All Forum Posts by: Abel Curiel

Quote from @Karinne Ovalles:

Hi BiggerPockets community,

I'm looking into a real estate deal that needs to be paid for with cash, and I could really use some help finding a private investor or lender who might be interested in funding this kind of purchase.

I'd appreciate any advice on:

- How to approach a private investor about financing a cash deal

- Ways to make the deal attractive to someone providing cash

- How to reduce risks for both the investor and myself

- Recommendations for lenders or investors who commonly work with cash deals for rehab or investment properties

I'm happy to discuss more details privately with anyone serious about funding opportunities. Any tips, connections, or suggestions you can share would mean a lot!

Thanks so much for your help!

Karinne

Hello Karinne,

I'll shoot you a DM as I have questions on the type of deal (residential, commercial, etc.) and strategy (flip, long-term rental, str, etc.).

To approach a private investor and reduce risk, I'd recommend analyzing/underwriting the deal to the best of your ability and with conservative projections. The BP calculators are pretty good.

As far as making the deal attractive, you can highlight property features, location, and future upside. However, if the #s don't work, many investors will lose interest.

Lastly, have you considered Hard Money? @Shalom Yusufov is a local HML.

All the best!

Abel

Quote from @Jeffrey Miller:

Hello !

I live Brooklyn where I own my primary residence (2024), and 4 long term rental units in California I purchased between 2017 - 2021.

I’ve been asked to move abroad to London, and I’m wondering if there is any strategies to minimize tax on my US properties. 

Currently I just have good landlord / umbrella coverage on all the properties and don’t leverage any LLCs. However I get absolutely killed on a tax basis having long term rentals and earning a good W2 income. 

The California properties bring in about $8K / month, with mortgage / escrow / prop mgmt costing about $5k. Which is nice, but then comes income tax on the $8k at my personal rate killing most profitability. 

Now add on my primary unit in Brooklyn and I’ve really exhausted most tax deductions. 

I would love to keep my condo in Brooklyn and rent it out long term - and I could probably net even with mortgage + escrow. 

However, the income taxes totally kill the plan.

My question is this: Any one have insights for moving all properties into LLC and just pay pass thru taxes on the profit / loss ?

As I leave the country it would be great to have the business be self contained and make it possible to keep all my units. 

Hello Jeffrey, all the best to you on your new journey!

A similar concern was raised last week at BPCon. You may be better off having a separate LLC for each property and having a separate entity own each individual property LLC - not tax advice!

I'd be happy to recommend a RE Investor-friendly tax professional based in the boroughs. 

Abel

Quote from @Robeson Edouard:

Hello,

I am a long-time listener to a few of the BP podcasts, and find myself in a bind that I'm hoping this community can help me conquer.

Briefly about myself, 37 years old, Brooklyn native. Purchased my first duplex property in 2014 and still hold it. I rent to Section 8 tenants and learned the ins and outs from my parents, who are also Section 8 landlords. I have had only 1 turnover and expect my tenants to be long-term indefinitely. 

Recently, NYCHA/Section 8, HUD, and HPD have begun to push several regulatory and compliance initiatives. I personally believe that these policy changes are a way of grasping greater control over private owners. One of these changes is in the ability to increase rent. It appears that NYCHA is now requiring valid comparables from non Sec-8 properties to approve rent increases.

Hence, my current dilemma. I am trying to increase the rent from $2600 to $2700 (unit 1) / $2800 (unit 2), both are below the tenant's voucher standards. NYCHA responded with a reasonableness of $2200, unless I can provide comparables.

Would anyone located in Brooklyn/Queens border be willing to provide me with a rent roll or redacted lease of a 2 bed 1 bath non Section 8 / non rent-controlled apartment currently or previously at $2700 and $2800? I have 26 days to submit it.

I'm sure this is an unusual request, but I have seen great things come from productive communities.

Thank you.

Hello Robeson,

NYCHA and Section 8 are taking a huge risk here because these initiatives could drive even more landlords to overlook voucher recipients for future vacancies.

Great advice on here so far especially the point made about contacting the case worker directly. Ask the caseworker if showing data on recently rented (not listed) apartments would suffice. The reason is that other property owners and tenants are unwilling to disclose lease terms. 

I'd be happy to look into rented listings for you in the nearby zip codes to assist with your submission. I can retrieve data from my MLS that would confirm the monthly rent amount and lease signing date.

All the best!

Abel

Quote from @Francisco Mercado:

Hello everyone,

My name is Francisco Mercado, licensed Agent in/around Fayetteville, NC, active military and investor ready to network and help.

 Welcome to BiggerPockets Francisco and thank you for your service to our country.

Some of the best ways to network and help on BP is by contributing on these forums.

You can set up keyword alerts which will result in you receiving notifications each time a location (i.e. Fayetteville) is tagged OR a keyword (i.e. North Carolina investing) is mentioned in the forums.

All the best!

Abel

Quote from @Jayson Magee:

Hi all, I just joined BP today and am excited to continue learning. I am looking for advice on how to flip houses buying from wholsellers using private money lenders.  If this is a good idea or if there are better ways. Thanks!

