New-ish Investor Seeking Advice
Hi All,
Long time lurker, first time poster... I'm looking for advice from those of you who are seasoned and well versed in the real estate investment world.
My background quickly: I've been employing the buy/hold/rent real estate strategy for the last 8 years or so. I have been able to slowly grow my real estate portfolio to 8 properties. 2 quad-plexes, 1 duplex, and 5 single family homes. I have financed all of them using traditional 30-year fixed financing with 25% down. I have approximately $150k in equity spread across all of them and my average LTV is approx 60-65%. I have an additional $30k in free cash.
I have been slowly saving my cashflow and using that to make downpayments on each new purchase.. it's slow and steady, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I feel like I am leaving money on the table and not maximizing my potential.
What strategies would you pros recommend I research and/or pursue? I have not done any cash out refis to finance more properties, nor have I ever sold a property.
This is an image of my current property numbers before property management expenses (10% mnthly rent). I pay water in the quad-plexes and maintain home warranties on all of them (cost roughly $375 per year).
Any feedback would be much appreciated. I'm looking forward to the conversation..
Cheers
I think a safe and secure strategy is to lend out your money as a private lender. You can borrow a little bit against the properties you have and lend that at a slightly higher rate than you are paying. You might have to do some non-traditional investments at first with a smaller amount of capital; mobile homes, land, <30k properties if you're comfortable. This strategy poses less risk and a slower gain but in theory a steady one.
Originally posted by @William Vargas:
Hi All,
Long time lurker, first time poster... I'm looking for advice from those of you who are seasoned and well versed in the real estate investment world.
My background quickly: I've been employing the buy/hold/rent real estate strategy for the last 8 years or so. I have been able to slowly grow my real estate portfolio to 8 properties. 2 quad-plexes, 1 duplex, and 5 single family homes. I have financed all of them using traditional 30-year fixed financing with 25% down. I have approximately $150k in equity spread across all of them and my average LTV is approx 60-65%. I have an additional $30k in free cash.
I have been slowly saving my cashflow and using that to make downpayments on each new purchase.. it's slow and steady, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I feel like I am leaving money on the table and not maximizing my potential.
What strategies would you pros recommend I research and/or pursue? I have not done any cash out refis to finance more properties, nor have I ever sold a property.
This is an image of my current property numbers before property management expenses (10% mnthly rent). I pay water in the quad-plexes and maintain home warranties on all of them (cost roughly $375 per year).
Any feedback would be much appreciated. I'm looking forward to the conversation..
Cheers
Looks pretty good actually. A lot of people have a tough time getting $100 - $150 per month per property. You are doing much better than that and they should be paying attention to what you are doing. A couple of things are not stated so we don't know, but are you ready for any capital expenditures that are bound to come up (roof, heat AC, etc) and can you live on the current cash flow or are you doing a 9-5 as well? Most importantly you haven't stated any goals that I can see, so don't change anything until you decide what your goals are. Remember, once those properties get paid off it is all cash flow and that is where you want to be. Get your cash flow solved and that frees you up to build wealth. I think you are doing just fine. Do more of the same.
Thank you for the replies!
Steven, the private lending idea is interesting but I'm more looking for ways to expand my real estate portfolio vs just make money. Unless I'm not understanding what private lending is all about, it doesn't sound like something I'd be very interested in.
Bill, I am ready for expenditures. All of my cash flow goes into a real estate business account that doesn't get touched by me. The mortgages, any expenses, and downpayments for new properties come out of this account. Maintaining home warranties on all of the properties helps as well... AC goes out... $60 fee and it's replaced.. It has really come in handy.
I do not rely on the cash flow for living expenses as I am active duty military so I have a very secure income for at least the next 15 years.
It's hard to nail down a specific goal when I don't know everything that is possible. Generally, I'd like to continue to expand my portfolio and increase my monthly cashflow to infinity if it's possible and am looking for the best way to do that.
So far I have stuck with the conventional financing (30 year) of non-commercial properties and have been able to slowly expand by buying roughly 1 property per year... I've read blogs and watched YouTube and of course have seen Grant Cardone go on and on about commercial apartment complexes being the end-all-be-all so it got me thinking that I was doing something wrong.. If not wrong, then at least not efficient or the most effective.
With that said, any additional input/dialogue is appreciated
Cheers