All Forum Posts by: Tim Delaney

Quote from @Barak Ben israel:

Hello, BP Community Family & Friends, my name is Barak Ben Israel  Born & raised in the state of Israel I’m 28yrs young. Recently relocated to the United States i Am A CITIZEN & I’m just starting my journey in real estate. I’ve been researching and learning about the industry, but now I’m ready to take real, actionable steps. I’m eager to gain hands-on experience, build connections, and learn from experienced professionals who have navigated this path successfully. My long term goal is to invest & own rental properties for long term and wealth building,  while my short term is to master The BRRRR strategy, alongside with Fix & flip houses, etc.I would love to connect with a mentor or anyone willing to share insights, advice, or guidance to help me start off on the right foot. I’m open to learning, taking action, and providing value in any way I can. If you have any recommendations or wisdom to share, I’d truly appreciate it!”

Barak.

 Welcome! Where are you located and where are you looking to invest?

At the very least find some local meetups and start networking with investors in your area even if you don’t plan to invest locally.

Quote from @Josephine Ch:

I have a 7 day vacation stay voucher to use up, expires today.

 BPCon 2025 in Las Vegas October 5-7: https://get.biggerpockets.com/conference/

Quote from @Sylvia Castellanos:

As a land investor, I recently created an LLC. I wonder of someone can comment about the notice I have just received in the mail from the Pennsylvania Business Posting Department regarding it.

“Your business is required by Federal Law to post a current compliant labor law poster in the workplace. Federal law requires that this poster be placed on the property of the business whether you have one employee or 1,000….The poster must also include information about workers’ compensation benefits. Failure to post required state and federal labor law notices can result in fines of nearly $40,000….To obtain your state and federal employment labor law poster, please detach the bottom portion of this letter and return in the enclosed envelope with your document processing fee of $92.58.”

I am the only person in my LLC and this will not change. I work out of my small home office, where no one has a need to visit. The only thing more absurd than my wanting to hang the poster where no one will see it, is their indicating that I need to pay a $92.58 processing fee. And a close second in the category of absurdity is their threatening me with "fines of nearly $40,000" if I don't post it where no one is going to see it anyway.

I am wondering if other people who are a one-man LLC have experienced this, and what insights they can bring to bear on the subject.

First of all, unless you are actually running payroll for yourself then you have less than one employee so you don’t need to do that.

Second, take a close look at that letter. The government doesn’t charge for those types of posters. I am almost certain that the letter came from a publishing company trying to trick you into paying them a ridiculous amount of money for something you could have gotten for free (if you even needed it, which you don’t). Hopefully you didn’t already mail a check.

Quote from @Kyle Hess:

Quote from @Tim Delaney:

Quote from @Kyle Hess:

Quote from @Tim Delaney:

Are you offering on market or off market? If off market, talk to a title company or a lawyer depending on whether your state is a lawyer state - they may have templates you can use.

If you are offering on-market talk to the listing agent if you really don't want your own agent and ask them if they will charge you a buy side commission if they represent you in the transaction.

I'm not sure yet if I'll be purchasing on or off-market. I'm looking at both right now. 

I understand I could ask the seller's agent for dual representation but I think that defeats the purpose of not using an agent. 

 Why are you so against using an agent? If you have never done a deal before then possibly spending a few thousand dollars to have professional guidance would be smart. You can always ask the seller to cover the cost of your agent. For all of my flips since the rules changed last year we have still been offering the buyer's agent commission so the buyer is not paying their agent.

I recently sold my first piece of real estate without an agent and had very successful results, which is why I'm looking at purchasing without an agent as well. I feel like a deal would be much easier to obtain if the seller knows they don't have to pay commission to the buyer's agent. It's more money in their pocket which could result in more money in mine as well. Thoughts?

Yes, if you are going off market you are correct.

If it is on the market anyway it wouldn't hurt to approach the listing agent and tell them they can keep the buyer's agent commission or give it back to the seller to make the deal more attractive to the seller.

Quote from @Kyle Hess:

Quote from @Tim Delaney:

Are you offering on market or off market? If off market, talk to a title company or a lawyer depending on whether your state is a lawyer state - they may have templates you can use.

If you are offering on-market talk to the listing agent if you really don't want your own agent and ask them if they will charge you a buy side commission if they represent you in the transaction.

I'm not sure yet if I'll be purchasing on or off-market. I'm looking at both right now. 

I understand I could ask the seller's agent for dual representation but I think that defeats the purpose of not using an agent. 

 Why are you so against using an agent? If you have never done a deal before then possibly spending a few thousand dollars to have professional guidance would be smart. You can always ask the seller to cover the cost of your agent. For all of my flips since the rules changed last year we have still been offering the buyer's agent commission so the buyer is not paying their agent.

Are you offering on market or off market? If off market, talk to a title company or a lawyer depending on whether your state is a lawyer state - they may have templates you can use.

If you are offering on-market talk to the listing agent if you really don't want your own agent and ask them if they will charge you a buy side commission if they represent you in the transaction.

Not sure what island you are on, but I know there are plenty of meetups in various places. Look up David Bruce (IG: @bruceproperties), Indar (@indarhawaii), Zasha Smith (@investwithzasha), Mike Neubauer (@ourfamilyinvests) - I believe they all run or participate in meetups on various islands.

Don't forget to factor in cost of sale - even if you are avoiding capital gains taxes you still have commissions and transfer taxes. Is the left over cash realistically going to get you two cash flowing assets?

What is your current cash flow and how would that compare? Is there still appreciation potential on this property or the future acquisitions?

What is your long term goal? Do you need/want the cash flow or are you more focused on long term appreciation and wealth building?

Lots of questions, not many answers, sorry. But no one can really give you good advice on this because we don't know your personal situation, your goals or the market you are in.

I'm not an expert in this, but I would think with only one rental unit you are probably wasting money on complicated structures. Get good insurance and make sure you don't commingle your funds between LLC and personal.

I'm not sure what your personal financial situation or net worth is, but personally I think you are probably wasting a lot of time and money on legal structures that don't matter. If you have a substantial net worth and assets to lose then maybe this is all worth while, but you are much better off just getting started on an actual deal.

You already have one LLC in Hawaii even though it doesn't sound like you are even going to do business there. If you establish another one in Wyoming, Nevada or Delaware that would be a second one. Then you will most likely need to set up another one in the state you are operating in. That's a lot of extra fees, documents, and taxes to pay for a business that you haven't even started yet.

Also, you most likely don't want to be flipping and brrrring in the same entity. I have my flipping entity taxed as an S Corp for tax reasons (I only did this after consistently flipping multiple homes/year), but that is not good for holding property. So now you would need to duplicate your complicated LLC structure racking up even more fees.