All Forum Posts by: Stephanie Foster

I had an experience last night that I wanted to share. Let me preference this by stating that my boyfriend and I who are both investors are in our late 20s but still look young. I still think we have a lot to learn as always but have been making ground in real estate. We went to a real estate club meeting and to learn but also connect with other fellow real estate enthusiasts. We have been seeking current contacts for private lenders and other contacts to keep expanding our team. I have always been the cautious one to borrow money as I take it extremely serious. So my confidence hasn't been to the point where I was ready to sit down with a hard money investor, I mean why would they trust me with $300k?! I mean I have all of our documents from balance sheet, investor profile, and even a copy of a generic loan application just waiting for the right time... Last night we met a hard money guy and once we gave a brief overview that we currently own and operate 11 units and have purchased and sold single family as well as completed renovations on all of our properties, the guy took interest into us. I feel like our venture into real estate by taking a conservative approach having passive income may have taken a few years to develop, it is helping us in the long run to build a reputation. While confidence helps in the business world, trust me I am a confident individual, I also play it on safe side. My professional job is in social work- so my mind always wonders off to how hard money lenders assess investors. What kind of things are they looking for besides assets and reliability? Curious minds want to know..

Airbnb in those areas are the best option. Most people rent during the winter then do short term.  I recently went down with my family and could find a reasonable cabin to rent. I'm not sure of the numbers exactly but that area is a prime market.  We are looking at Airbnb on the lower unit of a duplex on a lake that is going to be our long term home outside of Anchorage and the summer months would pay for half the mortgage of this gorgeous lake house.

Look at all of my fellow Alaskans!! I will definitely second what a lot of people have said above me. While some people stated that the rental market is low, we have never had a problem getting our units rented less that 2 days of vacancies. We have properties from Anchorage to Chugiak (just north of Eagle River). I would personally avoid Wasilla as the mass amount of new homes and multi families are dampening the rental market. I would love to chat/meet up with anyone on these forms as we are always looking to connect with other investors. We are currently expanding to doing flips and always love chatting about real estate.

Hi Justin, Well at least you are on the right track of thinking about getting rid of wasted money! We are in Anchorage and have been able to successfully grow our business by purchasing dated properties, updating them and refinancing the next year. With time and looking for the right deal you can find homes that have a little bit of equity and with a little bit of forced appreciation you can accumulate the 20% needed to refinance. It sounds like you purchased this home and are considering where to invest your money. I also think it depends on where you want to go. If you are thinking of buying more homes, you may want to consider putting this one in a conventional loan. Best of luck!

Sometimes finding the ones on the market are the best ones! There may be a few rehab items to be done so if that doesn't scare you away it may be worth it. I am a big proponent on offering low- especially on a property that's just sitting there. You can always go up! My triplex was initially listed at $360 a year and half before I saw it, by the time it came across my eyes at more of a reasonable price at $280k. I went in and after negotiations my sale price was $253! Granted this ended up being a complete renovation but it worked in my favor.

Also- the benefits with going with the FHA and doing a renovation is you will hopefully build equity (make sure the deal works). This will allow you to refinance in about a year into a conventional using the equity you built without having to put any money down. You can reuse the FHA if you owner occupy- we did this on three properties moving every year.

Thanks for the recommendation we will connect with her!

Hello! My boyfriend and I have been working in the real estate field with a few of our own investment properties for the last few years. He completed a single family renovation ($35k), rented it and sold it two years later to put down on a six plex. In the middle of that he acquired a duplex completed some renovations ($25k) and have it fully leased generating great numbers. We are finishing our largest renovation deal of our triplex ($160k) that is fully leased with plans to hold the 11 rental units for income. Now that we have established a good basis for renovations with a team set up- we are wanting to do our first flip. We are looking for hard money lenders but since I only have the triplex experience that was this year, the income isn't on my taxes just yet. He has the three years of proof of income and 8 rental units that are fully leased currently so I am assuming I wouldn't qualify to get hard money on my own. Any advice looking for hard money for myself? We work together so we can just use his income if needed. We do live in Alaska so there isn't any local companies only private lenders. I am also open to working with someone who is more experienced which is always recommended. We have connected with a few people locally but any recommendations would be great as well! We are working on generating leads and getting things rolling so any input is always welcome!

This is great. We are currently in the market to do our first flip. We have done a lot of buy and lease with full renovations so I hope the construction aspect has prepared us to move quick.

@Account Closed- Jared and I did the 203k, the closing costs were a bit higher, but I don't think it was more than 3%