All Forum Posts by: Brandon Wagner

@Vanika Walcott

Happy to chat as well.  

If it's not to late, it sounds like you need to talk to a lender about that home and what it'd look like to purchase for yourself.  If the numbers make sense do it.  If not looks like you're forced to sell it. 

You could offer it up as a loan assumption to any other Veterans.  That might be helpful.  Tough part is they'll have to come to the table with roughly 175K to buy you/your ex out.  That isn't easy to find. And it takes longer than a normal sale.

If you sell, look to house hack.  That's the best way to get started.  It's like learning to ride a bike with training wheels.

If you aren't seeing the returns you want on your condo, I'd go ahead and sell it (using 1031) and invest into something with better returns. You can also look into a Delaware Statutory Trust (DST) This might be the best combination of selling tax free and investing in something passive. It's like investing in a syndication.

It also sounds like you don't want to do much leg work.  That is a nice benefit of Syndications.  You do have to vet out the deal/operator though so it isn't truly passive. 

You can also invest your money with other investors especially fix and flippers and just take a return that way.  Some lenders will vet the deal for you, but you should do some due diligence as well.  You can get a 10%+ return on your money in the current environment.

Most people look to scale portfolio, so can consider selling your condo and investing in say 2 townhomes a little further out in NOVA.  Will need some debt/financing, but numbers will still be close to penciling out and you will get better appreciation in the long run.  Does involve a little more effort on your part though.

DMV is a large area that has a lot of options.  It's important to have someone who invests themselves and understands what makes sense.  In general first couple things to iron out are your opinion/goals on Cashflow VS. Appreciation and your amount of time/money you have to invest.  From there can decide on the best investment strategy for you. 

For those getting started confusion/being overwhelmed is the first hurdle.  Review all the options out there quickly.  You can get stuck in just determining which real estate investment strategy to use.  Find one that suits your personality and your cash on hand ready to invest.  Once you decide that it'll be a lot easier to find something your looking for.

Here is a general overview I consider.  

Low Money, Lots of time, Go getter attitude

Wholesaling, Rental Arbitrage

Low Money, Little time, Generally friendly, willing to sacrifice comfort for future wealth

House Hacking, Long Term Rentals

Lots of money, Lots of time, Can hire out teams to do work for you. Good at building relationships

STR, Fix and Flipping

Lots of money, Little time, Good with numbers/analyzing investments

Private money/Hard Money Lending, MTR

 In NOVA the A and B class properties aren't going to cashflow right now.  It is an appreciation play.  I'd look around the Reston, Fairfax, Centreville, and Gainesville areas though.  

On the MD side, Frederick is one of my favorites too.  I grew up there.  Anywhere along 270 would be a good choice for high quality properties, just watch out for the high taxes and rent control limits in that area.  

Sounds like a great opportunity!  You should definitely capitalize on it if your family is willing to work with you on this.  A few options I would recommend to you.  

1)  You can always have them sell it directly to you.  You don't have to put it on the market, and deal with the competition.  You can do this with a title company.  You may want to find an lawyer or an agent to help you with the paperwork.  The title company can probably provide this for you too.  (You can find an agent willing to do that for 1% of the sale price)

2) You can do the trust strategy too.  Although you may not want to, that is probably the most effective way for you to inherit the property and pay the least amount of taxes.  Just including it because it is an option.

3) You could discuss directly with the family member to find something that works for you and them in the creative finance space.  I wouldn't overthink this too much.  Just understand what monthly payment you need in the end, (with loan, taxes, insurance, utilities, etc) to still be able to make X amount of profit after you start renting it out.  Then set up the creative finance in a way that you can make money.

4) You could form an LLC or an LLP with the family member use that to define who is responsible for what, and how the cashflow/equity is split between you both.

5)  You could be the asset manager/property manager for your family member.  They own all of the house outright, you take a small fee of the rents for the work you do for them managing the property.  

Long story short there are lots of options. Just need to find what works for you and them

If you don't have a primary residence yet, start there.  Buy a home that you could see yourself living in for 30+ years. (doesn't mean you have to)  Put down as little as possible (3%) and rent out as much of it as you are comfortable with.  You'll have plenty in reserves to handle any bad situation that might come up.  Get your feet wet, see if you enjoy being a landlord.  If in a year you enjoyed the experience, do it again.  

Positive cashflow will be hard to find in desirable areas of MD and VA. This is balanced out by appreciation. If cashflow is critical to you, be prepared to sacrifice a desirable location or your comfort level. You can always pull a Craig Curelop and sleep on the couch.

Best of luck!

A lot of people won't even give an email to let you know you didn't get the property. I would say it is a nice gesture though, so that people know and can move on.  I'd keep it short and sweet.

"Thank you for your submission. We have decided to go with another applicant."

I wouldn't add any specific reasons why they lost. In the end like you said, you can only offer 1 property to 1 tenant.  It happens all the time to potential tenants they'll understand.

Congratulations! I'd be excited to hear it how turns out in the end.

Most people look for 2.5X - 3X Rent as a Gross salary requirement.  

Background and criminal check all adults staying in the unit. 

Determine if you're willing to accept pets or not.  

Make sure you stay in compliance with the Federal and VA State Tenant laws. You can't discriminate based on the following characteristics.

Fed regulations are race, color, religion, familial status, gender/sexual orientation, & disability

Virginia regulations are Source of income, Military Status & Elderliness (55 and older)

You can always search listings on sites like Zillow, apartments.com, and redfin to find examples of what people are posting out there.  Look for the professional users like Agents or property managers. They'll have better examples than the mom and pop investors out there.