All Forum Posts by: Andrea Lane

 Carletta, I just want to clarify.  After a house has been sold at a tax sale you want to purchase the  lien, or you want to go to the home and see if the owner would be willing to sell?

Why do you want to purchase a car in your business?  Unless 100% of the miles are for business, all personal miles will be taxable.  I have always used the standard mileage deduction on my car.  The only vehicles owned by our company are vans used for construction and repair only.  Personally, standard mileage has always worked out better.

Check with your tax accountant to discuss your use and see what is best in your situation.

Go do more investigating.  The prices have gone up - but not that much.  We pay from $500-1500 depending on the window, and that is installed with wrapping

What is the niche you are interested in?

Elad,

I agree NYC is not always the best market, but let me ask you a few questions:

- Why on the East Coast (Syracuse, NY - Wilmington NC - Harrisburg, PA are a few) 

- Have you looked at middle America, the price points are frequently better and taxes are lower (Columbus OH - Fort Wayne ID - Atlantic City NJ)

- How will you build a team in an area you are not in?  This is key to investing at a distance.

- Do you plan on going to the location and researching the area in person?  It is tough renting in states that are not your own but it is more difficult to do flips.

I would look at the suburbs for any cities you may look at, there are usually up-and-coming areas with better deals.

Good luck, let me know if I can help

Michael,

I would contact your landlord, they probably have insurance to cover an unexpected water issue.

It looks like you live in Newark.  That area has great potential as well as the Oranges - if you are willing to do some work to the house when you purchase.  How close to the city do you want to be?

I understand that people buy for write-offs, but there are limits to writing off passive income against active income.  Since you are probably not a real estate professional ask your REAL ESTATE tax account how much you can write off. (I believe your account needs to be an investor or at least a real estate specialist to give you the best advice). 

I believe if property cash flows at least $1 on purchase, you have done your due diligence (location, rental comps, rental saturation), and the house is in good condition (no capx in the first 5 years) - then it has good potential.  It sounds like you are willing to pay the handyman on your dime.  

I do not work in the CA market, and I also will not have buy and holds in an HOA. You may be able to control rental income, but you cannot control HOA fees and "special assessments".

Let me know if you have any questions

Many contractors do not like working with flippers. Flippers underestimate jobs and then expect a top contractor to do the work for peanuts.  You can find a good contractor to work with you on a flip.  The problem is usually the flipper creates cheap estimates to make a deal work.

BEFORE YOU PURCHASE - create a good repair estimate

- there are many resources to teach to repair estimations and deal with analysis, use them

- Don't put in $4,000 for materials in the budget (because you can do the work yourself) and then look for a contractor to do the work at that price.

- If you have never done the work, ask a contractor to give you an estimate (as a newbie you may pay for this service and s/he can take it off his bill)

- build relationships with contractors

Your rehab should provide income to contractors as well as you and I think many rehabbers/flippers forget that.  A good contractor willing to work with you over and over again is worth his/her weight in gold.

I would suggest you sell them if your partner can not refinance them.  You will be on the hook for the payments since you guaranteed the loans whether you did subject to or changed the terms of the operating agreement.