All Forum Posts by: Bob Woelfel

@Grace Lerner as a lender every deal is different.  From your situation it looks like the lender would be more comfortable with the single family option.  There are more comps to justify that direction and you only need one sale to cash out and not three different buyers.  I'm guessing the rehab and risk is less with the one family because you have fewer kitchens and it just is generally going to cost less going that route.  I could be wrong, but that's what I see on the surface.  Good luck.

@Juan P Gomez probably isn't enough information here to really know the complete situation, but I agree with the others.  I'm not a big fan of newer investors using debt for down payments and taking on more debt.  That is a house of cards that can come down quickly if the numbers aren't great or if you aren't capitalized enough.  The safest play is to sell and use your equity for a DP on a duplex where the tenant helps cover your mortgage, thus allowing you to save more money.  You might be further ahead that way and it's a lot safer play as well.  Good luck.

@Sean Witherspoon I was in a similar situation as you a number of years ago. I did a HELOC on my personal and used it to invest in other projects. I had hoped that it would be a short term thing, but challenges arose and I wasn't able to pay the HELOC all back when I thought I would. I ended up having to carry the HELOC for 3 years making payments and only was able to pay it all off when I sold that house 3 years later. Now, the HELOC did allow me to do other investments, but when I moved out of that old primary and turned it into a rental I wasn't able to really cash flow it because of the additional debt payments. Leverage can be a great tool, but when you leverage to take on more leverage your cash flow and reserves can really suffer. It all worked out for me in the end and appreciation was definitely my friend, but there are risks associated with leverage and taking on too much debt. Many times it doesn't get talked about enough on this site. Good luck.

@Jessica Brown I would research Morris Invest on this site. I feel like they've been talked about a lot.

I realize you want to be "hands off" on this, probably because you have a demanding job and career and life, etc.  As a new investor learning the game there really isn't any such thing as hands off.  You have a steep learning curve trying to figure out what markets, who to invest with, managing them as a property management company, etc.  If you think you are going to just buy from someone and they take care of everything and the money just shows up in your bank account over and over each month I think you are going to be really disappointed.  There are lots of turnkey horror stories on this site.  If you really need to be hands off I would suggest putting your money in a fund and being happy with the lesser return they provide.  Just my 2 cents.

@Sean Witherspoon Since you are new, I would keep saving and try to only use the 10k you have now to get into your first property.  Don't put your primary residence at risk by leveraging that any more than it already is.  After you've done some deals and have more experience then I would say you could start to consider that.  Good luck.

@Dan Forguson it really depends on your property.  If you have a house with a basement and WD hookups down there I would say definitely not.  If you have a main floor closet space that only has room for a stackable unit then I think it makes a lot more sense to consider it.

It's not as bad as I thought, but it's probably because they house is actually really nice.  Staging is supposed to compliment the house and allow people to envision their things in the space and how they would utilize it.  This actually detracts from the house.  Vintage can be cool, but for most people that means small doses of it and based on the house finishes I don't think that's what the investor was going for.  I would hope the agent showed the investors some photo's of previous houses, but I'm guessing that didn't happen.  Hopefully the house still moves.

@Tyler Hespeler just depends on your situation I guess. If you have some cash for a down payment and want to hold onto a rental property then I would talk to a bank and get pre-approved. If you want to do a flip or find a property that needs a lot of work then I would get pre-approved by a HML. In my experience the seller and the deal itself will tell you what options you have to buy. While there are seller financed deals out there, 90% of owners will want you to just buy the property outright.

I always recommend new wholesalers to just start finding deals first.  Don't go build a buyers list and have nothing to bring to them.  That doesn't help anybody.  Start finding deals and you will find buyers.  If your market is anything like mine, if you truly have a deal it won't take you very long to find someone who will buy it from you.

First things first.  What do you want to do?  What type of investor do you want to be right now?  Once you've determined that then start marketing to these vacant houses you are finding and start taking calls from sellers.  Good luck.

@Tyler Hespeler the reality is when most investors say "cash" they typically mean they have a private or hard money lender willing to do the deal for them.  Granted there are those that actually buy with their own cash or have the ability to, but in my experience they are the minority.  Many wholesalers have no intention of buying it themselves and end up selling it to a "cash" buyer.

Just keep you letter vague.  Tell them you saw their house and you are interested in buying it.  When they call you can inquire about various ways of purchasing it from them.

@Warren Kong welcome to BP.  Glad you like Kansas City.

The short answer is most investors use a combination of both. The MLS is competitive and hard to find consistent deal flow there so it's wise to use a number of different methods to find properties. Wholesalers can be a decent option as well, but if you are looking in specific areas most of what they send you won't match your criteria. Also, just because a wholesaler sends you a property and it's "off market" doesn't mean it's a great deal.

We manage all of our own stuff so I don't have any firsthand experience with PM's that I've used, but DM me and I can give you couple options I've heard good things about.  Best of luck.