All Forum Posts by: Sofiaan Fraval

Thanks Keith,

I don't see those events listed on here. Can you please send me details/links of the events?

Also, what are the last names of Mario and Eric and or contact info if any?

Much appreciated,

Sof

Hi All,

I couldn't find any other Real Estate Events going on in the area, and I wanted to meet other local real estate enthusiasts who are actively involved or looking to get involved in REI.

This will be an informal meet and greet at a coffee shop in Avila Beach. 

There won't be any sales or promotion from me, just social gathering and networking.

Please do come along and I look forward to meeting you there!

All the best,

Sof

What I would do differently:

Landlording: Wait a little longer to find a better tenant. Don't just go with the first candidate, stick to your qualification standards. Be strong! I almost got sucked in with the first prospective tenant, with an eviction on their record. They wasted some time, but thankfully I refunded their partial deposit before they moved in, then stuck it out for another month to find the best tenant. Oh yeah... and don't accept partial deposits, just the full amount :) .

Buying: Ask seller for more before closing - ie, CLUE report to see any past insurance claims that could increase your premiums. I would justify a lower offer/price with reason, in writing. I would have included repairing the droopy ceiling, fixing the cat pee stench etc. Use bigger pockets report tool (from the calculators) to showcase repair items and to back up your offer with reason. I didn't do any of these things, and I could have gotten a better deal.

Selling: My first property was a condo in Melbourne, Australia. It was in a great spot, and I sold it before I got into investing, darn it! I hired an agent just before moving back to the US. First off, I should have kept it, because Australian real estate went crazy over the past 13 years and the building had a bunch of serviced apartments through a leasing company I could have worked with. Secondly, I should have vetted the agent better. After 6 months, the property hadn't sold. So, I made a surprise visit back, and it looked like he had been living there (dirty bathrooms etc). I fired him, got another agent and sold the place within 2 weeks with a reasonable profit!

However, I will take those lessons and more to the next deal. I'm not going to do everything right, especially the first time, but I'm going to keep doing real estate investments, and overcoming my fears. The most empowering thing I did was to accept that I'm going to make mistakes, learn from them when they happen, and know that I'll do better next time - and never ever give up!

Thanks for posting Jerry. 

I'll attempt to answer all your questions below:

The mine is in Fremont county in wyoming.

Major players are Clovis minerals LLC, an exploration company co-owned by my partner Bob Williams who has worked with my father Sachlan Fraval on other oil and mining projects over the last 15 years and Translight LLC, 95% owned by me, and the 5% by my fathers company rofin in Australia where he resides. Bob made the offer for the property back in January, but I only got wind of it last week from my dad, who can't do much from australia. Clovis will give the deed to translight/me on close of sale.

Source of funds to pay back our investor(s) is sale of my dad's house in September this year. He is giving me $250k from the sale and I will put it towards the balance. Rofin will guarantee lease of mining rights for $7.5k per month. I also have my dads partner in Australia willing to put up the rest from his retirement fund once we have the land. I don't have his full name in front of me, but he helped out up the initial $25k earnest money. I have put in $5k of my own money to extend the due date to next week. Not much time left now unfortunately, and really not optimistic, but I will keep trying and won't give up. I talked to one hard money lender named Capital Direct Funding but their reviews weren't great, and they couldn't guarantee closing in 7 days (a week ago), so I lost that time when I didn't agree to their terms and started over. In retrospect, I should have posted here first. Brandon Turner suggested I should reach out!

This is a rare opportunity and estimated by Bob to be $100M mine over the course of 20 years, valued at today's gold prices. The land also has the mining rights attached with the sale, which is unusual for a mining property. I personally have integrity and great credit score, and have and will always pay back everything I have every borrowed. I am working with family and people I trust/have known for many years. Bob has been watching this property for a long time and jumped on it once it was out of some legal issue that got cleared recently. He made the offer back in January, not knowing how it was going to be funded. He told my dad about it, and then my dad put the ball in my court last week.

I will share more info with you if you like, and have a dropbox folder with the details including the executed contract, survey drawings, exec summary, and feasibility analysis. Please let me know if you would like to see it.

Much appreciated,

Sof

Hi All,

I'm looking for private or hard money for developing a gold mine and lodge in Wyoming called Miners Delight.

The time frame is quite short because the contract was executed back in January.

We need to close by Monday the 23rd with about $370K for the land with currently inactive mines, an old lodge and private road.

The loan can be repaid within a year, possibly as soon as 6 months.

I came onboard about a week ago to help close the deal.

However, it hasn't left much time to find the funds, and I have been wanting to work with someone reputable, instead of a random lender I found without a referral.

Can anyone please help me find funding?

Thank you,

Sof

I ended up going with Unison an equity share partner specifically for owner occupied investments. 

The deal was super smooth and legit. Everything worked out great.

There wasn't any information on biggerpockets about this, so hoping this information helps someone else as well.

I will be there and excited to meet everyone.

Does $85k buy 100% of the quadplex?

I know it's possible with PenFed credit union to get a non-owner occupied HELOC with a reasonable rate.

Hi All,

I live and rent in Santa Barbara right now, and looking to buy a house for about $875k-$925k, to own and occupy myself with my family for at least the next 3-5 years.

I'm wondering if any investor would be willing to put down say 15% for a fair equity share of the future sale, or if there's a better way to do it.

I can put down about 15%, and have amazing credit, but the conventional loan limit for Santa Barbara county for a SFR is $625.5K, and I haven't found a jumbo loan lender able to do a higher loan limit due to rental income on my investment property being less than a year in. Plus, I'd really like to avoid PMI if possible.

I figured I'd brainstorm here and see what others might suggest, since there are so many experts and helpful members. Please let me know what you think about an equity share or other approach.

Thanks in advance!

Sof