All Forum Posts by: Aaron Mazzrillo

When the above poster claims he is "parking his money" he doesn't know it, but he means permanently. I don't care what those Midwest houses appraise for. Just cuz some guy with a clipboard and fancy paperwork tells you the house is worth $65K doesn't mean you'll find a buyer ready, willing and able to pull the trigger on that deal and when the dust settles, that sales price is likely to be much lower than fancy clipboard guy claims it should be. That house will be on the market, vacant, along with lots of other on the market, vacant, houses all looking for the same low income, subprime buyer who is most likely more happy being a renter. I've got two of those awesome deals left in my holdings. Awesome deals I did when I didn't know what I was doing. Now they are anchors producing crappy returns and I almost can't give them away. As they say; when you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.

If I only had $40K to work with, I'd find a proven flipper in a market very close to me and I'd lend him/her the money secured by real estate, using escrow and getting a lender's title policy. I've done lots of these exact small loans when I was starting out and they were the only early on deals that paid off very well again and again.

This question has been addressed hundreds of times on this site. I'm no lawyer, but I can assure you wholesaling, or assigning contracts is not illegal in California. Double closes are a waste of time and money. The only person who benefits is the escrow officer who gets to double dip on the same transaction.

 Removing the mortgage interest deduction is another "talked about" idea, but it is never going to happen. Just like prop 13 will never be repealed in California. There are just some things that are here to stay and both of those can be counted on.

 And yet you come to a website dedicated to making you wealthy. Maybe someone will "stick it to you" someday.

The most entertaining aspect about this whole "top of the market" discussion is what people expect to happen once we do see a downturn. What happened in the last downturn was a fluke. I bet there is nobody on this board who will live long enough to see another crash like that in national pricing. There may be some regional reason prices come down, but it isn't going to happen on a nation... global level like it did in 2007. 

Most people haven't been in the game that long so they think that was a normal down cycle. It isn't. That was like the great depression of real estate and it won't happen again. The opportunity to buy property at such absurdly discounted prices will elude most investors for the rest of their career and it will go down in history as "the good ole days." Becoming a single family house investor millionaire will most likely never be so easy again.

We are not in a bubble. We might get frothy. We might see some long term stagnation. We might see 5% or less appreciation for many many years. Sitting around even discussing top of the market nonsense is a waste of time. Your breath is better spent talking to sellers. Unless construction suddenly explodes and housing tracts start popping up on every vacant lot I drive by or N Korea actually launches a nuke at us, I see no reason not to be buying, leveraging and holding properties for long term rental income yesterday, today and tomorrow.

He is going to try to fight 35 well off people. Not a fight I'd want to take on just to make some pocket change on parking. They'll probably drown him in legal battles.

I would say a VA loan is not going to pencil out. You live in the OC and nothing is selling here below a few hundred grand, unless maybe some dumpy 1 bed condo in a horrible location. It sounds to me like you need to start prospecting for a new roommate, or stop living above your means. When I went to college, on the GI Bill, I worked several jobs and went to school full time. I lived in a crappy, crappy apartment. I mean this place was crappy. But I did what I had to do so I could focus on what I wanted to do.

I can't imagine finding a new roommate in the Anaheim area would be difficult. Ask your buddy if he has any referrals and maybe post a flyer where you go to school or even ask your classmates. Might find someone to car pool with and save even more money.

Yeah, you're doing it wrong. You keep going to banks getting conventional loans and you're going to run out of money eventually. How do you build a portfolio of income properties if the government has you capped and can change, manipulate, or deny you loans whenever they feel like it? You need to develop private lender resources. Buy used houses. You get more bang for your buck and with private money you have an unstoppable force to grow as big as you like.

Still buying. When you pay wholesale prices, it doesn't matter if the market is at the top. I'm buying 35-40% under value and able to secure, most often, 100% private financing. Even if the market dips 25%, I still have enough spread to sell. If the market goes down, everything I like to buy will be on sale so I will just buy more of it. 

I would never shut down my business and sit on the sidelines just because someone shook their snow globe and saw "Correction" in stead of "Merry Christmas."

If you're just managing other people, I'd just pay you management wages with a bonus for reaching a certain goal. If you're actually doing the buying, I would suggest a % of net revenue. As a wholesaler, if you were buying for me, 15% sounds fair. Once a goal is met that number can increase to 20%. Meet then next goal and go to 25%. Example; As a wholesaler, I'd pay you 15% of the first $200K net. Then 20% for $201-500K. 25% for everything over $500K. This would be based on a Jan 1 ~ Dec 31 fiscal year and restart every year.