All Forum Posts by: Tyler Mullen

I have experience with PEMCO w/ HO coverage since 2012 and they have been my car insurance provider for over 20 years.  They do not take on anything high risk and if it seems like they do it's probably full of exclusions.  (This is because they are only Washington State based.)  It sounds like that's what they're claiming now, that you're not covered for this.

When I sold the house I bought in 2012 and bought my current duplex built in 1920, they refused to take it.  I was then referred to an Allstate agent out of Issaquah, they issued my coverage without any issues whatsoever.

None of this helps you with what's already happened but for the future it sounds like you want to shop around.  Try Allstate, Farmers, just call around and ask questions.  You need a larger company willing to take on the risk, a national company.  There are many hungry agents out there.

Two reasons you'd be best served to change your company policy to "no cash":

Otherwise people know you have a lot of cash laying around.  Word travels...

Tenants claim they paid you already, or they pay you $100 short this week and next week say they paid you in full.

Hey Ricardo,

Congratulations on the new house, welcome to BP and the PnW!

Tyler

Welcome to the BiggerPockets community @Myles Christian!

What about real estate interest you, what strikes your passion?

How much money do you need to start?  Depends on what you want to do; if you haven't decided that yet that's not a problem at all.  Set yourself up for being able to try the opportunity that will invariably present itself someday by getting your personal finances locked down.  This is where the age old advice freshly presented by @Scott Trench is outstanding, you have to live below your means and save as much money as you can.

5 years ago my wife and I bought a house.  "You were just lucky", one might say.  No.  That was not the only action we took.  We also improved the house with custom closets, landscaping, curtain rods, additional cabinets, fencing the back yard...

We also lived below our means so we could buy stocks.

We participated in an employee discount stock purchase plan.  

We also contributed to retirement accounts through work, we are not at those companies anymore so now these funds are available for self-directed IRA real estate investments.

We paid down other debts.

We saved into hard assets like PM and art.

Because we began filling these money buckets 5 years ago we had the funds available this April when my wife found the property she really wanted 5 years ago but we could not afford.

You have to do a lot of things at once, keep researching, learning, sharing your knowledge, connect with people and build up your assets so that once opportunity comes, you're ready to pull the trigger.

Good hunting!

@Griffith Gustafson

Welcome to the community & congrats on Amazon!

There are quite a few REI meetings throughout the Puget Sound area, you can track them down through BP and also meetup.com.

Is there a specific area in REI that speaks to you more than the rest?

Can you just do both by buying a house with an ADU, or a 2-3-4-plex? Use your VA loan AND have your rentals?

Details in different regions matter more than a small change to lending standards.  Granted it does add fuel to a fire... and I don't know much about Memphis or Scottsdale but there is no "bubble" about the fact that Amazon is eating retails lunch, just like Expedia ate the travel agents lunch.  This fact plays much stronger in my market than lending standards.

Values around Puget Sound are increasing rapidly because of the success/types of employers based here (Amazon, Microsoft, Starbucks, Expedia, Costco, Alaska Air, PACCAR, Weyerhauser, Cray, F5, Redfin, Zillow) which is drawing in many high pay employees, the lack of supply noted by @David Dachtera, the copious number of all cash buyers (including non-US Citizens whom for example just bought my last home), exacerbated by restrictive building permits/zoning and the lack of land due to the amount of water/shorelines and steep hillsides; not so much because of a incremental lowering in lender standards.

Median Seattle Home price $670,000, not exactly a first time home buyers market.

https://www.zillow.com/seattle-wa/home-values/

Overlay that chart with stock price charts for AMZN and EXPE...  

@Justin Nichols 

What is your real question?  In your post you didn't actually ask a question, there's no opinion, problem or call to action for us to offer advice.

So my advice to you is... to borrow the phrase from Mr. Sinek, "Start with Why".  You need to be honest and clear with what you want and why.  Then you reverse engineer to get there.

What is your goal, your "why"?

Once you can clearly articulate it, then list out the steps to get there & just get started.

Stocks, flips, rentals, PM lending, these are just a means to an end.  Don't worry about picking "the right one path", you can't tell that ahead of time, you have to get started and reassess the path as you go, change course if needed.

So if you want cake, how do you get it?  You need to bake it, ok, how do you do that?  Put the uncooked cake in the oven.  Ok, how do you do that?  Preheat the oven and mix the ingredients.  Ok, how do you do that?  Buy the ingredients, ok, how do you do that? Put on shoes and go to the store.  Does it matter that you know ahead of time how to get there?  It's not required yet... as you may choose to drive then find out later your car won't start, so you reassess and decide to take a bike.

TM

Traditional would be fine.  What you're describing might be new to you but it's actually not uncommon, just need a lender that understands what you're trying to accomplish and an attorney to draft the transfer deeds correctly.

You could try to seller finance, likely no mortgage in this case...  which might fit the other two sellers needs perfectly as they inherited the house (instead of cash) that tells me maybe they didn't need/want the cash right now.  Or if they were trying to avoid taxes that still helps as the can recognize the sale over the term instead of all at once.

And just fyi there can be a situation in probates or trusts where there isn't enough liquidity, combined with multiple properties/assets, especially if they vary widely in value, where a mortgage would be attained by one or more of the heirs in order to equalize the distributions when some heirs want cash and others want the "asset"(house/business/art work etc).

Tyler Mullen, CFE

I should have added the JT seller you're partnering with will likely want to consult CPA and attorney to properly structure the deal so that it is not a "sale" for them in the IRS's eyes, as that would disturb their stepped up cost basis on their 1/3 interest.

This is also important is places where property taxes are frozen until a the property is transferred, like California... what's that called again, Prop 9?

Tyler Mullen, CFE