All Forum Posts by: Vala Shahabi

Welcome to BP @Beau Cote 

What kind of investing do you do? What kind of networking are you looking to achieve? 

Good luck!

Vala

Welcome to BP @Kobus De Villiers 

Seems like a lot of folks from Chicago here. Lots of opportunities in the greater Chicago area. Best of luck!

With $1 million dollars I would buy about 14-15 SFR in the Cleveland area. on a average 10% cap rate I'd net about $8,500 a month or $100k a year. I would then refi the properties and take half the equity out. Assume appraisal value is 20-30% higher than what I purchased. The leverage would def eat into my cash flow but with the $500k of money I just generated I'd buy 7 more properties. I'd rinse and repeat until I'm comfortably leveraged and have a strong cash flow. When all said and done I'd end up with about 25 properties, $7,500 monthly cash flow and about $1.3M in equity.

Welcome @Roger Kanbar  to BP!

California is tough for buy and hold unless you have a lot of money and ok with lower cap rates. Are you eyeing Sacramento because of the lower prices?

Hey @Michael Modesto welcome to BP! We have very similar backgrounds. I've also been in tech since '99 running the full gamut. I try to stay pretty close to what's happening here in "silicon beach". Do you ever attend any of the events? 

While tech makes us a very nice income it is RE that builds wealth. Of the areas you mentioned we like the Chicago market best. As you know Chicago has good amount of tech companies and a very strong economy, one of the best between coasts. You're on the right track, California is great for appreciation but you need to go out of state for cash flow, especially if you you're shooting over 5% cap.  

Best of luck, let me know if you need any help.

Welcome @Account Closed  to BP!

We have very similar backgrounds! look forward to connecting.

Hey @Hardley Dupont I know exactly what you mean, but unlike you even if I drive an hour I'm not going to be somewhere I can find properties in the $40-$100k range that is delivering some solid cap rates. At best, I may find something about 1-2 hours outside of LA in the 150-200k range with 4-5% which isn't worth my time. So all the investing we do is out of state in markets we see a strong cap rate. It's important to be familiar with an area, but I believe it's more important you have a solid local team - property management, title, contractors/sub contractors, leasing, insurance. 

You're on the right track with getting the LLC setup. Ideally you want 1 per property but i've seen people put a 1-3 properties in each LLC. Make sure you have a good CPA as part of your team.

Best of luck!

Welcome @Kevin Hoag to BP!

We do a lot in Cleveland, I would love to connect with you.

Welcome to BP @Dan K. 

Its refreshing to see someone just put it all out there and make an interesting conversation. I do agree that inflation is a strong possibly. Believe it or not, the rich is already experiencing this simply by market demand. Walk into a Land Rover dealership and you'll be floored by how difficult it is to buy a Range Rover and how much you'll pay over MSRP. The fed has eased the rates for too long and its going to catch up to us all. 

I like your conservative approach of looking out of state in a market you feel can better handle the inflation. I recommend you read this BP blog http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2014/08/18...

Best of luck on achieving your goals!

Welcome to BP @Hardley Dupont  Are you investing locally? What's your strategy to get the next property?