All Forum Posts by: Jack C. Cheng

@Scott Mclaren I actually went through the same thing as I was growing my rental portfolio. I had properties all in individual LLCs and the paperwork, renewals, and accounting just became overwhelming. Now I batch the properties into LLCs based on risk, value and location. I still have a bunch of LLCs, but it's a manageable amount. As far as the OA, I would strongly recommend investing in a proper, attorney drafted OA. That will save you a lot of headache down the road and offer the proper protection to your assets. Happy to answer any questions or share my experiences if you like.

 Yes absolutely. Feel free to DM me anytime.

@Saurabh Patel it would depend on what your investment goals are and what is most important to you. Cash flow? Stability? Appreciation potential? If you're looking 4-8 units, then it'll probably be mostly cash-flow based. You would do well in many Midwest states like Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Iowa, etc. Also, parts of Texas, New Mexico, Mississippi, and Alabama have good markets for relatively low priced, cash flowing multi-family properties. Good deals can be found almost anywhere, but putting together an investing plan will help guide you to the right markets. I'm happy to chat and answer any questions if you want to drop me a message. Cheers,

@Kate Jones, most salaried brokerage jobs, admin jobs, and PM jobs will pay around the same. I would recommend finding the job that will teach you the most about investment real estate while you're there. The experience you will get will be helpful as you work towards your investing goals. Personally, I would recommend finding a job with a PM company as that will give you exposure to the rental process. You'll walk away with experience of how to market and show rentals, qualify tenants, and gain experience in the day to day operations of a rental property. You'll also meet other owners of investment properties and they always have great knowledge to share!

At a real estate brokerage, you'll mostly be exposed to paperwork and contracts from agents that are helping clients buy owner-occupied properties. Still good experience, but you won't learn nearly as much about investment properties.

You definitely don't need to be licensed and I wouldn't recommend spending time and money on acquiring a real estate license if you're going to be moving out of state soon.

Any other questions, feel free to reach out! Good luck!

@Daniel Fridrij I'm a real estate broker, investor, and also a Zillow Premier Agent. When you contact through Zillow, they'll assign you to one of the Premier Agents that advertise in that zip code. This is random so you'll probably get a different buyer's agent every time you make the request for info. If it's important to you to speak with the listing agent directly, scroll down to the "Overview" section and the listing agent's name and brokerage will be listed there but with no contact information. You can google their name and find their phone number and email on some other site and contact them directly.

You certainly don't have to work with a buyer's agent, but it does have it's benefits especially if you're not buying local. The listing agent represents the seller and typically isn't going to be able to advise in your best interest. Also, in most markets, buyers do not pay commissions so there really isn't any cost to you to use a buyer's agent. If you are going to use a buyer's agent though, I would recommend interviewing agents who are investor-friendly and have a track record of working with investors. Most agents don't have much experience with investment properties.

Any other questions, feel free to reach out. Good luck!

Hi @Jason Reinhardt. It's harder these days to find cash-flowing as-is properties. Most MFs are under rented so it's common to need to bring the rents to market value before you see cash flow. I would base my numbers off the market rents and not current for calculations and consider you'll need 12 months to stabilize the property and bring the rents up. Where in Southern Ohio are you looking? I often find solid deals in Cincinnati.

Hi @Jonathan Bogner. I see you're in Janesville! It's really not much different than any standard lease if you weren't living in the property with some minor edits. My recommendation would be to start with a WI lease template (I'd be happy to share one with you), and then go through and strike out any terms that would not be applicable to the roommate depending on your arrangement (lawn care, utilities, etc.), then you can write in your terms that aren't included in the boilerplate language of the lease agreement. Happy to provide some guidance on this if you like. Just shoot me a message.

@Rachel Mellies I would recommend you visit in person at least a few times to get to know the area and interview candidates for your "team". When investing out of state it's critical to have a good team (property management, realtor, lender, contractor, etc.) Good PM and contractors are hard to find, and even more so since the pandemic due to labor shortages. The difference between whether a property is an asset of liability is oftentimes determined by who you hire. I'm in Wisconsin and have investment properties in four other states and been through this process many times. Happy to answer any other questions you might have.

@Antonio Paz always unfortunate when this happens. I've experienced it multiple times myself. Start with a second opinion from an HVAC tech to see if it's something that can be fixed. If it's a newer unit, there should be no reason it can't be repaired. If it's an much older unit then replacement is probably more cost effective anyway. You may want to review your purchase contract with your agent to see if anything was disclosed by the seller in relation to the condition of the HVAC system.

Hi @Alex Bollero. This is a common dilemma for a lot of buyers right now. I'm a Broker in Wisconsin, but also own investment properties in Indy. My best advice to not try and time the market as it's impossible. There were a lot of buyers who dropped out a couple of years ago because they thought prices were too high. Now they all regret not buying when they could.

Like with any investment, real estate will have its ups and downs. However, the values will continue going up over over time. This is why real estate is such a great hedge against inflation. If your intention is to live in the property for a few years and then rent it out, you'll do just fine. Rents will keep increasing, so your cash-flow will only increase year over year since your expenses are pretty much fixed. Good luck and let me know if you have any other questions!