All Forum Posts by: Brian Engstrom

I can't recommend Chris Voss' book Never Split The Difference enough. He is a former FBI hostage negotiator, and the book lays out some extremely valuable tactics.

To answer your question, I believe his #1 tip is mirroring whoever you are negotiating with. It's more of a nonverbal/psychological tactic, but can be very powerful. 

-Brian Engstrom

@Justine Scheuher, you've given me a lot to explore. If I were to get a local loan for 3.5% down, would it be normal for them to require 1 year living in the property? I had never considering getting an ARM and then avoiding the rate change ahead of time.

What kind of guests do you aim for with your AirBnb? We have State Farm HQ nearby so I'm thinking those travelling for business would be our target if we went that route. I find it interesting to consider how we could stage their stay according to their needs. Thank you for the helpful response!

Brian Engstrom

So I have been weighing the options on what the best strategy is for my current situation and would love any advice that I could get. I've been going back and forth considering househacking a 4plex with an FHA, or doing a live-in BRRRR (unsure of financing.)

My wife and I have a 6 month old daughter and perhaps will have a 2nd child by the time we are ready to close on a deal. We're aiming to save $10,000 in cash by the end of the year and have some credit building (and of course learning) to do in the mean time. We live in central-IL and are targeting a couple of college towns for our first purchase. 

I've been leaning heavily towards doing a househack, but am not sure that we would be able to find an ideal situation for a family - living so close to our tenants/neighbors. Using a property manager could perhaps help with that. Positives I see are eliminating living expenses and perhaps gaining some immediate cash flow. 

Considering our family situation drives me to seriously consider a live-in BRRRR. However, it sounds to me that BRRRR requires a hard-money lender or straight cash to start - and I don't foresee having enough credibility with a hard-money lender, and of course don't have the cash to start. Is it possible to purchase a BRRRR with a 203k loan, then refinance afterwards? (Does this even sound feasible to find such a deal, refi/switch to 80% LTV and still come out of it with cash in hand?)

Any advice is appreciated, especially if I am misunderstanding anything! What's on the back of mind in considering each strategy is of course how efficiently we can take the steps to eventually purchase our 2nd deal. Thank you for the help

Hey Tesfalem - my wife and I are looking to do the same thing. I haven't read Curelop's book yet but it is definitely on my list. Thanks for the reminder!

We're hoping to get a 4plex with an FHA and just started attending open houses to get familiar with meeting and talking about real estate, even though it will be another year before we're ready to buy. Glad to see somebody looking to do the same thing, interested in what kind of replies your post gets. Good luck - Brian

Thank you to everybody for the encouraging responses!

Hello everybody - I am a carpenter and my wife Molly and I are just starting out, trying to learn as much as possible before we find and buy a 4-plex with an FHA next fall. We are in our late 20's have a 3 month old daughter who keeps us motivated to create more family time and money.

We are planning to buy a 4plex around Bloomington or Champaign, Illinois, so we're learning and saving as much as possible in the mean time. (Podcasts and audiobooks everyday, 10% of income saved as in The Richest Man in Babylon.) We also have some credit repair to do. 

Anyway thanks for checking out our post and we're excited to start connecting with people here on the forums!

@ Jonathan Greene - my plan is not to get 95k for it, but to bring the 80k deal to somebody who could then resell it at 95k. (I do not have the credit or down payment for the purchase.) The reason I see him selling it for 80k to me is if I could bring him a deal privately without him having to hire a realtor. He had a bad experience with his last agent. 

The other questions you've posted are questions that I have myself. Is there a source to go to for potential buyers/contacts of this deal? What information do I need to bring to them?

If I do find contacts, then I can just take a short contract to them off market, right?

@Zana Blue - he wasnt able to take the offer because he was buying a new house to live in and that purchase didnt work out, so he decided to stay in this house and didnt take the offer. 

My thought is that he wants to avoid the entire process of getting a realtor etc to make the sale, so I could privately bring him a buyer at 80k without any work for him. Then whoever I wholesale it to could sell at 95k

I'm just getting started out in learning real estate and looking for some guidance. I don't necessarily want to focus on wholesaling, but I see an opportunity.

My friend has a house that he moved out of and is currently renting out to a family friend. He sees it as a headache and wants it gone as soon as he is able. 

Now he says that he would take 80k just to get rid of it, but also last year he had a serious offer for 95k that he wasn't able to take at that time. He has done considerable work on the house, I dont know the details but it sounds like it can be bought at 80k and sold at 95k without any work. 

I know that what he said is just talk at this point, and I need to investigate to fill in all the details. But how would you recommend going about turning this into a wholesale? Would you recommend doing so? - considering closing costs, etc? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks