All Forum Posts by: Mitch Larrivee

Everyone in here is dropping great advice. I agree that it depends on your situation. If it were me, I'd be thinking about using that $ to buy 2 or 3 condos and replicate the existing cash flow you have. You'll never regret having equity in the long term.

 I'm not seeing more on the market in the Orlando area, but this sure smells like opportunity. 

 Value add is always the way to go! Great comment. 

 Best answer on getting started. Go find the deals and work with partners. The second paragraph is a high-level roadmap to becoming a fulltime commercial investor. Kudos to Corby. 

Talking to lenders is probably the quickest/cheapest/most reliable way to educate yourself. Most of them are happy to talk. 

For formal education CCIM is probably the way to go, but I've heard it's not all that valuable. I'd be more likely to just review commercial financing videos on youtube or get a book on it.

You may get your answer by talking to a property manager, they're much more accessible than an attorney. I'd recommend explaining what you're doing and offer to bring them a coffee or something. 

One thing I will say is if you want to kick them out and get someone new in, then that's fine. But if you want to keep them around (I would personally do that with a long term tenant) you should do a tiered increase so the tenant has time to prepare. If the rent jumps too much they won't be able to pay. They're likely paycheck to paycheck as it is.

The seller pays commission. If it's listed by a realtor you might as well get a buyer's agent. The commission is already in place (list agent pays the buyer agent) so you should get someone who is going to have your back. It doesn't cost you. 

If it's a FSBO you still might as well at least try to have a buyer's agent. FSBOs don't discount their price bc they're not paying commission. They are just expecting to make more money. 9x out of 10 a FSBO will give a buyer's agent 3% and they still save the other 3% so they're happy.

All in all. Yes, get yourself an agent.

You need income to prove you can pay the loan. Even if you had cash on hand to pay the entire loan you still need income (according to my mortgage broker anyway). 

You can try for other methods.. try making offers asking for seller financing. You'll be making a lot of offers but this is probably your best bet. There's also hard money but that's usually short term more designed for rehab projects. 

I'm following this thread in case a different creative financing method pops up. Thanks for asking and best of luck!

Thanks for sharing! Seems like pretty similar activity here in Orlando.

From what I've seen, if you want to buy and keep it as-is and still cashflow you are going to be looking in cheaper areas and less-maintained properties. If you really want newer properties and nicer areas, I am a firm believer in buying something in a great area that needs work. The discount you earn by fixing it up will give you great cashflow. Some people build new too. I haven't done that yet, but I'm not opposed to it.