All Forum Posts by: Benjamin Aaker

It's hard to evaluate with only those data, but nice work on getting a(nother) deal going!

I hate to say this, but it's always someone you know. You may not have a rich person in your family or friends, but there are many people out there who have money to invest. Start by networking at real estate investment meetings in your area. It's not about knowing rich people, but more about getting to know people in general. It's OK if you are just starting out. Come to an investor with a great deal and give up a piece to them in return for their cash and you'll have yourself a deal with none of your cash in. 

Good job getting this requirement into the lease. Check with your municipality to determine what you legally can and can't do, but here is my suggestion: The lawn needs to be mowed. The city will come down on the owner, not the tenant. You pay a service to mow the lawn and bill the tenant. Check your lease - many of us put in terms that late rent and fees become part of the rent. The tenant may or may not pay your bill. If not, begin eviction or take it out of the security deposit. 

Go to the property and have a conversation with the tenant. Make sure you have a list of infractions to show them. Just showing up in person has gotten many of my former tenants to leave. Paying to quit is also an option. 

Agree with Sean. Looks like grounding rods. That clip on the one in the back is for a ground wire to attach. There should be an electrical panel nearby inside the house. They are usually solid copper and go deep. You can sand or scrape the side of the rod to see if it is pink which will confirm it is copper. Get an electrician out there to confirm and if so, you can cut them or pull them (with a lot of force). Make sure your electrical panel is properly grounded. The electrician comes into play here, too.

Hi Gordon,
First, I'm not clear on what type of a property you are looking to purchase. You said you looked at a house with detached garage (I presume you'll run your e-commerce business out of the garage). Is this house a multifamily, such as a duplex, triplex, quadplex? In the small multifamily arena, cap rates aren't generally a good measure of performance. Caps are good for comparing across multiple similar commercial properties, but your use case is a place to live plus a garage for your business. If you buy the place and it breaks even, you still have a free place to do business. To you, that's a win, but to others maybe not, which makes using a cap rate unhelpful for you.
1. You need to pay attention to comparable rents. Talk to local property managers to find what rent might be. Hopefully you will use them to manage your property, so they might be willing to talk to you about it. One blind spot is whether the municipality would allow you to run a business out of the garage. Give them a call before buying.
2. HELOCs are great. I highly recommend them. Remember to put the cost to pay back the HELOC into your financial calculations as it looks like you are thinking about. This will have a variable rate and you should expect them to go up in the medium term. What about selling your primary residence and moving to one unit of the multifamily? There's some real savings there.
3. This all depends on what kind of buyer you are. If you are retail buyers, looking for a primary residence, then its 90% feel of the place and the rest is whether you can pay what they are asking. If you are looking as investors, then the financials are the most important. You'll want to look at the place with the eyes of a potential tenant. Is the parking good? Is it quiet and will I have privacy? How close is it to shops and restaurants? What would I pay to live in one unit of this place?
4. Read The Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Gary Keller, the best book for starting investors once they have the real estate mindset.

Don't forget about lawn care, legal, marketing, and accounting. Also snow removal if you live in the north.

Hi Jose, and welcome to BP! I highly recommend multifamily. Look for a 4-plex to buy and move into one unit while renting out the others. This'll pay your mortgage with some left over. Save up for the next investment. Starting out can be overwhelming, so do your research and focus on one thing and each step to make it happen.

I strongly suggest using your VA loan to buy a 4-plex and live in one unit, the house hack. This is a fantastic way to get into real estate investing and usually only works for those just starting out. This is a great forum to learn how to do this. Let me know if you want more info on how to do it.

Good luck, Nathan. And thanks for the update. It's great to see how people get into the larger multifamily properties from so many different areas of real estate.