All Forum Posts by: Calvin Lipscomb

Hey Everyone,

Recently we have run into the dilemma of not having the down payment needed to work with hard money on our deals. As a solution, we have spoken with a company that applies for multiple credit cards for a business (using my own credit profile to get approved) for us. The company charges 9% for their services of getting us the funds which they expect to get us approved for 50k. The credit cards would have a 0% APR in the first 12-18 months depending on each lender, after that I am anticipating average credit card rates. Has anyone ever dealt with this kind of company? Could this strategy help me scale my company and also not tie up my personal credit? Or is there some loophole I am missing with this offer? Thanks!

Hi Y'all!

I'm creating a spread sheet today of all my past deals for future reference when dealing with bank and private lenders. A track record of sorts. Have this info so far.

-property location
-style (sfr, land, mfr, etc)
-purchase date
-purchase price
-debt service used
-%rate of debt service
-rehab costs if applies
-exit strategy
-disposition date
-disposition price
-gross profit
-ROI % or annualized % of return

Not sure how complex it should be. Goal is to use it with bank loans and private lenders. Any tips on what else should be added? Wanted to create a professional overview of my track record in REI without giving them a book on each deal.

Thanks!

What do you invest in when all the cyclical investments seem to peak at once?

In my humble opinion:

Real estate is due for a correction.

The stock market is due for a big correction. 

Every currency is on shaky ground.

Precious metals no longer seem to be the contrarian investment.

Crypotocurrencies are just too new to know which ones will have a future.

Inflation or hyperinflation is a real possibility so sitting in cash is suicide.

If everything goes really really bad then the only universal form of "monetary" exchange will be canned food and shotgun shells. I'm not enough of a doomsday prepper to go that far.

So what does that leave?

Does one diversify so that when 9 out 10 investments tank one has enough left over to buy Scotch and wallow in drunken misery? (Ok, perhaps that's a little too pessimistic).

It's just when I look at my portfolio I think "man, I should sell that (real estate, stocks, forex, metals) before it drops like a rock" and then do what with the money?

Chris, each property equity is from 30 to 50 percent and the goal so far is to pay them off before retiring.  

@Roy N. I totally agree that older buildings can take more time. However, when you are buying a lot of the same building stock, you start to need less time. For instance, I don't need an inspector to tell me that my building in Berwyn has old galvanized plumbing that will cause problems. Every building I own has the same plumbing issues. I expect some issues with flat roofs in the Chicago area, and can tell pretty quickly how much trouble they will be. 

I also tend to buy mildly distressed buildings where a lot of these issues can be a given. If I was looking for "turn key" I would probably have a different take on an inspection. 

@Calvin Lipscomb I would not personally take more than 2-3 hours to inspect a property of that size, however, I think the fact that time is coming up may be a bit of a red flag. BTW if you need a good inspector PM me. 

Three hours is not nearly enough time for 6 units. A half hour each? A good inspection on a SFH takes almost that much time (3 hours). The seller may be a little off, or maybe they are hoping there are things that will be overlooked. From my recent recollection 4 unit 5 hours, 3 unit with a lot of issues 4.5 hours, 2 unit that was really just a once over to make sure no structural or major issues about 2 hours. Older buildings take longer too. Bigger/higher buildings take longer too unless there is easy roof access. If you can, you want to be with the inspector. With a good inspector, it will be an opportunity to learn a lot about your building.

5-6 hours for six unit, plus all of the building systems is not a lot of time if you are looking for a thorough inspection.

We had our inspector spend up to 8-hours on a 5-6 unit building - he's very thorough.