All Forum Posts by: Stuart Grazier

@Kieler Stubbs Look for these qualities in both in this order: 1) similar core values, 2) knowledge, and 3) experience. I'd recommend getting lots of referrals and then get on the phone and ask the hard questions to those individuals to ensure your values align with the folks that will be helping you. 

Colorado Investors - does anyone have any experience owning  a Quarter share or Half share of a condo near the ski resorts? Is it worth it? Can you make money off of them via short term rentals when you aren't using it yourself? I'd love to connect with someone who is currently doing this strategy and seeing an example with numbers to show if it is worth looking into more. 

@Daniel Lao There may be some wholesale type lenders that will allow 20% down on a duplex, that being said, it will depend a lot on your situation. As discussed above, most will require 25% down on a 2-4 unit, and 20% on a single family. 

@Brandon Itkin A lot will depend on your budget. I personally think a good area to house hack, with probably the best chance of getting the highest rent-purchase ratios will be Aurora. You have the military base close by that could provide quality renters, plus quite a few of the major hospitals (Childrens, CU Anschutz, etc). 

I'd highly recommed  you get prequalified with a lender before making offers, as that will make you much more comptetive in the market. I can also recommend a few good Realtors who sprecialize at looking for properties to house hack. 

@Anson Young, author of the Bigger Pockets book Finding and Funding Great Deals, is a full time Investor and Realtor in Denver, Colorado which is one of the hottest real estate markets and becoming one of the more expensive markets as well. He is going to dive into some strategies to help us understand how we can buy in an expensive market like Denver, and make it profitable as an investment. Additionally, we'll hit on the benefits of using low money down loans like the VA and FHA loan to allow us to get into these types of properties without a whole lot of money. We'll discuss house hacking, renting by the room, and how to find great deals to allow for instant equity.

@Jay Young You should talk to @Daniel Haberkost about what it truly costs to build a property from ground up. He's doing it in Pueblo where the land is much cheaper so if you are open to moving more South, it may be worth it. I think the land is too expensive around the Denver metro to make it worth while. 

@Eamonn McElroy Do you have any recommendation for a specific donor advised fund? And what have you seen as far as fee structure verse ROI inside of the fund. Is it worth it? Is there a certain amount of money or certain amount of time required to be held inside the fund before contributing to the charity before it makes sense?

Also, could you set up a donation to a donor advised fund through a real estate syndication? Example: you decide to donate 1 Unit of shares ($50,000) from your apartment syndication and give the 8% preferred proceeds to the fund, plus the equity of it when you sell it. If you do that, can you deduct the full $50k on year one, even though you haven't completely given that amount quite yet? I would assume there is a huge tax advantage to doing that for the GP & LP Investors if it flows through to everyone's K-1. Am I assuming correctly? 

@Tim Lowrie If you are looking for more passive ways to build your income, doing BRRRR deals probably isn't too passive. Even if you find someone to help you source deals and manage the rehab there will still be quite a bit of active engagement and decision making on your part. You will naturally be active in most stages of that transaction, especially the rehabbing and refiancing stage. Investing in syndications as a limited partner investor is a great way to passively make money and get all of the benefits of real estate. You can also do private lending to investors who are actively flipping and wholesaling houses which is also very passive. I'd personally recommend staying in the real estate space; investing in ATMs and restaurant business chains seems risky to me (but I don't know much about them either). I'd be happy to jump on a call and discuss some of those investment strategies if it is helpful.

@Joseph A Gonzales I was specifically talking about your first post about trying to do 2 purchases inside a year, using the VA loan on both properties by trying to change title and refinance via an LLC on the first to free up your entitlement. This goes against the purpose of the VA loan.

@Joseph A Gonzales The VA will catch that very quickly and won't approve a 2nd loan in the same city. Don't try to bend the rules...that's called mortgage fraud.