All Forum Posts by: Michael Mazzella

Aloha @Jasmine C.,

Matt Matsunaga, esq., has been doing my real estate contracts for many years. He's generally regarded to be one of the best contract attorneys in Hawaii. He is with the Schlack Ito law firm.

Good luck on your project!

Aloha @Dustin Amodo

May Hung
Jeff Grad

These are 2 of the top CPR consultant/attorneys on Oahu. There are others, but I'm most familiar with these 2. May Hung has done most of my CPR work over the years. 

I've been getting this question a lot lately. You can expect about a 4-month process.

Good luck with your deal, brotha!

Aloha @Gabriel Beverly, okay, shoot me an email with your resume and letter of interest. I'll forward it to my acquisitions team leader - Maybe, if we can create a win-win, you can intern with my company. 

Aloha @Karl Platzer ,

I've used Diane Sandlin, CPA, for many years now. She's very REI savvy, and she's based out of Kailua. I have over 20 entities to hold my Hawaii properties, and she helps me keep it all together. She does bookkeeping and taxes for many RE investors here on Oahu. She doesn't always accept new clients, though, depending on how busy she is. Google her contact info.

If you need to set up new LLCs in Hawaii, it's pretty easy to do it online. It takes about 15 minutes and costs $72.50. Go to my YouTube channel if you want to see a video on how to do it online.

You're welcome. 

May Hung and Jeff Grad are experienced and reputable for doing CPRs. May handles most of my CPRs.

Aloha @Jonathan Paz , I've used Diane Sandlin, CPA, for quite a few years now. She's pretty savvy on the REI-related areas of the US Tax code. I've done lots of fix-n-flips here in Hawaii and a large portfolio of rental properties on the US mainland, and Diane has handled it all for me, bookkeeping and tax-wise. You should be able to google her for her contact info. If not, shoot me a message. She's based out of Kailua.

~Michael

Aloha @Jasmine C. Congrats to you and CJ on your new addition - I loved the photos on FB! It'll be good to see you again. Let me know if there are any 'hot topics' you and your leeward group would like me to address. Email blast for this event will go out to my mailing list tomorrow or Saturday. Yes, feel free to post the info - thanks! The more the merrier!

Aloha @Connie G. and @Chris LumLee ,

We are doing another 'Jam Session' for Real Estate Investors on Monday, Aug 19th in the evening. (6:30 - 9pm). You can message me with your email address to receive location & details. We do these when we can, there is no cost and no sales pitches! At this event I will be talking about private lending, setting up investment Hui's (syndications), and then an open forum to discuss any REI-related questions from attendees. Its an evening of free coaching. I usually give insights into the local Oahu RE investing market, what's working, what's not working, etc., and we usually review 1 or 2 current deals, so you can see the numbers, how I found it, funded it, problems encountered, etc. Usually, about 50-60 investors show up at our Jam Sessions. Bring all your hardest questions and I'll give you straight-up answers.

That's correct, Ahmad, I have NOT reviewed your comps, nor your numbers. Because you're the salesman in this transaction. Anyone who makes a buy decision based solely on data provided by the salesman... is rolling the dice. And when you're pitching deals with narrow margins, you need fools or novices. A buyer/assignee should ALWAYS run numbers that are completely independent of the pitchman's data.

In attempting to criticize me or my methodologies, you're barking up the wrong tree, my friend. I have done many deals in this area. At this very moment, I have no less than 16 houses in progress (flips and new builds) within a few miles of Water Street. And as a point of reference, each of these typically has a six-figure pre-tax net profit. My company does more house flips than any other company in Hawaii. Sure, there are desperate people and others willing to take such risks and work on narrow margins. Those are the ones who fail and don't last long in this business. 

But if you're trying to wholesale deals in a market you don't understand and/or have little experience in, make sure you overestimate the ARV and underestimate the renovation costs, right, Ahmad? Oh yeah, and then hope that you'll attract novices who don't know the difference.

When an investor is considering the range of comps in an area, s/he should not base a buy decision on the highest comps in the range, that's speculative and a risky assumption to make. 

Regarding your comment about renovation costs, again, your comment is risky and would require a buyer that is naive. My contractor has built over 1,000 houses here on this island, and I've done 200+ deals here, so even while I can renovate houses for a lower cost than most of my investor colleagues, what @Donald Hodge told you earlier in this thread is correct. You would not budget $30k to renovate this house, especially sight unseen, and especially when making a buy decision. The smarter investor will budget more than s/he thinks is needed, and work down from there and finalize the numbers when they do the site tour/scope of work/best & highest use analysis.

Put up a good deal and I'll be the first one in line to buy it from you.

Enjoy your day, 

You're absolutely right, @Donald Hodge !

Comps in the past 6 months place the ARV in the $250k - $260k range. Even assuming an unrealistically low rehab budget of $40k, by the time you exit and pay your realtor and lender, you've LOST MONEY on this one. This is exactly what a bad deal looks like.

Total Noob bait. The wise investor walks away from this one. ;-)

There are much better deals to be had here on Oahu. I have 3 more deals in escrow at the moment. The smallest one has a $90,000 profit in it.