All Forum Posts by: Cherie Orellana

@Wayne Williams My husband is a director for a local Commercial construction company. Multi Unit Residential is their bread and butter. Last night at dinner he mentioned that the average cost per unit right now is about $150,000 for new build.

@Cameron Hekking

Congratulations and welcome to the world of real estate!!

There are so many agents out there that are competing with each other. I think the best way to be successful in most any industry is to find a niche. Become an absolute expert in a specific location, strategy, type of property etc. For instance if you have lots of contractor connections, can throw numbers together on rehab costs fairly quickly, know ARV values nearly the moment you see something hit the market because you watch it so closely you would be ideal for any flipper! If you researched and knew all of the local Condo and townhome communities, their HOA cost and what it includes, the amenities etc.. You would be better than 99% of the agents out there for people buying and selling condos and townhomes in your area.

Any agent can help most all buyers and sellers. But those that have a specialty or expert on something specific, you will be set apart from the rest. You would become the BEST choice. Well known and referred in that niche. 

@Benjamin Reneer

The market is crazy here! The best strategies I have found to help my buyers is to make multiple offers on the same property.

For instance, you could offer $10,000 over, $5,000 earnest money and not subject to inspection but still subject to financing.

$20,000 over with $2,000 earnest that goes hard upon acceptance. Knowing if appraisal does not come in, you may have to put down the difference or back out and lose your $2,000

Then I have my buyers offer cash all the time. I arrange the hard money and the lender gets the process going so that they are ready to “refinance” the property within a few weeks of closing with hard money. So full price cash with no contingencies. Less than the financing offer so that after hard money costs you are still paying the $10,000 above asking, after you add in your hard money costs.

Adding an escalation clause to your offer is another strategy when you are certain you are in a multiple offer situation.

Depending on the specific property a seller may prefer one over the other. I see Love letters frequently submitted with offers as well.

I recently helped someone purchase a property that had 19 offers. He was 2 of the 19. The seller chose his Cash, no contingencies offer over a conventional loan offer that was $10,000 above the cash one. All other terms the same. That particular seller was willing to take $10,000 less to close in 7 days as opposed to 28.

Making multiple offers on the same property helps appeal to different personalities and circumstances of the sellers and also compete with different types of offers!

@John W Murray

That is wonderful, congratulations!!!

Would love to hear about it when you finish.

I feel like it’s always a little scary whether it’s the first or the 10th. But the payoff is definitely worth the risk.

@Kayla Jacobson

I would think You could refinance your current home conventional then buy another using your full VA benefits. Or you could purchase another VA with a down payment. Perhaps a BRRRR type scenario.

Another idea that might work is to get someone to seller finance with a 12 month balloon or something like that, build the equity or buy low enough it's already there and immediately refinance from the seller financing to VA.

@Rachel De Villava

Happy New year!

It is a great time to get more involved. My husband and I have 11 properties in The Salt Lake / Utah county, a couple in Nevada and about to close on one in Idaho. I expect all of the surrounding areas to do well flipping and long term buy and hold. Always looking to connect as well. Let me know if I can help in any way.

@Chris Hornbeak Househacking is definitely the way to go. We had an Airbnb in Kearns that was rented 90% of the time. Often to people coming to ski, hike, concerts. I think you will have great success with Airbnb most anywhere in the Salt Lake Valley. Millcreek might be a good area to target as it's close to the mountains, highly desirable and they are adopting an ADU change early next year. There are also pockets that are already zoned 1-2 family that would work well for you. I did a duplex conversion in millcreek and also went through the city to get another property recognized as legal non confirming duplex. Those are 2 of our best performing properties.

@Val Ault When a tenant is on a month to month lease in general you can give 30 day notice. I would give them 30 days on the 1st of any given month or prior. So if you close mid December, give them until February 1 (6 weeks). Tenants and landlords are aware of the pros and cons of month to month. You could raise rent on them with 30 day notice or ask them to leave. They could also give you notice at any time. I would ask for a copy of leases and how the tenants are. You could also ask to renegotiate terms of lease prior to closing or have them sign your own. Otherwise the current lease terms transfer to the new owner.

@Dillon Alder $9,000 up front sounds high. Typically you can get them to roll the costs into the loan. I would find a lender with lower costs. Another option temporarily could be a HELOC. Penfed Credit Union is great about doing them on investment properties.

The other home that you could potentially get $2,000 out of I wouldn’t do. You would be better off getting a unsecured personal loan at a credit union.

I am not saying don’t refinance. Because the benefit may still be worth it if you plan on keeping it along time. I just wouldn’t pay the higher interest associated with a “Cash Out” refinance.

Not sure if you have had the properties appraised yet. It may be more or less than you think. My husband and I are in the middle of refinancing a duplex. The first appraisal ordered by a lender came in $40,000 less than the second. Same duplex, about 2 weeks apart. We ordered a second one through another lender as the first one did not come in where we needed it to do what we needed to accomplish with the refinance.

@Veronica Parkinson

I may be interested in Partnering and also have Hard money contacts if you would like.