All Forum Posts by: Sean Hudgins

If you combine the live-in flip strategy you are already talking about with the house hack strategy; you will likely find more and more deals. You can supercharge if you can find an assumable loan on a home that doesn't have too much equity. 

As others have said, find yourself a strong agent in the area familiar with the VA Assumptions. Find some roommates and house hack while you are there. The first deal is the one that gets the momentum moving, and the more strategies you can use in your favor, the sweeter the deals get.

Some sage advice already here. During your deployments, You can also work on building your team wherever you plan to focus your investing. You have time to work out your strategy and continue your self-development. But once you get that strategy worked out and have your clear criteria set out, you can build your team so that when you do get back, you will have laid the groundwork, and you can get things rolling quickly. 

Flipping is probably not the best use of your limited time on active duty. If I were to go back to my active duty time, I would focus hard on buy and hold with an emphasis on increasing equity quickly and buying in the right areas to see the most significant appreciation. Now that I'm off active duty, I focus more on income-generating activities like flipping.
 

 That’s a shame it seems like it could have been a really cool strategy especially for a new construction project. 

I'm working with a client looking to do this same strategy. 

One way to avoid some of those roommate drama issues is to look for a property that can be a little more separated. I would shy away from all those open-concept properties and look for something that has two living spaces, think formal living room and den with a separate kitchen space. This way, you and your roommates don't always have to share space, and you are less likely to be stuck in your room because your roommate is watching something on TV that you don't like.

I came across a property where the primary bedroom was on the first floor, and the secondary bedrooms were upstairs; there was a large empty landing area that would have been perfect for a small kitchenette area. This would provide even more separation, and the house would resemble a traditional duplex. This is the kind of house you could continue to rent by the room even after moving out.

What would the situation look like if you were to LTR the property? Would the property cash flow or break even as LTR? 

Is your STR performing better, worse, or the same as the other local STRs? If it performs at or better than the average, then it's time to change strategy. If it is underperforming, what can you change to increase bookings, average? Daily rate, etc.

I suggest sharing the link to the AirBNB listing and getting some feedback from some of the pros here on what you can improve to increase your revenue. 

I suggest getting all the numbers together for LTR and seeing what you can improve before you jump ship. Try to break down each scenario here as detailed as possible, and I'm sure you will get some sage advice on what to do. Welcome to the forum; hopefully, the great people here can help.

David, this will depend on the investor a little bit.

Any of my experienced investor clients would be doing some more groundwork on working out numbers and providing me a more detailed buy box that I can look for. And obviously, I am bringing any off-market deals that I find to my investors first.

But my newer investors tend to need a little more help and guidance. I expect narrowing down their buy box will take a little time. But I would be running the same CMAs and Rent analysis that I would for the experienced investor. The new investor may need some more explanation for those evaluations. 

I like what Carrie said about videos. Based on my location, I work with many out-of-state buyers, both investors and military. Still, a thorough video covering all the senses is a great way to help investors avoid potential pitfalls when buying from out of state.

A good agent and investor should be working as a team.

Mike, I think what you are referring to is the split in commission that you, as a team leader, would have with a buyer agent. So, if a buyer's agent sells a home, they are splitting that commission 50/50 with the team lead, as the listing specialist model in MREA is a fixed salary position, not a commission split. 

So, from the team leader's part, they are paying 50% cost of sale for that buyer-side transaction. From the buyer's agent's point of view, they are paying 50% Gross Commission to the team lead for the buyer lead.

I really like the advice you are getting here with the Wrap loan. But I want to address the SUB2 option. There is something to be said for that type of deal, but as the seller, you need to make sure you have a plan from the day of closing through to when you will have that debt off of your ledger. I can understand the desire to help a friend out, but I would consider writing the terms of the SUB2 with an end date where they will need to pay off the loan either through cash or with a refi. This way, 15 years from now, you are not wishing you could have that debt out of your name with no way to make that happen. With the interest rate being a concern, I would put a 5-year timeline on the sub2; that way, they are incentivized to refi as soon as the interest rates become acceptable, and if they don't, they will be in default. But you, as the seller, at least have an end date that you can mark on your calendar.

@Mel Volland The lender would not really be privy to or a part of the seller-financed second position. The seller would have an attorney write up the loan for the second position, and those terms could be agreed to separately. Though thinking it through, I suppose the seller-financed piece would be in the purchase agreement, so the underwriter might have something to say about that. I would think it would at least be worth talking over with the underwriters; for someone who doesn't have a load of cash sitting around, I think it is a viable option, and as I showed in the original post, the math still works out to save money monthly... seems like a win-win to me.

I posed this question in a couple of places, and the consensus is that it's more of a buyer hook-up at this point. There are only a few buyers out there right now willing to pay much of a premium. The best case, and likely the most you could ask for, would be to cover the carry cost of the extended closing time. I think that's fair, but I do feel like, eventually, buyers will start to see the value, and if the seller is willing to go through the extra trouble, they should be compensated.