All Forum Posts by: Mike Nuss

@Andrew Shipley way to jump in and get started.  Converting old homes is not easy when dealing with commercial code, and I'm assuming the micro units project would fall into commercial code (3+ units). That's a great to cut your teeth. You should learn a lot. I'm curious, what part of town is this project and how many units are you creating?

@Mathew Wray

@Mathew Wray is correct. Airbnb is a flooded market in Portland and the rules are not investor friendly. The value from airbnb isn't in the real estate (unless you convert the structure to a hotel).....airbnb is a business in and of itself and it's 100% geared toward customer service and experience. The value is in the business and it takes a special person to run that business. Feel free to reach out for more specific answers and such as I converted a 4 unit building into a hotel for this very reason. 

Also, my property management company is looking for a good handyman. Feel free to reach out to discuss more about potentially trading services there. 

Good luck!

@Aaron K. great topic and interesting heading. I feel like "wholesaling" is the guru's magic bullet that brings people in and creates demand for their product. @Jay Hinrichs nailed it. REI is popular because the dream is the easiest thing to sell. Most people have no clue what they're getting into. "Investing" in RE with 'no money and no credit' sure sounds great when you have no knowledge of what it will take.

Wholesaling may be a good strategy for newbies in some markets, but that's not the case in west coast markets like most of CA, Seattle and Portland. Wholesaling, as taught by gurus, is illegal in Oregon so that's a problem if you have no $.  You also have to be well capitalized and have sales chops to be successful in "wholesaling" here. 

Hi @Gechi Erinne, sorry you won't be able to attend. We hold our main monthly meetings once a month on the second Thursday of each month. That's the longer networking meeting with a specific presentation topic. We've had some amazing speakers doing awesome work in our metro area come speak this year. 

Next month (September 13th) Brad Kraus is coming to take about staying out of landlord tenant law. He's a great resource for local landlords. 

We're bring Christian Kalor back in October. He's a State Economist for the Portland Metro area. If you're at all into economics and our real estate market, you won't want to miss Christian. He's not your typical economist and he'll have a fresh census bureau "data dump" to present. Last year we had to cut the audience and their questions off so the poor guy could grab a beer and wet his beak. I highly recommend coming in October. 

We also host our "master class" which are investment focused continuing education classes brokers every other Thursday. Non licensed RBIN members can come to those as well. 

I hope to see you at a future meeting, 

@Soobin Oh this meeting will be good for you as Blake and Jessica will basically going over their investment career. There will be some newbie type info. 

As a group, we have moved away from the new investor specific topics for our monthly meetings. We are planning on doing a new investor seminar early next year to go over the basics in a group format. 

I wouldn't say these meetings are for "more seasoned real estate folks". The room is filled with all type of experience levels. Honestly, it's all about networking. New investor stuff is just as easily (if not easier) learned online or by reading books. The nuances of doing deals is something you learn by taking action and meeting people that have done or are doing what you want to do in the future. 

Don't let the lack of experience keep you from meeting more seasoned people. Everyone starts somewhere and you'll find our group has quite a bit of compassion for people starting out. 

@Adam Read it's both. It's a membership based group, but the first time is free to you can get a feel for the group. If you like it you can join. If you don't, no hard feelings. Thanks for asking!

@Jay Hinrichs that's a great idea. Do you have a contact you could recommend for me to contact about speaking?

@Phillip Pommier thanks for the shout out

@Colin Johnson and @Bryan Atkinson come join us Thursday night. First beer or slice is free and the room is full of engaging people. Hope to see you there!

@James Edwards what jurisdiction is this in? Jurisdiction matters immensely to answer your question.  

@Ciarraghe G. you've had some good input so far.

I'll add two points. Opening a HELOC, but not actually drawing on the HELOC, is like "stock piling" cash without the cost of the interest burn. That's a really good strategy in my opinion. HELOCs do not cost much to set up, but give you the ability to bring cash to the table in a short period of time. The downside to HELOCs is that they are adjustable rates and callable notes, they're not long term debt instruments, but they're very useful none the less.

One thing I would mention, in regard to "cash flowing" properties out of state. Based on your comments, it doesn't seem like cash flow is really a goal of yours. You're strategy of highly accelerating principal pay down suggests this. It seems you're more into wealth building than cash flow. 

There is always an argument of cash flow markets versus appreciation markets, but given your circumstances it seems an appreciation market is a better wealth building tool for you. I don't mean this due to the appreciation either. I mean this because "appreciation markets" are typically more expensive markets. This means, if your acquisition is leveraged, you'll have much more principal reduction over the life of the loan/ownership. You'll also receive much more depreciation than in cash flow markets, which can be very helpful to you as a high income producer. Cash flow markets can be great for the right goals, but principal pay down alone, in say a Portland property, can out produce the cash flow of say an Indianapolis market alone. Then you have more depreciation and most likely appreciation over time. Also, if your goal is to hold long term, a potential downturn in the market shouldn't be a huge concern, as long as the property continues to have a net positive cash flow. Portland's fundamentals are very solid for the long term so I wouldn't just ignore the market you're already in. There is still a ton of opportunity in Portland in my opinion. 

@Wendy McIntire what are the size and br/bath counts on those units? I own a few very well located, fully renovated, historic 4plexes and not one of them brings in $8,800 per month. I have a couple that bring in around 8k, but to get $8,800 this building should have larger units. 

Be careful using “projected rents”. Brokers in Portland tend to get a little aggressive in their marketing of small multi family props. If your potential property really brings in $8800, it would fly off the market at 1.1mm here. 

I’m definitely making some assumptions, but wanted to point this out as I have seen a lot of bad purchases for 2-4 units in Portland. I’ve also seen some awesome 2-4 unit purchases though and highly agree with @Neal Collins about a 4 unit building being a great house hack opportunity.