All Forum Posts by: Ronnie Galindo

I didn’t find any so I am in the process of starting one! Stay tuned to the events section on here for more! Plus I’ll update this post.

@Andrew Garcia That definitely does! Good to know that all I need is a piece of paper to get it done! lol. 

Hello BP, 

Question, has anyone bought a property that had liens that amounted to more than that of the property value? How hard was it to get through that and how much time did it take? 

We found a perfect live in house-hack/flip but the owner has around 1.2mm in liens and the house is only listed (and worth) 850k. The seller is working with a tax attorney to get letters to lenders/IRS/etc. to do a short sale but wondering if anyone had personal experience?

Thank you,

-Ronnie

Hey @Ronak Bajari, it all depends on what loan product you are using (i.e. Vacation home loan, DSCR, conventional, etc). Rates for conventional purchases are between 4-5% but DSCR rates can be anywhere from 6-10% so it all depends. Best case is to contact a broker to help you. I have a guy in TX that has helped me out on several deals! Shoot me a message and i'll send over his contact info!

@Irvin W Blouin Jr, this is a big question and one I struggled with initially too. So is it worth becoming an agent? It depends. If you just want to become one to invest with and not practice, then no. Do not become an agent. It costs money (I have payments to the MLS, the association of realtors, my brokerage, etc. so if you are not making money solely as an agent, this is a debt). Also, you'd save 2.5-3% on average but the overall picture can be missed. An agent is your expert in that area. They are the one that negotiates on your behalf and the one that is a second pair of eyes for the transaction. If you get a good agent who deals with investors (and better yet, is an investor themselves) then you have another person who can double check your idea of investing and save you (usually) from making huge mistakes. It would be its weight in gold to find a rockstar agent instead of becoming one, unless you are going to push forward as an agent and sell/buy for others on top of your investing. I am a Realtor and yet, I have an agent (a rockstar one at that) in another market I invest in.

Good luck and if you have more questions, let me know!

Hey @Hayden Travis! So in today's market, negotiating houses on the MLS is a very difficult feat. There are not a lot of houses and there are a lot of people buying. With the interest rates going up, that will weed out some buyers but then makes the numbers harder to make work. What I did was found a home that was stuck in the 80s (I'm talking pink sinks and paint everywhere) and bought that. I bought my house though 3 years ago so it was a different market before covid. I put a lot of work (my own time and energy) into the home and transformed it into what it is today. Now I am sitting on around $200k equity in 3 years. With that said, you'd have to live in it for 2 years (in the last 5) to escape capital gains so when you are running your numbers, are you looking at that projection? FHA (and VA, which I used) need to be in a stable state, meaning that the home has to be livable which makes it hard because there are other buyers out there doing what you are trying to do.

If you have the time and energy, definitely look off-market and see what you can stir up but in the end, time helps this process and REI is not a fast paced thing (unless you are a flipper or something of the sort). Be creative in the sense of finding a home that has that special something that people are over looking (space to put in an ADU, an unfinished basement that you can finish to rent, etc). Good luck. If you have questions, message me and I'd love to help further.

Hey @Craig Ancier! Welcome to the wonderful and crazy world of REI. My wife and I initially got into REI by doing a live in flip. We bought a property stuck in the 80s and did a whole bunch of work to bring it into current times. That made us extreme equity in these last three years. After that I sold off my two cars I had and worked overtime to save up the first $25k that allowed me to buy my first flip (in TX). I then went on to bring in friends and family to buy the next few properties (they became down payment partners) but I would not recommend this if you do not have a solid team that you can rely on. It backfired on me and I ended up losing some money, which I will earn back in the end but made it very stressful.

It all depends on your situation. Could you come up with 10% down and buy in a market that is over 50 miles from you and use the vacation home loan? Could you hustle and work some overtime or get a side hustle to earn more income to get the full 20%? What are your goals? Cashflow? Appreciation? All these questions need to be thought of and talked about with your family to ensure everyone is on board and you all support one another. Good luck and if you have any further questions, just message me! I'd love to help!

@Marlon Roberts, depends on your current situation. With your current home, could you move out, rent it and make money? If you could, could you then use the FHA or another loan product to get into the next property? If you already used the FHA loan on this first property, has it been over a year and you've gain equity so you can refinance into a regular conventional or DSCR loan?

If none of that works, then how about a vacation home loan? You'd pay around 10% down and be able to get that second home (Caveat is you have to buy roughly 50 or more miles from your current home) . If you don't have a downpayment, how about finding a family member or friend that has that down payment and you pay them a monthly payment over the course of a few years from the cashflow from the house? 

As you see, there are lots of ways to make it work. Hope this helps! message me if you need further help or want to chat! Take care.

Hey @Justin Seaverns! It all depends. It depends on your goals. If your goal is cashflow to leave a job or just have more money per month, then if the numbers work then that's great. If it is appreciation and wealth building, then I would stay away from Mobile Homes unless you are going for the park like Brandon Turner does, then that would be a solid plan. Mobiles won't appreciate like normal single family. However, it all depends on how creative you would like to get with your investing. I spoke with a guy who bought land with a mobile on it and was renting the mobile while he was getting the plans and everything done to build a multifamily property on the lot. So it all depends really. I hope this helps. if you have any more questions, message me and I will try to help you! Take care and good luck!  

@Victor Sprague, wow. What a story! Sounds like something is going on with Tenant A. The problem I see with keeping her around is that she could be a cancer to the whole place. If she is interfering with Tenant B and C's peace and quiet and causing a scene, then that could force them both to move out so by keeping one tenant, you lose two. Also, if you renew her lease, what if this happens again. Then she is locked in and you have to go through the eviction process unless you are on a month to month but even then, she could stay and you are set for a bad time. 

I would, as much as you'd like to be nice and give her a second chance, in this line of work, you cannot afford to lose here. I would let her lease run out, inform her you are not re-uping her lease and she needs to vacate at the end of it. You may still see an eviction coming but at least it will happen sooner rather than later when you lose tenants B and C. Good luck!