All Forum Posts by: Mark-Anthony Villaflor

Happy New Year's folks. I hope all is well for those reading. I'm looking for nonconventional financing options that can do online closings. I invest in single-family homes and have had difficulty closing online and since the pandemic the US Embassy has suspended notary services. Any leads would be greatly appreciated. 

I'm over in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in an island in the Philippines and would love to refinance. However, the lenders I've spoken with don't do e-notaries which means I have to travel to the nearest embassy/consulate to get the documents signed. Anyone have leads on a lender that could do e-notaries or e-signings/online closings?

Awesome! Checking this out now. 

I've got 4 single-family homes I want to put into a property tracker to get insight on the performance, cash flow, expenses, etc. I'm not self-managing and am using this to give me a financial overview of each property and as a portfolio. What are you using? What do you like and dislike about it and what are the price options with it?

I've gotten about 7 homes in the past decade mainly in linear markets, focusing on cash flow and the 1% RV ratio. I've lived overseas for quite sometime so can't really do the BRRR strategy (or hesitate to from Asia).

The more I see the housing news I'm convinced that there's tons of people that are going to leave San Francisco, LA, New York, etc. They were there for work opportunities and the social aspects of city living (which are more limiting now). I might be missing the feel of actually living in the US so excuse my ignorace on the situation. Here in the Philippines folks are terrified of crowds and leaving their homes.

So I'm trying to move forward with continuing my investment strategy much of which I got from @Jason Hartman podcast Creating Wealth though I've listed to Bigger Pockets (love the success stories there).

Investment Strategy

Single family homes, in smaller/mid sized cities. Linear markets less affected from the economy's ups and downs (cyclical markets). These are quite boring and not in mainstream media like New York and what not.

Landlord friendly states- not wanting to have issues with renters paying or not paying and want to have the ability to get them out if possible. 

Section 8? I've got a couple of solid section 8 tenants. Will government housing expand as a result of COVID? That should help these types of investments yea?

3 or 4 bedroom homes- feeling like 4 is going to be more solid now that people need office space and "classroom" space for the kids. 

Outdoor space- gardening and fresh air from the "office"

Markets that seem great would be smaller cities in Florida, OKC, KC, Indiana, Little Rock, Memphis, etc. 

Are any of you doing more investments in these markets? More than before?

Are any of you keeping investments in LA, SF, NY? Why or why not? 

Would love to hear feedback on both sides though I know most of yall aren't big city investors... Or maybe you are haha. 

Absolutely, folks will start looking out of getting high-density urban spots into suburbs or even rural spaces. 

Work from home- need more space- Twitter, Facebook, Google employees. Zoom!

Learn from home- need more space- families with kids need space

Safety and elevators- don't want to be in that space

Mass city transit and density- don't want to be in that space

Crime- more safety outside of the city

Outdoor space for gardening-  lots of urban gardeners now almost overnight. 

Tons of reasons these are just a few. Interestingly I saw a recent post on youtube with Ryan Moran and @Jason Hartman about The Migration into Suburban Living. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwBNhEgYH0I

Ryan mentioned it was cheaper to own a 25 acre ranch not to far from downtown and it would still be cheaper than a small apartment in downtown.

Tons of other articles have been popping up even before Redin. Do a quick Google search (in the news section) "migration to suburbs" tons of stuff comes up. 

Congrats on making the jump into real estate investing! I purchased a couple of new construction properties last year in Baton Rouge, section 8 solid on rents given the COVID scare. I also have a SFR in Conroe that I purchased in 2013. So far so good. There's tons of resources online and in podcast form. I use the Property Evaluator App to run numbers. RV ratio is pretty important to me and a good start.

 Thanks for the knowledge. Googled Stepped up basis in case others are interested...

When an asset is passed on to a beneficiary, its value is typically more than what it was when the original owner acquired it. The asset receives a step-up in basis so that the beneficiary's capital gains tax is minimized. A step-up in basis is applied to the cost basis of property transferred at death. - Investopedia. 

I'll hope to have enough cash to cover that for the kids ;) 

Been chatting with my CPA to be sure about the taxes but this thread helps out a lot. Thanks for your input. 🙌🏼🙌🏼

I don't know about a zillion but people borrowing to buy houses they can't afford certainly caused a housing crash 12 years ago. And how many people with no mortgage do you see losing their house? I really think its an irresponsible message that is very prevalent on BP that leverage is the be all end all of everything and you have stretch yourself paper thin to build an empire. This strategy is highly risky and and unstable and depends on everything going well all the time. Sure you can use debt wisely in the early stages of building wealth. Its almost impossible to start out as a cash investor. But to retire with a highly leveraged portfolio scraping $100 per door while holding millions in debt is not a wise plan and can leave you destroyed at a time you cannot rebuild again. 

 Not sure about all this. But I imagine if the governments keep printing money and devaluing the currency you'd be on the winning side, aligned with the rule makers. I'm trying to sort out the long-term plan. But I also imagine that my rents will go up to cover a lot of the costs and move me further up than a Benji a door. Of course, I'm not wanting to have this destroyed and rebuild. But I also don't want my assets to be destroyed in value because of inflation. Trying to figure out how to use debt wisely for sure. 20% as you mentioned seems reasonable enough. No bailouts for those that keep a high amount of equity right?

Seems like social media searches should be standard practice for screening. They're easy and take no time to do. Though remember to match the names with the right profiles. Lots of people with the same name.