All Forum Posts by: CK Hwang

Hi Chan Kim, sorry, I know this is a little off topic for you, but as far as using a LLC for liability protection, I have found that having good insurance is probably as or more important than the company structure itself.

Hi Karen, I am base din South OC and would love to attend any meet up. I think somewhere elite Irvine is great because it's in the middles for people in the north and south. For myself, i would really like to have a meet up for the purpose of networking, especially for me finding wholesalers that actually have off MLS deals to sell. There is enough of these meet ups with speakers already and most of the time, it is the same information be rehashed over and over.

If you are talking about title binding insurance, yes, i find it totally worth it if you are flipping because the title company will normally charge a far lower fee to do the title work/transfer upon the sale of your flip. The last house I did, I saved around $1200 at time of sale by having title binding.

Have you tried seeing if foreclosure radar covers your area? I use it and find it excellent. I am not sure what states they cover, but they do a pretty good job for California.

Hi Nick, I have looked into cashing out for foreign investors as I work mainly with foreign dollars to fund my fix and flip projects. So far this is what i have found

1. It is relatively difficult to get a home loan or cash out financing if you don't have a social security number or credit history in this country, even with property as collateral.

2. You would have to look towards niche lenders, generally retail banks in the USA like Chase, Wells Fargo, forget it unless you can find someone in their head offices to talk to.

3. When you do find someone, a niche lender, who will lend, interests rates are high. Very very high, much higher than if you could borrow money at home.

4. However, several years ago, last time I checked, in 2009, some banks likes HSBC, Standard Chartered has loans that allowed you to buy investment real estate in the US with very favorable interests rates, but the problem being of course that you had to play the currency exchange game. Not sure if they still have these products available.

Wish I could give you more help, but it's this problem of not being able to borrow in the US that I have a job. :D

Bill, I agree with you, I am getting a little nervous. I just sold one flip here in Socal, and what would have traditionally sold to a young middle income family can now only be afforded by relatively wealthy retirees.

Personally, for my market in South Orange County, CA, it is a strange mix of low but increasing inventory, but also slowing price gains as the housing prices are bumping up against the ceiling of the buyer's level of affordability.

So from my perspective, it feels like my market is slower compared to 2012 and 2013 as prices of homes coming onto the market are priced high enough for buyers to walk away, so I feel we are on the cusp of something happening. Not sure what though.

Hi Kevin, here's my experience in markets that has experienced rapid inflation in the last decade (primarily in Asia). Not all property types respond similarly to inflation. Low mid end real estate (bread and butter properties) tends to do ok as people still need housing and are forced to buy or rent and prices rise based on demand and generally keep in line with inflation.

Mid high to bottom of high end prices tend to be crushed because these "prestige" properties tend to be bought by people either speculating or trying to keep up with the joneses and they tend to be highly leveraged.

The very high end stuff shoots up into stratosphere, but they are bought by a very very select group of people.

So besides macro economics, property types (and as such the location) matter as well based on my limited experience.

Bill for me the financial crisis played out a little differently. While I didn't lose money, the thing that hit me hard was the opportunity cost as a result of poor timing. I'm am trying to avoid this a second time around.

Hi Duncan, I've had the 2016 timeline for good buying bandied around a few times and was wondering if there were any economic indicators you were using to estimate this? ie unemployment rates, interests rates, oil futures etc?

Part of the reason why I'm asking the question is because as we get closer to 2016, I'm starting to wonder if I should just sideline my cash or try and squeeze in a couple more flips before doing so. This question has since revealed to me that while I have measurements to enter the market, I need to develop measurements to exit the market as well. What those are, I'm trying to learn.

Hey, Jay, any reason you're exiting the market at this time? When you say rolled into the next market, do you mean a different geographical market or waiting on a different timing of the market?