 Welcome to BP Jayson!

Whether or not this is a good idea depends on your current situation, past experience, and long-term goals.

If you have acquisition experience, construction experience, or other relevant skills, you may be ready to begin analyzing deals and making offers.

If you have no prior experience in flipping or construction, this venture will be very risky. To mitigate the risk, consider finding partners and/or a great deal at well below-market value.

The other experience that is super important when flipping in New York, is experience with building departments. Long Island has different towns, incorporated villages, and other local municipalities with different requirements for renovation projects.

These details are important to iron out before getting deals under contracts with wholesalers. Overlooking acquisition, construction, and local guidelines could result in losing your deposit on wholesale deals.

As an alternative, I'd recommend looking into house hacking in New York.

All the best!

Abel

Quote from @Carlos Velazquez:

I am new to real estate investing an ventures an need some guidance on attempting to complete a wholesale for my first time. I have a property in mind I have a few variations of contracts to send to the listing agent and I have a mental script ready to call the agent an attempt to get the property under contract. The issue I am having is finding investors in general I have No Idea where to look guidance an advice would be greatly appreciated. 

Hello Carlos,
Agreed with @Nicholas L. - when wholesaling, it is most effective to find off-market deals so that you can be direct to the seller and have more control over the deal. 

Properties that are already listed are usually priced near, at, or above market value. This doesn't work for wholesaling as you need to secure the deal well below market value for the deal to make sense for you and the end buyer.

Regarding finding buyers, I'd look for local investors via meetups, contacting your sphere of influence, or by finding buyers who are already active in the market as @Izaiah Barba suggested. 

I'd recommend focusing your time and efforts on marketing to potential sellers to find a deal. Cold calling, mailers, online marketing, etc. could get you in front of many potential sellers. If you find a good deal, finding buyers will be easy. If you focus your time on finding buyers, you'll still need to go out there and find deals. 

Once you're in touch with the potential sellers, the job becomes 'follow-up' aka keeping in touch with them. To find and convert sellers you'll need to work on and improve your sales skills - mainly, you need to know what you're doing (the process), know the product (market comps), and know how to get to the closing table. You can expedite the learning process by establishing a team (attorneys, inspectors, contractors, agents, etc.) to help you along the way.

All the best!

Abel

Quote from @Jayson Magee:

@Nicholas L. My question is, is it a good idea to buy a house from a wholesaler using a private or hard money loan. Or is it better to just find a property on the market with a regular loan. I am looking to get into the BRRRR method and trying to find the paths to do it

In New York, most wholesalers will allow you 1 walkthrough, maybe 2.

I'd recommend if you're purchasing from a New York Wholesaler, aim to have your contractor with you for your walkthrough so that they can assess the potential renovation costs. 

You should simultaneously be searching on market properties since many BRRRR options appear on the MLS. You can aim for properties that are beyond the median Days on Market (DOM) for the area.

For financing, you can use FHA (incl. 203K) or Conventional for most on-market deals.

For wholesale deals, they'll likely want you to use hard money. In that case, be sure to have a contractor estimate and a comprehensive list of comps (Active listings, pending, Sold, expired). Analyzing comps should give you a clear picture of ARV.

All the best!

Abel

Quote from @Samuel Al-Harbi:

Hi all, my name is Sam and I'm an investor of 6 years (3 buildings, 8 doors) in Massachusetts. I recently became a Realtor to help others get started and build their businesses with real world experience. If you are interested in connecting, please send me a DM and we can schedule a call 

 Hey Sam, wishing you all the best on your new journey!

To connect with local investors (active & prospective), I'd recommend remaining active on these forums and checking out local events.

You can also set up alerts and follow locations (i.e. Boston) to receive notifications each time a person, topic, or location of interest is mentioned in a forum post.

Abel

Quote from @James McGovern:

@Abel Curiel so what would you put in the agent remarks on the mls?

 Property is being sold As-Is

Quote from @James McGovern:

In a sellers market I was strong in saying that inspections were for education purposes only. Now that the market is shifting I have been willing to entertain major issues and a few minor one. I have seen an uptick in inspection reports listing items that are not code violations and an abundance of them to impress homeowners with their thoroughness 

how do I signal to buyers that they shouldn't expect any negotiation on reports that contain a dump of minor items

 Hey James,

To set expectations with the buyers, I would highlight the fact that the property is priced according to comparables and current condition aka all minor items were factored into the asking price and therefore that price is firm.

If you want to share general numbers, you can signal by saying, for example, that: the most recent comps sold for an average of $300,000. Fully renovated properties on the same lot size in the area sell for $330,000. That is why we're priced at $288,000.

If you've already been on the market for a while, this might not work... the buyers will know that the market hasn't responded well to the asking price.

Another thing to mention to the buyer to set expectations is that the seller is not in a rush to sell and therefore is not entertaining low-ball offers or price-drop requests. 

If you have already received and rejected lower offers, you can mention this to the buyers as well.

All the best!

Abel