All Forum Posts by: Zachary Cuneo

Hey everyone. My brother and I want to start our LLC here soon. As we were getting ready to submit everything to the state, he discovered that due to some sort of oversight, his divorce never went through. It was filed, but never finalized. He and his wife have been separated for 2+ years now with very little, if any, contact. They were married and separated in Arizona and she now lives in California. He is going to get the process started again right now and that leads me to my question.

If we were to get our LLC going while he is still technically married, would his "wife" be entitled to any part of the company? Would it be better to start the LLC with just me as the sole owner, and then once he finalizes his divorce, add him to the company? We basically don't want to risk her getting any sort of ownership in our company. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Good Morning,

My name is Zachary Cuneo. I currently live about an hour north of Seattle and I wanted to start a house flip project. However, I will be moving to California this Summer, no later than July. My question comes in three parts:

My first one is a general question: Since I will be doing this by myself, should I get an LLC or Sole Proprietorship started before I buy and purchase it with the business name? If so, how would I go about getting that started and how long does this process take? I do want to get started as soon as I can due to my limited time frame.

My second question is more specific: If I were to get an LLC or SP started, would I be able to use it when I move to California to continue flipping houses under that business? Would it have to be moved to California or could it remain as a Washington LLC/SP? There's a chance that I will come back to Washington in 2020 since I'm just going to California for school, but that's not a for sure thing.

If it's not able to be moved or operated from while I'm in California, is it worth getting it started up here at all? Should I even bother getting my first project started and just wait until I move to California to get started?

Any advice you guys can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Hey everyone,

So I can't seem to get a straight answer on this, so I hope knowledge here will help to answer this question. I owned a Duplex from May 2015 until December 2017. I moved in on July 15, 2015, for a total of 2 years and 5 months of residence. I was always under the impression that an individual filing single is exempt  from any capital gains up to $250,000 on their profit if they have lived in the property for 2 of the last 5 years (last 10 if military). However, I had to file an amendment for my 2016 taxes, and while doing so, the representative (at H&R Block) told me that since i rented out even part of my property, I do not qualify for this exemption. At best, I would be exempt based on the percentage that was my personal use. For example, in a 1,000 sq. ft across 2 units (2,000 total), if I used 200 sq. ft. of it for myself, and the rest was rented out, then i can exempt 10% of the capital gains on the profit. Can anyone here verify if this is true?

@Michael A Rytina, with all due respect, could you please send a PM to Mr. Short regarding your question? I would the topic of this post at hand to be addressed rather that a side conversation develop that is unrelated to the main topic. Thank you.

-Zachary Cuneo

I am currently reading J Scott's book on Flipping Houses, and will be reading his book on Estimating Rehab Costs next. @Adrian Chu, I actually have many questions that I feel are better asked in person. I currently live up in Whidbey Island, so I want to do my first flip up here, to keep it local to me, but I am completely willing to travel in order to learn. I am a part of REIA WA, however everytime they have an event/seminar related to what I'm interested in, I can't seem to make it.

My main question is how do I get started? What tools are best to use to screen properties and their potential ARV? I do see quite a few distressed properties every day, but I'm not sure how to inquire about being able to take a look without giving proof of financing, which is what most people want you to have before you look.

-Zachary Cuneo

Hey everyone,

So have been interested in getting into flipping houses for a while now. I've been learning as much as I can through forums and books and what not, but I was hoping to find someone local who has been doing this for a while and is willing to take on a "mentee" so-to-say. I'm not looking to be part of any deals, I just want to see and learn the process first-hand.

I currently own a duplex and have been a landlord for just over 2 years, but from what I can tell, that's easy compared to flipping houses and I don't want to jump in by myself.

If anyone here is willing to help me out, that would be great. Thanks.

-Zachary Cuneo

I appreciate all the answers everyone has given me. After looking through different offers from banks around here, I think I might go with a 5/5 ARM with Navy Federal. It has no PMI and if I'm able to get a 6-unit, I'll easily be able to hold it until the 5 year mark when the rate switches and I could look into refinancing to a conventional, all while keeping my VA loan on my current duplex. All in all, I'll have 7 or 8 units renting out, while I live in 1. Still crunching numbers, but from my preliminary calculations, I'll have some great cash flow.

Hey everyone. So I'm coming up on my one-year of using one of my units as a primary residence and was wanting to start looking into purchasing another property. Currently, the only way I'd be able to do that would be to use another VA loan. However, as I stated above, I am currently using a VA loan. So I have a couple of questions:

1. How do I go about making my current mortgage into a regular mortgage (not thru the VA)?

2. If I do manage to do the above, will I begin to have PMI?

3. The property I'm looking at is has 6 units, but two buildings (3 units in each). Are they treated as one whole building on a plot of land, or two separate Triplexes?

4. Let's say I do have to have PMI if I don't have my currently mortgage as a VA loan anymore. My brother wants to start investing and we were talking about going in on a house together and he has never used his VA loan. Would we both be able to apply for a mortgage as a VA Loan with just him using it?

I hope these questions aren't are understandable. Any help someone could provide would be awesome. Thanks.

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone. I heard about this site before, but didn't sign up until recently because  I didn't think it'd be this responsive. Thanks to those of you nearby that extended a colleague request and a meet and greet. I look forward to learning everything I can through here and through meeting other investors in my area.

My name is Zachary Cuneo and I bought my first investment property, a duplex, in Oak Harbor in May 2015. I currently live in one unit since I used a VA Loan, but I'm taking this opportunity to do force appreciate. I am 23 years old, but bought when I was 22. My main goal is to own a Quad by next year. Overall, I want to be able to live very comfortably with my investment income paying all my bills.