All Forum Posts by: Robert Leonard

Glad to see you jump on board!  Welcome to BP!

To find rental rates, you can reverse engineer that using Craigslist.  For example, I like properties that rent for 1000+/month.  I can search for that in CL and find the areas where houses rent for that price or price range.

You can also use a site like rentometer.com to look up rent rates.  There are several sites that have varying degrees of accuracy from one market to the next.

I also wanted to add, @Eben Cook makes a point that I think deserves some discussion. 100% financing of cost is not the same thing as 100% of FMV. Patrick is well positioned, as a builder/investor, and I'm sure his cost total acquisition cost is well below the value of the property. I try and usually succeed at 100% financing on all of my pre-existing properties, but I am not leveraged over 80% of value on any of them. There's a big difference.

Hey @Patrick Rowe, I was going to say it, but @Alexander Felice already nailed it.  You are doing a commercial loan in the name of your business and that will almost always be higher than if you get the loan in your own name like I'm sure most of the above posts are referring to.  It is a unusual to get a 30 yr amortization for a commercial loan.  I wouldn't mind that rate because with the amortization, you are still working with numbers that will probably cash flow well.

Hello @Patrick Hollis, my cousins from Illinois say "you guys" in place of where we use y'all around here - welcome to BP.  It's all good.

I think you've already taken the first step, by reading and getting an understanding of WHY you want to invest in real estate.  I think the next good read you need to continue building your foundation of knowledge is "The Millionaire Real Estate Investor" by Gary Keller.

Start studying your market just by looking at houses online and in publications you can get for free.  You will start to recognize what normal retail prices are for houses in different parts of your market.  Before long you will notice when a price is "unusual" (whether it's high or low) for a certain area.  That's when you start to know your market and when you have a grasp on property values by area, then and only then are you ready to pull the trigger and buy something.  You have to understand valuation by location.  When they say "real estate is very local" it is true down to the subdivision, zip codes are way too big of an area in the LA markets I know.

Hello and welcome to BP @Jared C.!  I buy & hold, and manage my portfolio of properties and I can probably help you and your parents find a great deal and manage it well.  I'm actively building my own portfolio. Feel free to message or email me and we can talk strategy and see how that might work?

Welcome to BP Nick! You can find cash buyers at our meetup in a couple weeks.  Go to meetup.com/bpacadiana and we'll be glad to welcome you to our group!

I've made a couple acquisitions through Homepath. I do my best not to get emotional over properties, but I'll confess to suffering some anguish over a few that were on my watch list that went under contract right at the end of the O/O only offer period. The offer & negotiation process was pretty straight forward for each. A little slower with one than the other, but I was dealing with different REO brokers in different markets, so that's to be expected. Each one sold for a little below 10% below the last asking price. One needed a moderate rehab of about $25k, the other less than $10k. One negative part of the process for me was using their title agent. The fees were very low, but their service left a whole lot of room for improvement. Overall, the better the market, the harder it is to find a decent deal there (kind of like everything else on the MLS). But it's still worth keeping your eye on for that occasional opportunity.

Hello and welcome to BP Patrick Mixon ! If you connect with Michael Faulk he organizes a meetup group for investors and I'll bet you can find some buyers in north LA through him or that group.

Hi and welcome to BP @Katie Mueller!

I realize we all have "unique" relationships in our families, but the glaring question is, why don't you ask your step-father to help you?  Family members in the business can present huge advantages if y'all are "talking."

Low budget houses are always appealing on paper, and there is money to be made in every price category of house you can find.  The decision comes down to if you or your team's strengths/weaknesses and management abilities fit the market sector you invest/do business in?

Once you know enough to decide on the criteria for your ideal investment property, you will learn to analyze the property to determine if there is a potential for you to make a profit on the property.  Nothing super complicated in the process, but a whole lot of little details to know before you "take a leap" and buy something.