All Forum Posts by: Mike Ipsen

I'm Gavin, and I live in Kyushu (Japan). I teach English in a high school, and I'm loving life right now. I've been really good about improving my Japanese, staying fit and healthy, doing cool / fun / interesting stuff, etc. That being said, I've never really cared about my finances until recently when I started learning about real estate. I've been reading a ton of articles, listening to podcasts and interviews, and I ordered some books on Amazon to read as well.

Here's the thing: I will probably be living here for another 2 years or so before moving back home (Seattle area). My future real estate goals are to A) eventually make enough cash flow to not *need* to work more than a part time job, and B) to eventually own a place here in Japan (probably very small / cheap and in a rural area--could be a house or a condo) that I can live in whenever I come back to Japan.

I feel like my options are a bit limited as to what I can do "right now" other than read books and learn a lot, but I would be interested to hear if anyone has any information on any of the following:

Investing in the Seattle (or Washington) area
Investing somewhere far away from where you live
Buying property in a foreign country
Things I can start doing now from Japan

Thanks in advance! I'm excited to start this journey and hopefully meet some cool people here.

I agree your option for investing back "home" are limited. I would work on your education and also work on getting your own financial health in line. You could also look for someone back here to partner with. Once you have something to bring to the table, most likely financial when not local, people will be ready to work with you. Jumping in with no available capital is nearly impossible, especially when you are not local to the area you want to invest in.

So pay off debts, build credit, and study everything you can get your hands on.

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Originally posted by @Mirasol Aninon:

Stay away from the high turnover, many maintenance calls, late rents and other troubles of investing in bad neighborhoods! Enjoy the financial benefits of real estate investing without the headaches of landlording! Achieve your goals of early retirement! Contact for more info.

I find it odd that you put in the numbers that operating expenses will remain static over a 30 year period. This is not a horrible deal, but the numbers do not reflect reality either.

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Originally posted by @Michael Swan:

Hi @Mike Ipsen,

We delayed quite a while and then did the entire roof the next summer and then we ended up selling that single family anyway. The point is you never know when Murphy will raise its ugly head. It is not if, it is when. Right?

Swanny

Yep, it is always when. Learned that the hard way with my first duplex. Each unit supposedly had their own drain field for the septic. Each failed, and one while I was trying to sell it. Turns out there was no drain field on either side, the septic just dumped into a pit of rock. So I ended up putting one in on each side. Of course they failed in the Winter each time so I was out there in the rain/snow with a track hoe trenching the yard to lay pipe. Thankfully the money pit sold 20 years ago, but it sure taught me a lot.

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Originally posted by @Michael Swan:

"the city coming by and citing for shingles on roof starting to look weathered, but no leaks and required to replace entire roof"

Oh man this would have pissed me off. Did you try to fight it at all? What code did they give you that forced replacement? What city was this in?

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Curious about this as well.

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That 12k would be much better spent investing in a property. You can find mentors for free if you network with local investors. I just found one this weekend and she actually came to me through a mutual contact. When considering a mentor ask yourself what you can do to be of value to that mentor. People will find you if you can bring them value.

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Originally posted by @Ben Leybovich:

You will loose money. And that's the easy outcome. You could also loose your sanity...lol

Study, my friend. Just cause it's cheap don't make it good :)

Sanity was gone after having kids. :-) I refuse to lose money though. So yes, I study the areas in question and get input from people in the area. Ironically it turns out there was a large sinkhole near this area in 2015. talk about your major red flags - lol

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Originally posted by @John R.:

Originally posted by @Mike Ipsen:

Originally posted by @Nick Sheveland:

Just the bathroom situation alone has me as a no on that one from the get go. 5 bedroom 1.5 bath. That's a lot of people waiting to take a shower.

Yeah I thought that too when I first looked at it. Considered it may need to become a 4bd with 2.5 bath. Going down from 5 to 4 bedrooms will not likely impact the rent.

The 5/1.5 is not uncommon at all for inner city Harrisburg. Most don’t even have the 1/2 bath. My opinion is that you’d be flushing your money down your shiny new bathroom’s toilet to add that 2nd full bath. You wouldn’t command much more rent by adding it either. Plus it would explode your budget on an already tight deal to do the work. This really is a different market than what you’re probably accustomed to.

After more local research I am not going for this one. It was certainly a good drill for when I do find one to pull the trigger on. I appreciate everyone's feedback on this deal.

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Originally posted by @Nick Sheveland:

Just the bathroom situation alone has me as a no on that one from the get go. 5 bedroom 1.5 bath. That's a lot of people waiting to take a shower.

Yeah I thought that too when I first looked at it. Considered it may need to become a 4bd with 2.5 bath. Going down from 5 to 4 bedrooms will not likely impact the rent.

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Originally posted by @Brent Coombs:

Originally posted by @Mike Ipsen:

Originally posted by @Brent Coombs:

Originally posted by @Mike Ipsen:

Originally posted by @Brent Coombs:

@Mike Ipsen, I would hope that your wholesaler would be finding deals that, even with their take, would be able to be bought by you for significant discounts off sold comparable prices (as opposed to a mere $4k you mentioned on this one). Otherwise, what use are wholesalers?

But yes, sound out any prospective PMs regarding the various street-by-street major differences in values / realistic tenant pool / rents! Take notes, and compare their verdicts against other research you're also doing independently (here on BP for example). All the best...

This particular one was not brought to me by the wholesaler. I have not made any offer on this place yet, so I can change anything I desire. Such as a much lower offer price. After doing some more research last night it looks like this place should fall more in the 40-50k range. Based on comp sales in the area.

So, you'd be paying with all your own cash, right? Or, is your Lender that good to you, that as well as giving you owner-occupier terms for an investment property, they'd also let you have such a microscopic sub-$50k mortgage? Good luck with that...

Not sure what bank has done you wrong, but yes. It is a credit union and yes they agree to such terms and size of loan.

Not me, but plenty of posters here on BP have had those very issues, sometimes at the 11th hour!

Well I guess we will see, but so far there has not been an issue. Maybe I just got lucky.

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All Forum Posts by: Mike Ipsen

Mike Ipsen has started 1 posts and replied 31 times.

Post: I live in Japan! Help!

Post: 12% ROI Turnkey, $25K down, $285m Cash Flow! Great Area!

Post: BRRR | How much reserves you need?

Post: BRRR | How much reserves you need?

Post: Just Need Confirmation: Transferring Rental Property to LLC

Post: Should I pay for a one-on-one mentor?

Post: [Calc Review] Help me analyze this deal

Post: [Calc Review] Help me analyze this deal

Post: [Calc Review] Help me analyze this deal

Post: [Calc Review] Help me analyze this deal