All Forum Posts by: Nazz Wang

Zillow and trulia can be usable for some neighborhoods but not all. I use craigslist a lot. That usually gets you going pretty accurately. Like the Olympics, I will ignore the highest asking prices and the lowest asking prices, and take off 100 from the average asking price as a safety buffer. Good luck.

Andy C. I like your reply. Yep get your hands dirty. I think a lot of investors know a lot also because they have seen a lot. Comes with the job. I have no experience changing my own faucet but I have seems it done 25 times at least and know when someone is not about to screw it up. Can I change one myself? Now without a great learning curve and a lot of cussing. I have seen people starting out who offered their time to seasoned flippers as errand boys for free. Great learning experience for them.

Lawrence Rutkowski Hey Lawrence, I separate my properties into two classes. Cheap ones and expensive ones. The expensive ones I hold in personal name so I have a lot more options when I want to play with financing, like refi or heloc. The cheap ones input in a LLC so I shelter my nicer properties from the cheaper ones. Not as many options for financing if something is under an LLC but it will definitely work. I also put an umbrella policy on my properties. Hope that helps.

@Jerry W. Haha thanks Jerry.

@Bill Gulley thanks for the information Albert. 10% down no PMI, that sounds tempting. I will PM you.

Hi BP family, What is everyone using for primary purchase with 1 million in loan amount? I was told I can do a Fannie product up to 800 k in loan amount for a primary duplex, and only 675k in loan for a single family. But I am taking on a partner and we need up to 1.5 million in loans for a primary residence purchase. What products are you guys using?

If the property you are buying is already rented or if you manage to get a lease signed prior to closing, 75% of rent will count towards your income. If a rental property did not show up on your schedule E for your 2012 and 2013 returns, a valid lease will get your 75% rent as income. If it does show up on those two returns, whatever income you claimed would be used as your income. Personally I have not had anyone accept rent as income without a lease.

@Diem Tran 

I think another important question would be, what is the property management company's process and criteria for screening tenants? I think you ought to worry about the front end and make sure you have quality tenants coming in. I have always advocated for cutting your losses when there is a bad tenant, but you wouldn't have to do that if you are willing to go down a bit in price or wait a couple extra weeks until a great tenant shows up. What is your strategy going to be for getting great tenants and retaining them.

@Jerry W. 

You are thinking what I am thinking! Yes California FTB taxes all LLC's and @Talha K. you have to make sure it is worth the money. If for some reason you do go down that route, I want to add that you can always put your property into a land trust with the LLC as the beneficiary, as transferring a property into a trust is the one exception for "due on sale" clause, and the LLC will take all the liability of the property. But really, the point of the LLC in my opinion is to shelter some of your assets from the others. If you don't have other big assets, what is there to shelter? And putting a property at this price range into an LLC really limits your options to refinance. What if you want to pull some equity out a couple of years down the line to buy more? If under your personal name, you have a bizillion options with great rates from Fannie and Freddie. If under a LLC, you have about two options with your local credit union at 1-2% higher interest rate. Things to consider. Best luck with the purchase. 

talk to title companies.