All Forum Posts by: Arif Siddiqi

I have a couple of paid-off rental properties in the midwest that I acquired in the last few months. I am working with a legal team to get these properties under a legal entity. I am thinking of taking heloc for those properties and using that to acquire more investment properties. I will really appreciate if someone can share the best strategy to accomplish that or aware of any pitfalls to avoid. Thanks in advance

actually I am not involved in flipping myself but I have seen a few investors doing that over here. My investment philosophy is to go for buy and hold positive cash flow rentals generating at least $150/m after accounting for every possible expense. I don’t count depreciation or any other tax incentive in my calculations for the similar reasons many other informed investors pointed out above. I am myself a newbie and just started investing a few months ago and now have 5 plus rentals and one more under contract, all using heloc from my principal residence and having a good credit history to qualify for 20% downpayment 

@Anthony Dooley same here, after living in Bay Area for 10+ years and analyzing multiple cash flow scenarios, I have found you can’t get a true cash flow property and flipping is the name of the game over here. In last 3 months, I have acquired 5 cash flow positive properties in Midwest area at a price for which you can’t even get a 1 bed condo in Bay area. If you are looking for positive cash flow residential rental properties, stop wasting time and look for the greener pastures in the east, while enjoying superb weather over here.

@Twana Rasoul exactly my point, when I started looking at real estate investments last year I attended a few free seminars here in Bay Area. Every time it ended up pitching a weekend function where you need to pay 15k+ to attend with a promise of mentorship in the end. I also watched a number of youtube videos and really liked one of a Bay Area seasoned commercial real-estate investor and contacted him if he can mentor me and you guessed it right. He asked for $15k to begin with and the condition that he will reimburse me back once we have collectively made $500k in profit in next 2 yrs with me doing all the dirty work. My only question to him was why should I spend my down payment on him when all the info is already available online and I just need a good brain to understand the numbers. What I was actually looking for was an experienced person holding my hands just for the first time so that I can learn the process. I decided to do my own research instead, surfing online, reading great books recommended by BP community over here and fast forward 6 mnths, I just closed my 3rd rental property with 2 more under contract, all cash flow positive. I am planning to add at least 10 more this year because the process now is just to duplicate and earn more.

@Sonya Burns not sure if you can get a second heloc, in my case whenever I apply for heloc to have better rate or credit, the first one gets automatically closed. imo do a refi first to consolidate 1st and 2nd mortgages and then get a heloc for the best rate and credit range

@Mark Fries what about $100 after accounting for every possible expense that you can imagine including capex reserves, repairs, maintenance, vacancy, leasing, property management, utilities, financing etc.

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Thanks Greg for the great advice. I am planning to make it my first ever investment deal after analyzing a ton of properties in last few months. I got this one from one of the turn-key rental investment websites. I ran numbers through my very conservative spreadsheet and now on BG and in both cases, it looks like a decent starter. I am not much concerned about appreciation at this time as long as I am cash flow positive in excess of $150/mnth. One issue I am worried is that the existing tanent is late in rental payment during last few months and PM had to be served eviction notice and slap fines a couple of times to make him pay. There is still 4 mnths remaining until lease expires. Hope this may not be a big concern as long as he finally pays up. 

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posting again in a moment