All Forum Posts by: Neal Collins

I've got friends that moved down from Alaska to Vancouver and the guy still works on the Slope doing 2 on 2 off. I think it's been really tough on the spouse left at home in Vancouver. I'd still look to buy a multiplex and at least get your mortgage offset by another unit. You've got appreciation on the backend. Still a great way to go in my opinion.

We've been working on a deal that involves the acquisition of multiple properties that we are getting option agreements on. The seller does not want to sell any of the properties now to avoid tax damages, which is why we have gone about the option route. Does anyone have experience with longterm option windows? We won't be able to execute the option until the estate takes over, but we need to come to an agreement that reflects market changes in case that isn't for a long time. 

We have toyed with CPI but that wouldn't correct for a downward shift in the market, and are now tentatively thinking the percentage change from the local RMLS reports. It'd be great to hear from anyone that has experience in this area.

@Larry Fried How's the market down in Eugene right now? Something came across our desk through a friend that we may be interested in pursuing. Is it at all like the Portland market where things are just going a bit crazy?

Welcome Doug. I'm also in the Portland area. You're spot on with the crux of the business relying upon relationships. It's not about the products, it's about the people. The good thing is that those skills can be enhanced and it's never too late to start working on them. Check out the book "Dig Your Well Before You're Thirsty" by Harvey Mackay. It may be dated, but man is it still extremely relevant.

Best of luck on your journey!

Hi Daniel. Sounds like you've had quite the experience overseas. My wife Alissa lived in Japan and speaks of it fondly. We moved to Portland in early 2014 after living and working abroad in South Asia for several years. We are members at RareBird Investor Network as well. It's a great group and would be a good springboard to getting the connections you are looking for. Let me know when you are planning on coming back stateside and we will bring you as our guest. Safe travels.

Sorry to hear you ended up spinning your wheels. If the deal made sense why not start out your flipping career with this property? Running some quick and dirty numbers with what you provided you would have made money with a hard money lender.

REI is all too easy to count your chickens before the eggs hatch. I definitely wouldn't count it as lost profit if it was only "potential" profit. There are too many lost opportunities that we all have sunk time, money, and energy into only to have the deal fall apart in the 11th hour.

Pull comps and average the respective cap rates. It couldn't hurt asking a broker or two. I would imagine they are pretty low right now, 5-7%. That said, though, after you rehab and get the place stabilized you could get a nice appraisal in your favor to make it a nice longterm hold.

Does the lender you talked to know that you want to do new construction? Hopefully it is a scorching deal because the element of time is going to make your soft costs go through the roof if you're using hard money and you have seasoning requirements. 

Something you may want to look into is buying time to increase your financing options. Could you put a couple thousand down to extend out an option period for several months? In that scenario you could go out and find a partner or a private money, anything so that you do not to have to do it with hard money. If you could get the place free and clear then a construction loan would be a lot easier to obtain since they will have to be in first position.

You have a couple options. Here's a few that have worked well for us:

1) Make sure you have found a GREAT market segment to mail. If you're sending out 100 letters you don't want just one person calling you, you want as many as possible. Make it count and spend the time finding the kind of property owner that is your ideal Seller.

2) Make sure that you're message is different enough to differentiate yourself from all the other letters the owners' receive. Here's a tip, if everyone sends the same Yellow Letter, your message gets drowned out. Stand out. Some people have some crazy ideas that are fun to read through (someone suggested putting glitter in the envelop). The point is to find a good strategy that works and work it. You'll get enough disgruntled people calling, though, that glitter may not be your best bet.

3) Don't mail people. Use that money instead to find other means of getting a message across. Endless options with this one. 

Best of luck!