All Forum Posts by: Nelisa Lee

Everyone has already given tons of great advice! I'm not sure if you get nervous before tests, but I find it helpful to do things to calm myself. Personally, I would create a routine around the test taking experience. So, whatever it is... eat the same meal, listen to the same song, wear the same color, etc. It sounds crazy but I did this for every exam including practice exams I've had to take for both the CPA & realtor licenses and it made a big difference for me.

Agree with @Sarah Bratcher on this one! The single entry system is why I didn't use Stessa for accounting purposes. I still use Stessa for administrative reasons to store documents and it can easily run a Statement of Real Estate Owned and other useful reports. But for accounting, I use Quickbooks.

Quote from @Dylan Ritch:

Hello, I am 23 and have a job with a real estate company. It is a small team and I have been here for about 8 months now. All my coworkers are much older and very wealthy through real estate, all different ways. Flipping, commercial, turnkey, multifamily, etc. I inherited a house last year with no mortgage on it and I really want to get into real estate investing, when I talk to them about it, they always say figure out which kind I want to get into first and then they'll offer me all the advice and help they can. I am just not sure what I want. I want cash flow, low to no long term maintanence (set it and forget it type), and the less risk the better. I feel like renting out multifamily is what I may be looking for with this, if done right can give me cash flow, I can hire a property manager at some point and I am friends with a lot of home improvement companies, and I could either use some money I have saved up to put a down payment or home equity loan for some % I am comfortable with and pay both off as fast as I can and repeat. Although, I don't know a lot on the other options and I may enjoy another one more or be a better option for me. How can I learn more about which option I should get into?

You've already received tons of great advice in this thread. But, just wanted to chime in. First off, the fact that you're already in online threads seeking education and advice at the age of 23 is amazing! I would say that the best way to figure out what option to get into is to just start with one. Don't think you need to pick the perfect path now. Many investors journeys are never a straight line and where you start and where you end up might be totally different and that's ok! One of my first investments was a 40-unit apartment complex and I quickly realized that I preferred single-family homes. I sold that complex and now only invest in single-family homes. Your experiences over time will mold the type of investor you become.

I would warn that the idea of a "set it and forget it" with most real estate investments is not reality even with great management in place. My advice would be to find what fits your interests and to talk to as many other investors as you can. Learn from their experiences and why they chose certain paths. You might find one of their stories resonates and gives you something to start to work towards. 

Quote from @Daniel Dahan:

Hi Nelisa! I have heard good things, how do you like it so far worth it ? Are you able to consistently sell deals through it ? Let me know your thoughts!

We've found that some of the properties in rural areas are more challenging to find buyers through the system. But, otherwise it's great! The functionality in it is pretty robust. I'd say it's worth it if you have enough deals to justify the price.

Quote from @Daniel Dahan:

Hi Jonathan, thanks for the tips and info! Do have currently some buyers, and some properties under contract. Is there a website or platform you have used before that you recommend ?

 We've used Investorlift to help find buyers.

Quote from @Steven Garza:

Quote from @Nelisa Lee:

Quote from @Steven Garza:

Hello BP community,

I am currently about half way through my 1st Flip or what I thought i was going to flip. How can I determine lets say if i wanted to rent out this property using the BRRRR method rather than just flipping it? Its a condo in Scottsdale AZ. Any and all help is appreciated.

Thank you.

First off, congrats on making it half way through your first flip!

Agree with all the points Ty has already made above as well. I would also say it depends on your goals and what your business currently needs. Do you need more quick capital? Can you afford to hold onto the property even if it sits vacant? Even if you BRRRR it, you might not get as much out of it as you could flipping it. I'm not familiar with the Scottsdale rental or retail market so that might also impact your decision. There's no right or wrong answer here and will highly depend on your current situation. There are properties I wished I kept but needed to sell at the time, (especially in the beginning of my investing career) and vice versa. If it was my first, I personally would flip it. Focus on building up more capital before holding onto rentals even if you BRRRR them out but every investor is different!

 Nelisa,

Thank you so much for the response, I can see why flipping it for the first one to build capitol makes sense. maybe the first few so that when I do decide to have a rental and if it does sit vacant i have funds available for the holding time. My goal is to get out of my 9-5 which is maybe why I'm wanting to start cash flowing asap lol. again thanks so much for the insight.

Absolutely - best of luck finishing up the rehab! Let us know what you end up doing with the property. 

