All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

@Adaze Foltz

I've been both a recipient and an originator of many private loans.

Provided you are working with a legitimate and experienced private lender, I see TWO main benefits:

1. SPEED - I've had private loans close in 4 days. Once the lender says "yes" they can fund immediately. No traditional lender on the planet is going to fund that quickly: You should expect 30-45 days to close.

2. RELATIONSHIP - With a private loan, you're able to establish and develop a relationship with the actual lender. This comes in handy if things get funky and you need to make adjustments mid-loan. You can talk to a single person and come up with a reasonable solution. With traditional funding, you're NEVER dealing directly with the person with the money. It's all intermediaries and committees and underwriting teams. So, if things do go sideways, it's much harder to negotiate your way through.

And, provided your loan is structured properly and closed with a competent title agent, I see no greater risk working with a private lender than with a traditional one.

 I do not send people a link to fill out any application before looking at the unit. I do typically ask them up front what their household income is to make sure it will qualify as well as how long of a lease they want to do so as not to waste time with people that don't make enough or only want a 6 month lease. Pre filling out an app pushes people away. First they don't know if they want your place as they have not seen it. Second the are going to assume that it will cost them, even if you tell them it is free, and a lot of them have spent hundreds of dollars on app fees. Also there are plenty of rent scammers out there saying they have a rental and collecting app fees on a ghost house and sometimes even getting a deposit. There are also apartment buildings that collect app fees and show a show unit even though they don't have a unit to rent. 

Sounds like you got a few more hits this week. Assuming that the property looks good then it sounds like lowering it $100 should get the trick done. When you do that change all of your ad titles to note in BOLD at the beginning something like REDUCED PRICE or $100 OFF/MTH END OF SUMMER SALE.

You mentioned that you are getting inquiries but no applications. Those two are related but only thru showings. You have not mentioned how many showings you have had. If you have had a lot of showing but no applications, first I will ask if you have been following up with the people that looked at it. Ask them why they chose not to rent it. They might tell you that there is something wrong with the place, or the neighbor's place across the street is a crack house so they don't want to live there, or...... They might also tell you that they found a cheaper place. 

If you are getting a lot of inquiries but no showings than it is most likely you are too high on price.

@Noah Margate, you only have to have lived in it for 2 out of the 5 years prior to selling it.  So you qualify right now.  You would get the full primary residence exclusion (up to $250K of profit if single or $500K if married).  Any extra profit above that.  Or any depreciation could be deferred by also doing a 1031 exchange.  You would qualify for both.

@Noah Margate. If the property is already not generating cash, it wouldn't be a bad idea to find better cash flowing investment properties. If you decide to sell the property you would be able to do a 1031 exchange. It sounds like you might not qualify for a 121 exclusion, where you would have needed to live in the property for two out of the five years of owning it. A 1031 would allow you to use the taxable gain on the property you would have to pay, to purchase another or multiple investment properties. In your case maybe multiple properties if you want to be even more diverse. 

Well Since @Mike Dymski responded let me give you just one item.. I was kind of stuck with Construction loans in Charleston the little bank I was using had me on a tight leash.. As you can See Mike is from SC and if you read any of his post you will quickly realize he is an astute investor.. I then asked Mike if he might have a referral for me to a bank.. Well he did and I can tell you getting a referral and being able to Mention Mike as a Colleague got my foot in the door with a much bigger bank. ANd actually the referral was to one of top executives on the new build team.. I made arrangements to fly to Charleston from Portland Or for the sole purpose of Meeting this new Banker and showing him all the projects we had done there. Like 7 new st for instance.. WE hit it off and shortly there after we are approved for a 3 mil dollar LOC for new builds and went on to do about 8 projects together plus 5 in FLA. And this new banker asked me How did I know Mike as it was not common for him to deal with guys our size. So there you go meet greet create some credibility and BP members can open doors.. I am forever grateful to Mike for that referral as I know I would never have landed this relationship without Mike making the intro the standing Mike also has with the bank ( Credibility). And in fact we just landed a new project in Charleston that this bank is going to fund.. And let me tell you spec loans from banks dont grow on trees.. especially for guys like us that are not in market.. Of course its full doc and we have to prove we are worthy of the loan.

In all sincerity I owe a debt of gratitude to multiple commentors, some that no longer post. I hope they are well. 

I don't consider myself seasoned, just lightly salted and tenderized.

Looking forward to the 2024 BP awards, and who'll walk the red carpet!

1. Same as any content created anywhere else: sharing your knowledge and experience is very gratifying in itself. 

2. Also same as any content created anywhere else: maintaining your reputation as an expert and attracting potential customers/clients/partners/lenders/etc.

3. Learning from other seasoned professionals. In my case, for instance, even though I'm the top contributor to the tax forum, I have learned a ton from my fellow tax experts who replied to questions that I did not know answers to and even corrected me on multiple occasions. It's peer networking at its best.

I understand the sentiment. There are times when I think the person asking the question just shouldn't be in real estate. It is not for everyone. Also there are times when I see the question and I think, has that person not done any research or listened to any podcasts about RE investing. However there are plenty of great questions that people on here ask and need advise on.

As someone that considers themselves a seasoned investor, there are many reasons I am on here, even if I am a more newbie on here:

- I am here to connect with others. I have already made a few good connections.

- I enjoy helping others that are starting out. I think most successful business people have no problem talking to those wanting to learn and take action. Some people have the idea that a successful business person doesn't want to take their time helping newcomers who might be after part of their business, but I think the only people they don't want to help are those that will never actually take action as that is a waste of time.

- There are times where I want to ask questions.

- No matter how seasoned of an investor you are there will always be something that comes up that you have never dealt with before. 

- It is just plain good to always be listening to other ideas that are different to your own. There are multiple ways to make money in RE and I like to hear the other ideas as it gets my brain turning and makes me think in different ways. Almost 4 years ago I made a shift in my RE portfolio that made a big impact on my income and total net. Since then I started listening to RE podcasts and more recently this forum. If I had started this earlier, instead of staying in my own little bubble, I might have made that shift earlier and had an even bigger impact on my numbers.