All Forum Posts by: Shawn S.

Hello BP Friends!

I just recently wrote my first offer this last weekend! Woohoo! My offer did not end up getting accepted, as another buyer came in with a stronger offer. But I am still happy because it was progress, and it forced me to take action and it was such a great learning experience!

The property I offered on needed a new roof and had some water damage so the seller was only accepting highest and best all-cash offers. My agent recommended including an escalation clause in my offer, but I did not agree with this strategy because the listing agent was requesting H&B only. My question is when would be a good time to include an escalation clause in an offer? My first inclination is to not include one when the seller is asking for H&B all-cash offers. Was this poor judgement on my part? Any advice and insight would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

Hi @Marvin Scott Butler! Good for you on your Z-Hills house hack!

There are a couple of different ways to either speed up your savings rate or make it easier to go into the next house hack purchase, but one way is to utilize low money down loans like FHA, which allows you to get into a MFH (up to 4 units, I believe) with just a 3.5% down payment. The more units, the more rental income to offset your mortgage which leads to more money back in your pocket!

Another potential way to increase savings while house hacking is to rent out your extra room(s) to short-term tenants through services like AirBnB and Vrbo. Depending on the amenities you offer, the location, and occupancy rate (among other things), you could really bring in a decent amount of money each month. Maybe even live for free! Something to note, though, is that some municipalities have restrictions on short-term rentals. So I would look into that before doing it.

Hope this was helpful!

Good luck!

Definitely! I don't have any war stories, as I am just a civvy. However, I do have coins!

The meetup is held at a Mexican restaurant in West Melbourne (not Palm Bay) called Tequila Accent. It is on Minton Road and they meet the third Monday of each month from 5 - 7 PM, out on the patio.

Hi @Brian Gilbert,

Welcome to BP! I too am a federal employee in Brevard looking to get out of the rat race! What a coincidence! Haha!

As @Priscilla Z. mentioned, they hold a great meetup in Palm Bay once a month. I went there last month for the first time and thought it was an amazing experience. It was my first real estate networking event, so it was refreshing to meet local like-minded individuals who are doing the things I want to do. I highly recommend checking it out!

Hope to see you there!

@David M.,

I appreciate you taking the time to reply to my post. After reading yours and the other responses, I am realizing that this is a difficult question to give an answer to. There is no cut-and-dried answer. It is very specific to each scenario.

Your mention of working with a silent partner who holds the note is one strategy that I have thought of but didn't know what to call it. Now that you have shed light on the name of the strategy I can dig a little deeper into that, as I believe this may be an attractive route for me.

Thanks!

- Shawn

@Ben Stoodley,

Lots of information in this one -- time to bring out the handy dandy notebook!

This may seem like a silly question, but when you say "Start with conventional (house hacking) and bank loans..." I assume that you are suggesting that I start with house hacking then find a partner and fund our deals with HML/PML? Right?

The is actually exactly what I am aiming for: house hacking my first home, then using the BRRRR strategy with HML/PML. I am interested in utilizing the FHA/203k loan to purchase a fixer MFR to house hack and cash out refi to access the added equity for the down payment for my next investment.

Regarding structuring deals within an LLC, I actually just sat down with a CPA yesterday to go over my goals and hear his thoughts on how to use LLCs in real estate investing. Our discussion was mostly in agreement with what you have stated; however, he cautioned me about the dangers in starting a partnership.

Thanks again,

- Shawn

@Matthew Irish-Jones,

Awesome stuff!

I like your FHA example. It makes sense to understand the bottleneck(s) with certain financing routes and use other terms (e.g. offer amount and inspection) to your advantage.

I will be sure to keep these things in mind when working with my agent.

Thanks!

- Shawn

@Ed Brancheau,

Thanks for your sharing your knowledge on ways to structure partnerships.

I am still in the educational phase of real estate investing, and, therefore, am currently learning how to leverage my existing skills towards my investing career. Once I have a few (or more) deals under my belt, I think I will have a better idea of what my strong suits are in real estate as well as the areas where I am not so strong. Perhaps then I will know what to look for in a partner.

I think I am now realizing that finding a lender may be a more attractive approach for me at the moment.

Thanks again for your input!

- Shawn

@Matthew Irish-Jones,

That's a good point. I suppose I haven't thoroughly considered the differences between forming a partnership and seeking financing.

Would you agree that the main difference between the two is that when borrowing from a friend/family member you have an agreement to pay him/her back by a certain time with a certain amount of interest, whereas with a partnership you have an agreement to share with him/her the equity and cash flow from the investment?

Also, I know what you mean and agree with you when you say to find ways to be competitive in the market, especially if you're using traditional financing. It is nice to learn that there are still properties being sold using traditional financing -- thanks for the encouragement!

Do you have any recommendations on how to be more competitive?

- Shawn

Hello fellow BP members!

I have been attending the weekly webinars for the past 4-5 weeks now. They have been great and very informative. In each webinar, Brandon Turner, or whoever else is hosting, usually will tell the participants where the presentation slides can be found. However, I think I may have missed that this time.

Does anybody know if their is a place here on BP that holds all of the slides from previous webinars?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

- Shawn