All Forum Posts by: Sheena Schleicher

@Heath Thomas Jr - We don't love the idea of an adjustable rate of a HELOC, but is a HELOAN on an investment property a thing? I didn't know that existed.

@Doug Garrison - Yes, this is the exact scenario my husband has felt most okay with, but the condo has such great margins that I hesitate. It's in an especially ideal location, whereas the farm houses will be more on the outskirts of town. We're thinking the farm rentals might be more part of the city's agri-tourism efforts, with "farm experience" STR. They're in a super super unique setting amidst flower fields, so we think we can charge premium, but we're less familiar with STRs & losing a very profitable LTR is not appealing. Trying to find a way to hold onto the condo & acquire the farm land/houses. ;)

@Account Closed - LOL. Yeah we're looking to land somewhere in the middle with our kids... I grew up in an extremely poor & unstable home that I know shaped me into a fearless/independent entrepreneur and biz owner. I hope to teach my kids what I've learn, but without the pain (or therapy bills!). 

The 17 acres is currently being farmed by a neighbor that's a major/leading flower growers in southern CA. They had first right of refusal, but there was some bad blood once the trustee found out how little they were paying per month for the lease (her dad & the flower company founder were good friends so he paid $1,500/month for all 17 acres of prime CA farmland!!! Apparently it should have been in the $5-11k/month range... BUT labor & water costs are making farming more & more challenging, so I'm not sure how realistic that is). They're currently working something out to continuing leasing it (I'm working on finding out how much), which is good b/c the flower growers aren't interested in or using the 3 acres we want, so it allows us to hopefully work something out that benefits all three parties (the owner/trustee, flower company, us). 

I would LOVE to own all 17 acres most to ensure it doesn't get rezoned & developed into high density housing in our backyard. It's a truly magnificent property, but I don't see a way to get all 17. 

Thank you for all the advice & sharing of your journey! Please keep the ideas coming! :)

 Yes, current 2 acres farm house is our forever home. We hope to make in 5 acres, with 3 rentals + our primary residence. Please see my other response to Blaise P. for more details. 

Haha, yes, that's somewhat true. Each move has been a response to our family growing + I'm an entrepreneur so opps to diversify are always top of mind. 

We will not be moving again. Like something catastrophic would have to happen to move from where we're at now. And even if that happened, we'd sell a rental before selling the ranch. Also a significant part of our strategy has been to acquire properties that our children might one day live in, because the reality is that our 3 kids may not be able to afford to buy a home near us when they grow up... and it's worth it for us to provide that (NOT for free though haha). 

I understand your recommendation of making our next decision based on numbers. We will do so, balanced with our family priorities. The options currently on the table are to 1) sell property #1/the condo, 2) refi the condo or the cabin (the maybe silly Q for us is which). We will not be selling properties 2, 3, or 4. 

The good news is we don't really rely on the rental income, as our SEO marketing business is very profitable. We could tighten living expenses up to help afford the farmland/worker houses (which btw is commercial/ag zoned) without selling, but we will still have to get the money from somewhere.

Do you have suggestions for bringing up/proposing the Option to Purchase? The 3 acres is part of a larger 17 acre parcel, so there will be a lot line change either way (unless we somehow afforded all 17!). That would be a dream, but I don't think it's possible.

This makes sense. The seller is visiting us in a few weeks (in from TX for a family event, so we invited her over for a BBQ). She's already thrilled to see a young family growing up in her childhood home, so we're hoping the visit will allow us to share our vision for continuing the legacy of her parents. As you can see, this is not strictly about money. She is becoming a friend, with us sharing old photos of her and her children on the ranch & now new photos of our little kids here. This is a generational property that, whether we just have our 2 acres or if we the 3 to make 5 acres, we expect this ranch to stay in our family. 

Do you have any suggestions for bringing up/asking about/proposing seller financing? I know that she is the trustee of the estate shared with two other siblings (her parents passed over the last few years). She's the executor but I suspect any decisions will include the 3 beneficiaries. 

If we pull money out of the condo, do we take the max amount out? Our loan guy seemed to discourage pulling from the condo b/c we're just hitting the phase of amortization where we're making big progress on principal, but of course he's not investor/BRRRR-minded. Thank you!!

Hi there! Sheena, here. SEO marketing agency owner, Realtor, investor, wife, mom, Jesus follower. :) 

New to BP & the BRRRR concept, but have actually been doing it for the last 11 years. We have 4 properties and have a time-sensitive opportunity to purchase the adjacent parcel to our home that has 4 building structures on it. I need help:

1) Being sure that we should refi and not sell one to get this new one (even though my husband's logic of exchanging an asset that has one rental for an asset with four rentals is sound)

2) Which property do we refi? See below summary of each. We have very low interest rates on all of them thanks to refi'ing each while we lived in them. 

CONDO LTR - My husband and I purchased our first home in 2011 when we were 22, just after graduating and getting married. 3bed/2bth 1,400sqft condo short sale in Oceanside, CA for $205k. Comps are now going for $670k. It's now a LTR bringing in $3,600/mth. Our PITI + HOA is $1,500/mth. Loan rate is 3.5%. We owe $135k.

CABIN SFH LTR - We bought our second home, a 2,000sqft 4bed/2bth SFH also in Oceanside in 2017 for $520k. Comps are now going for $1.4M. We thought this was going to be our forever home, but then we found the most magical property (more on that later). This home is now a LTR bringing in $4,600/mth. Our PITI is $2,794/mth. Loan rate is 2.875%.

