All Forum Posts by: Orie Brown

Hey Guys, 

Wanted to reach out and see what everybody has been doing to build business credit. I recently filed an LLC, got my win number, started a Duns and Bradstreet account and applied for a business credit card. I was curious the best way to start building strong business credit. I know it takes about 2 years before businesses are willing to lend but I'm curious what some of you have done when you started out to set yourself up for success. I know I can start applying for net 30's but I don't see how the net 30 accounts I have found are relevant to real estate brrring/flipping. Any advice or experience's are greatly appreciated. Thanks

Hey everybody, I got a job offer for a company and they are offering me 3 locations to work from. These are the 3 options: I can stay in Chicago where I am currently, I can move to Portland, Oregon or Tampa, Florida. They offered me a six figure income with great monthly bonuses. I'm trying to weigh the pros and cons of each market. I would like to hear some of your opinions as well, both Portland and Tampa are great real estate markets so it difficult to choose. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. 

Hey everybody, I had some questions in regards to purchasing wholesale deals and how much money you usually budget for closing costs as the investor purchasing the property from the wholesaler. Can someone explain the process to me? 

What is everybody paying for their insurance on their rental portfolio's? 

What type of policies are you using... Dwelling, Umbrella, etc?

Do you work with an independent brokerage agency or a captive agency?

How quick can you get an insurance binder for closing?

And finally, how often do you shop around with your agent for cheaper prices?

Hey Everybody, 

Wanted to reach out and see if anybody has ever done lending with or heard of this company. They reached out to me about financing for some of my deals. The name of the company is Standford Loan Service LLC, they are based out of Phoenix, Arizona. 

Hey Crystal, thanks for the information. The information you provided was very helpful. I am a commercial real estate broker by trade and I specialize in Single-Tenant Net-Leased properties so finding comps is relatively easy since I am on a nationwide basis I can easily narrow my search down to similar cap rates, building size, etc and they don't need to be specific to certain parameters like with residential properties. 

Hey everybody, I had some questions about trying to understand how to value a single-family home and a multi-family home using sales comps in the immediate area. I live in and plan to do my investing in the Chicagoland area which is made up of a total of 77 neighborhoods in Chicago and 11 main suburbs surrounding the immediate area. I have identified a couple of main zip codes that are great for investing but I am having trouble understanding how exactly you use comps that have sold in the nearby area within a certain time period. There are so many different types of homes (Bungalow, Graystone, Etc.), home sizes (2/3, 2/4, etc.), lot sizes, garage/no garage. When you go to evaluate a home what do you take into consideration when valuing them? Do you just use the homes in the same neighborhood or do try and use the same street? Do you take into consideration if it is on a busy street, has or doesn't have a garage/driveway, School district, proximity to stores, lot size? I'm curious how if you use those parameters or any other means to evaluate a potential property you are looking to invest in.  

I also had a question about multi-family properties. When evaluating multi-family properties do you use a cap rate or price of multi-family properties sold in similar conditions in that neighborhood? If you do use a cap rate how do you evaluate a multi-family property that is empty?  

Hey everybody, I was wondering how you valued multi-family properties on websites like the MLS when trying to compare to other properties in your area. I know you would usually base it off a cap rate but the thing a lot of the buildings I am looking at are vacant and some need a complete rehab done. How would I evaluate what a good price is to buy it at and what the ARV would be?

For example: Let's say I have located a Duplex that is currently on market for $120K. It's a 5 bedroom/2 bath. The one is 3 bed one bath and the other is 2 bed one bath. There is an opportunity to put in a second bath in the 3/1. It has a full basement and a 2 stall detached garage and separate utilities. The property needs about $40k in repairs. The multifamily is in an up and coming neighborhood in Chicago. The Median Sale price in the area is $260K for a single-family. Rental rates in the area are around $1,400 per month. It is currently vacant and partly gutted. My question is how do you value this deal? Because it is not a single-family and vacant there is no cap rate. 

I was considering two exit strategies: Rehab and turn into a rental property or buy, rehab, and sell. 

If you need any more information to make a decision let me know. 

Hey BP, has anybody ever used IFTTT to generate leads from Craigslist and Facebook market place? I am having difficulty setting up a notification for specific houses with keywords. When I tried to set one up for FB/CL it would just send me notifications for everything I was tagged in or in my area, nothing allowed me to filter out everything except houses I was looking for. Any help on this would be great. 

For those of you who are not familiar with IFTTT, it is a web-based service that allows users to create chains of conditional statements to trigger notifications to you. This is a great way to find leads on places like Craigslist so instead of having to spend so much time digging through craigslist you can got IFTTT and set up a program that will identify keywords like, "fixer", "Handman", "fixer-upper", "etc. and will send you a notification through email that a property in your area is available and matches your criteria and you can view it. Saves a lot of time if you are a busy person. 

Hey everybody, I was wondering what people's thoughts were on taking some appraisal classes to help give better insight on REI projects you are looking at instead of hiring a home inspector every time. My thoughts were that it could be beneficial because depending on your area it can take a week or two up to a couple of weeks to get a home inspector out to inspect a property that I might be interested in purchasing. Any thoughts or insight on personal experience or what you think about it is appreciated. -Thanks