All Forum Posts by: Nathan Fernandez

Thanks Mike! Appreciate the connection. Looking forward to connecting!

Hi @Nathaniel Green, that'd be great. I'll send you a PM to discuss. Thanks!

Great! Thanks Odie! I will be reaching out to get more insight once we get to that point!

Thank you both for your responses!

Alora - Appreciate your response regarding utilizing Social Media more. As well as getting in touch with Realtors who can provide access to MLS.

Odie - Yes, I am planning on paying for the rehab with my cash. I am worried about the extended holding costs if I were to use hard money lender. Once I network, I might find that it is not as big of a deal as I thought! Thanks for the insights!

Hi RJ,

Thanks for the quick response and information about the meetups! I will definitely be attending as many as possible in February and going forward.

To answer your questions:

1. 1. What does rehab mean to you? How much are you willing to spend and how much construction knowledge do you have?
   1. For my first rehab, I'd like it to be a lighter rehab (flooring, paint, kitchen and bathroom). The amount I am willing to spend really depends on the return I will receive.
   2. I do not have really any construction experience. However, for my main job I run RFP's and negotiate contracts all day, so I feel I can source a solid contractor through running competitive bids and creating performance standards.
2. 2. Do you have a contractor/team/infrastructure set up to help you achieve those goals?
3. a. No, I do not have a team yet. I was hoping to determine the general area of investment prior to building out my team.
4. 3. Have you had experienced investors look at how you are underwriting deals?
5. a. Not yet, I have been running my numbers pretty conservatively so far and have not had any deals that look like they would cash flow. I think tonight I'll run a deal and post on BP using the calculator.
6. 4. Are you using hard money for your first? it wasn't clear (or maybe I missed it)
7. a. For my first property, I would prefer to go with a 20% down conventional loan.

Thanks again for all the tips! I think my next most effective step is to get out and network and attempt to find a property near me in the Chicago area opposed to looking out of state.  Through networking I can gain a lot more information about the local market. Once I determine exactly what I am looking for I can be more intentional and build my team. Looking forward to meeting you at the next meetup on 2/17/2020! 

My name is Nathan Fernandez and I am looking to generate passive income and grow my net worth using real estate. My wife and I live in the west suburbs (Westchester) and I currently work in downtown Chicago in the sourcing / contract negotiations / operations function. I've new to real estate in general, but have been reading the BiggerPockets books and listening to the podcasts for about a year.

My wife and I are both ready to jump into real estate and we have been saving aggressively for a down payment. We are looking to invest out of state due to the high cost of real estate in our area. I have been looking for deals that cash flow, and have not had much luck! 

We are looking to get more involved in the local RE community and will be searching for some local meetups to network and maybe find a potential partner (if there is value for both parties). I am interested to see how/where people in my area are finding deals.

Our ideal situation would be to BRRRR using cash/hard money to purchase and refinance after we rehab and get it rented out. However, to get over the hurdle of saving enough money for the purchase and renovation we are looking to put 20% down on a SFR or duplex in an appreciating area that will cash flow ~$100-$200 a month after all expenses. This will get us started and allow us to understand real estate by doing opposed to just reading a lot of books. Once we have a solid understanding of real estate we would then want to scale into multi-family rentals.

After the first rental we will feel more comfortable looking for hard money to finance the purchases but don't want to have the interest rate and short term loan while we are learning for the first time.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to interacting with the BiggerPockets community!