All Forum Posts by: Renee Ren

@Jordan Reynolds Thank you Jordan. I'll look into Dayton and Columbus.

@Zach Hoereth Thanks for your advice. PM is very important. I'll ask for referrals. 

@Anthony Tonsoline Thanks Anthony. If the market is too hot, I probably won't go there. I'd like to keep the price under 150k.

@Dave DeMarinis  Thanks for your advice. 

@Remington Lyman Thanks. I'll look into Columbus. 

@Kalanie Tran Hi Kalanie, how do you find the property to buy. Do you buy it through an agent. I'll strongly suggest you to find a PM. It is too difficult to manage it remotely. 

@Andrew Ashby Thanks Andrew. When you say central FL, what city/area do you suggest.

@Account Closed Hi Jeff, I'll look into Columbus. Looks like it is a good market. It is recommended by a couple of investors. 

@Ben Halabi Hi Ben, thanks for the info. 

@Nick Giulioni Hi Nick, what area are you investing in Indi. 

@Bob Prisco Thanks Bob. I'll check your website. 

@Brian Garlington Hi Brian, what area/city do you recommend. 

@David Cohen Hi David, I'll vote for option #1. Irvine is the most expensive area to live in OC. Any 3 beds 2 baths 1500 sqf can be easily rented out around 3k. Properties are appreciating all the time so buying is much better than renting if you have enough capital. I live in Northwood. You can find SFR over 2,000 sqf 2 story 4 beds 3 baths below 1m right now. If you can put down 20-30% downpayment, your mortgage will be around or below 3k/month. If you don't have a big family, you can rent out 1 or 2 bedrooms around 1,200-1,300/m per room easily to long term tenants. Then you are able to cover almost all of your mortgage. This is like house hacking.

Since there is no cash flow properties in Irvine unless you paid over 50% downpayment. Option #2 is not applicable. House price will keep appreciating because we have a lot of wealthy immigrants coming to Irvine. You'll waste your capital on rentals and miss out the opportunity to find your own house. 

Properties in Lake Forest are at least 15-20% lower compared to they are in Irvine. Mission Viejo and Aliso Viejo are also good options if you want to live not too far away from Irvine. Hope it helps. 

Hi folks, I'm interested in buying 1st out of state property since CA is too expensive. Looking to buy SFR or small multifamily (2-4 units). Need financing or I can do HELOC out of my own property. Price range is better below 100k. Would like a light fixer so I can do BRRRR later. Looking for an area/city with strong job and population growth.

Here is my list of areas/cities below. Which area/city shall I start with. Would like to hear your opinions. 

1. Memphis, TN

2. Nashville, TN

3. Tampa, FL

4. Jacksonville, FL

5. Orlando, FL

6. Charlotte, NC

7. Indianapolis, IN

8. Cincinnati, OI

9. Cleveland, OI 

Thank you for your input. 

@Allan Tracy, Hi Allan, I've been doing research on HELOC recently. It is a variable rate and the average interest rate offered by banks are around 5.8%-6.25%. No closing cost and appraisal fee. Some banks like Chase charge $50 origination fee and $50 annual fee. HELOC is a good way to buy an investment property. Another option is to get a cash out refinance which has lower interest rate compared with HELOC. The difference is you have to start paying interest the moment you got the cash out and there is closing cost related to cash out refi. HELOC is an open ended loan and you don't have to pay any interest until you pull the cash out of the account. It is more like a credit card.

Turnkey properties are good options for people have full time job and no time to manage the property especially out of state properties. Just be careful to find a good turnkey provider. Connect with local agents, investors and property managers and ask for referrals. I'll pick a turnkey provider in the local market. I know a couple of RE companies in LA provides turnkey properties out of state but I don't trust them. 

I'm in Orange County. Also thinking about buying out of state properties and doing research on cash out refi and HELOC. Good luck on your investing.

Originally posted by @Bob Daniels:

*Disclaimer*  My account has only been open for 3 months, which isn't nearly long enough to draw a solid conclusion from.

I recently invested 1k with them in their long term growth fund as a test run to see how accurate their claims were.  This fund supposedly had the highest rate of return overall coming primarily from appreciation.  

I opened my account on Aug 15th, and during the last ~3 months, my portfolio has gone up by a combined 1% (appreciation and dividend). While this number is overall very low as it pencils out to only about a 4% return per year, I found it interesting that my dividends were twice what the appreciation was considering this was supposedly a growth fund and not a dividend fund like their heartland REIT. I'm not sure how often they do an assessment on the valuation of their properties, if it's quarterly or annually.

The dividends seem very high at .7% for the quarter, which extrapolates to 2.8% for the year.  Their website claims dividends for this fund should be roughly 1.3 - 1.4% for the year so this is on pace to double that.  We will see what the overall return looks like in 9 months when they have had a full year to go through a full evaluation of their assets valuation at least once.

 Thanks Bob. I invested 2k so far. My portofolio has 35 investments so far. They did diversify the investment. But hard for investors to control what they invest and how long can we get the money back so I won't invest more money with them. 

 Thank you Ian. I feel like they are not very liquid so only throw a couple of thousand on the platform. So far the return looks good but I guess it is for long term investment not for short term. 

I've been listening to a lot of BP Podcasts and heard ads of this crowdfunding website. I recently invested a couple of thousand with them. The return looks good, however, I heard someone said the redemption process is long and difficult to get their money back. Not sure if that is the case. Can anyone share experience investing in Fundrise. 

@Adam Higginbotham Same here. California market is way too hot right now. Most of wholesale deals are not working. I spent a lot of money last year doing direct mail campaign didn't get any deals. Finished a flip last year with my partner. We got funding from HML and private money and we paid high interest to them. Also the rehab cost went out of budget so we ended losing some money. If I'm gonna do it again I'll partner with people have money so we can eliminate the money cost. Another way is to invest out of your area if your area is too hot and expensive.

@Account Closed I deal with a lot of international buyers especially Chinese buyers. Some lenders provide loan program for those buyer. They require 35% down payment. 65% LTV. 3-5 years ARM with interest rate around 4.8-5.11. They also need 6 to 12 month reserve (PITI). Those fund can be overseas. Some lenders do not need down payment to be seasoning for 2 months. They need credit report from buyer's own country and their income in that country. It's easier to get it approved than a 20% down payment conventional loan.

@James Knight Congrats! Pls share more details. I’m currently looking into that market.