All Forum Posts by: Todd Powell

@Nathan Gesner No, I would not evict, but several companies out west here do require it. Its also in my Oregon lease paperwork stating it as a requirement @Kelly Iannone  My agent told me I should make them as per Oregon law, but I would not enforce or evict, but it would sure protect if its an industry standard, so I ask the question to see what others are doing.

@Chris Bruneau is this your inheritance money or still your parents? My answer would change based on that info. I would for sure stay clear of the stock market. If its your money, I would do a 1031 and move that money into more units to leverage better cash flow. If its your parents money they might need the safer path of keeping it and raising rents on it if possible. By keeping it they could access the cash from a sale if they absolutely had to. I have many properties and a solid position with a 401K in the stock market. Control the things you can control, and stocks are not one of them. We are also way overvalued in US stocks and its coming down Stocks riskier today than real estate. Thats a general statement and location and markets of RE makes the difference, but stocks are NOT the answer. Just my two cents!

@Stephen Neto sorry and been here before myself. Do not be overly nice as it does not work. Enforce your rental agreement you inherited and follow this closely. Unapproved tenants and smoking pot I am assuming is not approved in your paperwork. I failed to endorse with past tenant and just hoping they will pay and being hopeful is not enough. Post on their door and serve them accordingly, and do this promptly. You will be happier in the end, trust me.

@Greg M. What type of claims would be covered using your tenants coverage ? I really need to learn more about this. Thanks !

My insurance agent says I can require my tenants to have renter's insurance. I run a pretty tight ship as far paperwork and managing my properties, but this is one area I maybe failing in. I appreciate any thoughts here?

Last thought here. My accountant told me this last tax season that Trump and tax laws had changed. I had to identify where the $421,000 was spent into each deal IF I wanted to lock those funds and write off the interest. In the past, it was a little easier, but now it was tougher. I was easy as I knew which deal had each amount of money accounted for.

Also, I secured $225,000 interest only with my local bank, Citizen Bank in Corvallis, Or, on my non owner occupied 4 plex near OSU. I will tell you that this rate is 1.5% higher than my personal house, but I have used this to flip. Create profits and churn the same dollars and pay only as you use the funds. I did a flip this summer and two wholesale flips, as I pay down this monster HELOC. The deals are harder to find on SFH's right now, but I feel we have only one more year of decent RE environment before this cools down in 2020. Again, just my thoughts.

@Sam Shueh and @Dawn Brenengen are absolutely correct! I forgot to mention I had a great W2 job, now DTI, and a 840 beacon. The lender will absolutely look at the entire picture for sure! They did not care about me using my HELOC, and my son has done the same thing several times to acquire deals up in the Portland, Or area.

@Frank Costa I can tell you, this has been in my wheelhouse for sure! I have used my primary home since 2002 and have increased my interest only line of credit MANY times over the years. I also had HELOCs on many non owner occupied with B of A before they wiped them out in the 2009-2010 crisis. What I can tell you is that some will say this is risky, but its been the cheapest money I can get my hands on. Some investors will say, never use or risk your own home, but I think every investment has some risk to it. Other investors will say to leverage every penny into real estate and using your HELOC is smart.

I have used my HELOC to pay cash for fixer properties countless times and using the same money over and over again. I also have used it to buy into a 72 unit with a 15% ownership, costing me $202,500 of the down payment. I then sold off some older triplexes to pay this off, and increased my cash flow.

This last year, I bought a 5 plex and a 8 plex 50/50 with my older son and I used 100% of the down payments from my personal residence HELOC, and the lender fully understood what I was doing. It happened to be MAPS Credit Union in Oregon, so my purchase was in a sense 100% borrowed money, or NO money down. I also bought 3 different 4 plex units, all of which were fun down, using these funds. My down payments and all rehab were 100% HELOC funds. I have created lots of cash flow and massive appreciated values in these run down buildings.

I obtained this HELOC out two years ago from KeyBank with their 90% LTV at prime minus .25% for a 15 year draw period. It was the best I could find out there. Again, for most of these years, I used Bank of America until they made a West Coast decision back when in the bad economy and I will never use them again.

I have made a lot of money in the last 15 years using my HELOC, which was only $60,000 to start out with. Today, its $421,000. These are just my thoughts and some would disagree with me, but I didn't know any other way to make the bold moves which have made me money time and time again. My intention is to refi when rates look attract on the 4 units or less. The bigger commercial are already set in motion with a different structure.

I hope this helps, but the key if buying a dollar for .60 cents which many say is impossible to do. I would disagree, it just takes a lot of work to find them. If you buy right, the cash flow helps in doing 100% financed deals out of the gate! Hope this helps!

@Chris Chartrand What I have done several times is get the property under contract, as part of the deal, ask for the slumlord to serve 60 day no cause (in Oregon), after you have concluded your inspection period. Several sellers have done this, and some ONLY when I have increased my earnest money substantially. In one case, I refused to close on the 4 plex until a couple tenants were out as one was not paying rent, and the others were big time heroine users. I wanted to close and hit the ground running, without dealing with problem tenants and no rent. On other properties, I have asked for deeper discounts to inherit the seller's know problem tenants. This is all easier to do when you are dealing directly with the seller, which I have done many, many times in off market deals! Way better deals than the MLS I might add, but they always come with lots of hair on them. I agree with @Marcia Maynard's thoughtful post as well.  

@Maugno M. I totally agree that @Costin I. is spot on. IF you put a ring on that finger, I would figure out how to protect the two of you mutually together, not to separate before and after assets. She owns you anyway unless you have prior agreements, but doing LLC's can be smart. I know local attorneys that own properties and do NOT do this, as you have to do a separate tax return for each one and they cite you have to be proven negligent to get sued, not to mention everyone worries about that even though national numbers don't support those worse case situations. With that said, we did several separate LLC's for each apartment unit and one attorney said to make it easy, use the street name in each one. For example, PowellProperties21stPl, LLC PowellPropertiesMiltonSt, LLC these are my real life examples.