SFH LTR - We bought our third property in 2020 when we learned that some extended family members (who I've never met) were selling the family cabin that was built by my grandfather (who I never met) and my father (who I'm just getting to know). Big Bear, CA SFH 3bed/2bth/loft, 1,900sqft for $220k. We are wrapping up a painfully long renovation (thanks to covid delays!) and plan to soon offer it up at a luxury STR. STR comps are going for $700-1,200/night. Sale comps are in the $500-700K range. Our PITI is $1,100/mth. Loan rate is 2.99%.

SFH, OUR HOME + AG LAND - We bought our fourth property and current home earlier this year, also in Oceanside, CA. Spanish ranch 4 bed/3bth at 3,200sqft, sitting on a hilltop overlooking revenue-generating flower fields (that we lease out). We purchased for $1.1M (jumbo loan at 4%), which was way under value "thanks" to a very questionable listing agent. PITI on current home property is $5,500/mth. Ag land lease brings in $1,500/mth. 

Our property is 2 acres and we're hoping to acquire the adjacent 3 acres that has 4 structures (3 previously used as farm worker houses and 1 as a refrigerated flower storage building). THIS is what brought me to BP. We need to acquire this adjacent parcel before it goes to someone else (owner is the same seller we bought our property from & she likes us!). The issue is that we're pretty broke from our recent closing on the 2-acre parcel. 

We're considering our options to sell the condo while the market's hot or to refi either the condo or the cabin. I reallllly don't want to sell but my husband is SUPER worried. My thought is we're already in like $2M of debt (w/ about $2M in equity)... what's another $300k. haha. We think the additional buildings could bring in a combined $3k/mth. I haven't even started thinking about what the additional property purchase would do to our mortgage (we would actually be doing a "lot line adjustment" through the city, so I don't know if our current mortgage would go up or if we'd have 2 separate loans)... or if we cash-out refi the cabin or condo, then I guess only that refi'd payment would change.

Wide open to any suggestions on how or what the smartest move for acquiring this land and 4 structures looks like. We think we'll need about $350-400k to purchase and renovate the buildings.

THANK YOU!! :)

Hola! I'm Sheena Schleicher. SEO marketing agency owner, Realtor, investor, wife, mom, Jesus follower. :) We just learned about BP and are SO amazed! We didn't go into any of our 4 properties with an investor mindset, but figured things out as we went.

My husband and I purchased our first home in 2011 when we were 22, just after graduating and getting married. 3bed/2bth 1,400sqft condo short sale in Oceanside, CA for $205k. Comps are now going for $670k. It's now a LTR bringing in $3,600/mth. Our PITI + HOA is $1,500/mth. Loan rate is 3.5%. We owe $135k.

We bought our second home, a 2,000sqft 4bed/2bth SFH also in Oceanside in 2017 for $520k. Comps are now going for $1.4M. We thought this was going to be our forever home, but then we found the most magical property (more on that later). This home is now a LTR bringing in $4,600/mth. Our PITI is $2,794/mth. Loan rate is 2.875%.

We bought our third property in 2020 when we learned that some extended family members (who I've never met) were selling the family cabin that was built by my grandfather (who I never met) and my father (who I'm just getting to know). Big Bear, CA SFH 3bed/2bth/loft, 1,900sqft for $220k. We are wrapping up a painfully long renovation (thanks to covid delays!) and plan to soon offer it up at a luxury STR. STR comps are going for $700-1,200/night. Sale comps are in the $500-700K range. Our PITI is $1,100/mth. Loan rate is 2.99%.

We bought our fourth property and current home earlier this year, also in Oceanside, CA. Spanish ranch 4 bed/3bth at 3,200sqft, sitting on a hilltop overlooking revenue-generating flower fields (that we lease out). We purchased for $1.1M (jumbo loan at 4%), which was way under value "thanks" to a very questionable listing agent. Our property is 2 acres and we're hoping to acquire the adjacent 3 acres that has 4 structures (3 previously used as farm worker houses and 1 as a refrigerated flower storage building). THIS is what brought me to BP. We need to acquire this adjacent parcel before it goes to someone else (owner is the same seller we bought our property from). The issue is that we're pretty broke from our recent closing on the 2-acre parcel. 

We're considering our options to sell the condo while the market's hot or to refi either the condo or the cabin. I reallllly don't want to sell but my husband is SUPER worried. My thought is we're already in like $2M of debt (w/ about $2M in equity)... what's another $300k. haha. PITI on current home property is $5,500/mth. Ag land lease brings in $1,500/mth. We think the additional buildings could bring in a combined $3k/mth. I haven't even started thinking about what the additional property purchase would do to our mortgage (we would actually be doing a "lot line adjustment" through the city, so I don't know if our current mortgage would go up or if we'd have 2 separate loans)... or if we cash-out refi the cabin or condo, then I guess only that refi'd payment would change.

Wide open to any suggestions on how or what the smartest move for acquiring this land and 4 structures looks like. We think we'll need about $350-400k to purchase and renovate the buildings.

Thank you!! :)

Fred Pfister of White & Bright is the absolute best. He literally leads the education seminars for the CAR. I'm new to this forum, but have been in RE for 10 years. He just helped us prevent a major lawsuit against sellers attempting to change terms during escrow.