All Forum Posts by: Nicholas L.

@Scott Costello

stay local.  immediately local if possible, within 1-2 hours if not.  no reason to go further away than that - just makes it harder to get started and makes you more reliant on your team, which is harder when you're starting out.

@Peter Vercellin

i would not start with a 'private' lender - not fair to them or to you.

@Rafael Ro

if you are getting numbers from a turnkey provider, they are likely going to be best case scenarios.  and to be clear, that doesn't make them "wrong," or provided in bad faith, it just means - best case. like, no dishwashers breaking over and over for no reason (ask me how i know about that.)

 if you look through the forums, you'll see posts from other folks who bought turnkey properties, and then got crushed by a long vacancy period or a rough turnover...

not trying to be discouraging, just realistic.

@Christian Artuso

you didn't ask but - i would also definitely not start with something where you'd be "one of a few investors."  just no reason to start with something like that - more players = higher risk.

@Christian Artuso

yes - short answer: don't start with a long distance BRRRR.

the more hands-on you can be, the more likely your BRRRR is to be successful. no one is going to QB or PM it like you will - there is no such position as "BRRRR manager." folks have tried to cobble this together among agent, property manager and contractor, and it's always frustrating and higher risk. just to repeat myself: the buck stops with you, not with anyone else.

and, if you don't have enough capital for a BRRRR close by... you're going to have to save up more. no one wants to hear that but it's true.

i have done a few, i did one an hour away and even that was painful.

happy to answer any questions you have

not trying to be discouraging, just realistic

@Brad Tull

understood, but just to help you think through it, it's not about whether you can support the payment or not, it's about whether the investment makes sense.  

i'm just making numbers up, but if your rent on a property is $1000 and your all-in cost is $1500, and you're negative $500 a month forever, that doesn't make sense, even if you can afford to cover the $500 with cash from another income source.

i also agree with not using up all your cash, but that just means you might need to wait and save up more cash.  i know that's not what anyone wants to hear right now, but the huge rise in home equity over the last 5 years has made equity seem like it's free money and it's absolutely not, in fact it's extremely expensive.  

i have a HELOC myself, but if i use it it's for something short term and then paid back quickly. if you can't do that, you're just paying interest and the bank is getting rich, not you.

@Apostoli S Hillas

start with a house hack

@Paul Baldwin

makes zero sense to me - why would anyone put down that much cash just to have the higher risk of sub to?

and how would you wholesale an on market deal?  are the seller and agent even interested in that?

@Nithin Thampi

just post the numbers here and you'll get lots of feedback... no need to pay anyone

@Marcus Auerbach

i peruse condo listings in FL periodically and what i see more and more is a lot of 'low' prices with sky high monthly HOA fees. i really don't know how that plays out. @Jay Hinrichs what do you think - will those old buildings be able to recover with new owners that can better afford the HOA fees?