Quote from @Austin Kaercher:

Hello all, I am 29 years old and I am an owner/operator of my hvac company in Florida. After 13 years being in this trade I am burnt out and ready for a change. We have about 80k in equity in our home. My wife and I are very confident in the work/knowledge needed for flipping our first home and we have lots of connections in the construction industry for the things we are not sure about. What do you all think the best avenue for securing our first flip property is? Hard money lender, Heloc, 203k? We would like to keep our home now and use it as our first rental property, but we are unsure if we should just liquidate it and take the proceeds. Any advice/help is appreciated! 

Hey Austin, what about the HVAC company is burning you out? I only ask because I've seen many investors also get burnt out, switch careers and even liquidate their entire portfolios because of it. While it can be very lucrative, it comes with its own set of unique challenges. 

For your first flip, I would recommend a hard money loan. It helps to have another set of eyes on evaluating the deal since most of the lenders I've worked with won't lend on the project (because they want to protect their own investment) if they don't think it'll be a good deal for the buyer.  

I would try to leverage as much as you can so that if things go wrong, all of your own money isn't stuck in the project until it sells. It will cost more to hold onto doing it that way (so make sure it's a good deal and provides room for error).  I know some investors who don't like any debt on their properties at all. Ultimately, this will come down to your own risk tolerance.

Quote from @Francis Figueroa:

Hello all,

I have a few questions about wholesaling in general & the process itself. 

1. First, does wholesaling or searching for deals (in whatever way) make sense as a means of finding property to invest in? Or is this inefficient considering it takes so many calls/flyers etc. just to get one deal?

2. In which ways can someone new to RE discover how to estimate ARV. Estimating repairs, comps and everything else that creates an ARV seems to be the toughest part of the process. Should you know how to do this first, then look to find places or jump head first?

3. What laws/regulations should new investors generally be aware of? I know this is jx specific, but what are general concepts that are the crux of legal disputes? How do wholesalers protect the seller, themselves and the deal from being lost/taken by someone else? 

4. What is the wholesale contract look like? The one between the seller & wholesaler, including the EMD.

Wholesaling takes a lot of effort and time but I've seen wholesalers get rewarded for that effort by taking action. Here are my thoughts to some of the questions you had. Keep in mind that I primarily flip and hold rentals. However, we do a lot of direct to seller marketing similar to wholesalers to source our own deals. We also purchase a good bit from wholesalers.

 1. Do you have more time or more money? I would say if you have more time, then searching for your own deals might be worth it. But, if you have more money then I would try connecting with established wholesalers or realtors in your market who could bring you deals. Some wholesalers may work with sellers for months or even years before a contract is ever signed.
2. I believe that partnering with more experienced investors or finding an agent that works with investors to help dial in your numbers would be a great way to learn to do this. There are a lot of them willing to help newer wholesalers/investors if you bring them a deal. You'll be able to see how they evaluate it. I would also recommend driving the areas you want to invest in. We learned from driving through them that it was pretty obvious that neighborhoods in my market change on a street by street basis which can make running comps tough.  
3. I know a lot of wholesalers will record of a memorandum of agreement when they have a property under contract to protect themselves. This might be a better question for an attorney. 
4. From my understanding, a wholesale contract usually includes that the contract is "assignable" to another party. 

Hope this helps!

Quote from @Lindsay Tucker:

I do my own book-keeping, although I honestly hate that part! It's just another thing to store in my brain and remember to do. I've used Quickbooks and it was just OK. Are there any other investor-friendly applications out there that are better than quickbooks? 

I've used Quickbooks since the beginning. I've done some trials of other softwares like Stessa, RESimpli and Rent Manager but came back to Quickbooks each time. It's truly an accounting software whereas it seems a lot of the other available softwares out there aren't designed that way.

Quote from @Bonnie Low:

Hi, Nelisa. I have a small portfolio of LTRs, MTRs and one STR. Until about a year ago we were using a bookkeeper to manage our books in quickbooks. It was just too cumbersome for us to do ourselves. I had wanted to find something simpler for a long time. I also needed to set up some bank accounts for our LLCs so in the process of doing that I ran across Baselane, which is a banking and bookkeeping platform. I had looked at some others but I ended up going with Baselane because it gave me the combination of banking, bookkeeping and tenant management I was looking for. I'm very happy for it and (bonus!) I was able to let our bookkeeper go, saving over $500/mo in the process!

Glad you were able to find a solution that worked for you and to save a lot of money in the process! Quickbooks can be cumbersome to figure out so I get that. I've never heard of Baselane but it seems like it's geared more towards rental property owners. Do you also flip properties?