 2- Management companies are good when u got have their fees built into ur CapEx (Capital Expenditure); so make sure u got all ur ducks in line before u get tied into contractual agreement. 3- If ur looking to get a loan; regardless of the APR; MAKE SURE u take into consideration every possible possibility. The reason this is very important is that taking out a big loan on an investment property is not recommended bc u might get stuck having to pay the mortgage and if the mortgage is too high u might default and thus result in a foreclosure and ruining ur credit. Most ppl I personally knew, they started very small and built their empire one stone at a time. Before anything at all, I recommend u to lookup ur local REIA (just google it in ur town), go to some meetings and talk to some locals and THEN put in a detailed action plan. BP is an awesome resource, checkout the rental forums, house hacking, etc...and keep in mind that no matter how much u learn, it still not enough to shield u from unexpected twists and turns of events. Why I recommend BP is bc BP is free and will allow u to network with other like-minded ppl. If u got questions or need any more assistance feel free to in-box me bud...

There's nothing better than "proactiveness" when it comes down to Real Estate; we all agree that prevention is much better than cure aka "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". So catching issues before they arise &/or worsen is the best approach. That said, you need to weigh-in facts that only you know; such as, will you be able to amortize the CapEx with no major hardships? will insurance be covering any of it? Will you be able to file the entire dollar amount comes tax season? Do you got capital to spare for the enterprise? See, you don't wanna spend your last penny might an urgency arise... I personally am both, proactive at times and reactive at other times all depending on the situational circumstances and the data I'm working with. Good luck, and know that you're the only person that knows what to do and when to do it; choose carefully and only after you weigh in everything.