All Forum Posts by: Chris Berry

Quote from @Alex Smith:

Hello everyone,

I am 29 years old and have a decent W2 income. However, I also have significant student loan debt. In the past 2 years, I have used my extra money to pay off student loans by interest rate. I am now at the point where my interest rates are <6%. I have decided that my money will be better spent on investing in real estate. I am interested in a single-family home to start off. The problem is I currently do not have enough for 20% down, especially in a high COL area in Connecticut. If I were to buy a somewhat distressed home, obviously renovations would add to that. What is the best way to finance this? Should I save up for 6 months - 1 year+ to come up with 20% down and reno funds? Is it worth putting <20% down and living in the house for 6 months with FHA? (This would add sig to monthly payments and limit cash flow). Any advice helps! Thank you

I would agree with what the other comments have said.  Especially if you are living in CT in a high cost of living area, I would assume it is going to be in an appreciating area.  If you were able to house hack with such a low-down payment option that would be ideal.  This will also allow you to get the hang of being a landlord and if you actually like it.  After the one-year period you could rent it out and get another house hack.  This way you have two assets in a higher appreciating area and will start your snowball from there.  While starting off with this strategy you could also be studying more about value-add options and start attending meetups in your area to get an idea of what other people are doing.  I'm originally from Long Island and that is where I started investing.  If you have any more questions reach and.

Quote from @Antonio Patterson:

New to Real Estate and wanting to learn and do Section 8 rentals and AirBnb's. My long term goal is to get into Multifamily apartments. We all have to start somewhere and I'm looking to become a expert in Section 8 rentals, the BRRR method, and AirBnb's at this time. I currently have a holding company LLC created called Opal Capital Holdings back in March. I figured I start in my own backyard Raleigh,NC, the surrounding areas, and go from there. I know this is a learning process, so I would like to know if there is anyone in the Section 8 investor realm that could offer advise and what they did when they started?

The 1st thing I would look into is the Corporate Transparency Act. I believe since you opened the LLC this year you had 90 days to file with FInCen, and from what I read could have hefty fines and a felony.

I have four SFH's on Long Island and I have had very good success with section 8 with these houses. I bought them 2017, 2018, and 2019 and have had the initial section 8 tenants stay in the respective houses since then. It was a very easy process on Long Island my agent just found the tenants and had some extra paperwork to get things set up initially. I have been able to substantially increase the rents during this period of time with having not much of an impact on the tenants. If you have any other specific questions, you can reach out to me. I was initially hesitant to do it but have been very happy. Between the lack of turnover and significant rent increases has made it easy to be very profitable with these houses.

Quote from @Kayla M.:

@Chris Berry Yes, it was purchased from CR of Maryland. They are honestly horrible and this is not the first story I’ve heard of them doing investors wrong. I sometimes wonder if it makes sense for all of us landlords to confront them, they sold us a lie and now we are severely struggling from it. Not sure what can come of that or if there’s even a point. It’s difficult to get ahold of Xander, he hides behind his staff.

Yes!!!  They kept messing things up and hiding stuff from me and then would be aggressive towards me.  I would suggest calling RPM property management.  I believe they have taken over a lot of CR of Maryland customers.  If you are still with CR of Maryland they will transition you to their management system.  I have been much happier and less stressed since switching over to them.  Could be a good alternative instead of selling.  I also tried to sell it back to CR of Maryland with no success.  The problem with selling to another investor with the high interest rates it will no longer cash flow so nobody wants to buy it.  I've decided to stabilize it and pay down the mortgage for a while and reassess in the future what my plan is.

Did you happen to buy the property for CR of Maryland?  I also went thru a nightmare situation with them for two years.  I ended up switching PM companies to RPM, and have had a better experience with them so far.

I don't invest in that area, but I can give you my experience of a new built to rent house in Milton FL.  I wish I did more research of the area prior to purchase.  In my mind it was close to Pensacola, and it was a brand-new build and should have no problems renting out.  3 years later after working with an experienced investor/agent have had nothing but headaches.  I found out that this was actually not an ideal location, and it has been impossible to rent.  I have had turnover after a little over a year with a tenant, followed by difficulty getting it rented out the second time.  The second tenant stopped paying and it took me 4 months to get them evicted and more turnaround cost.  I have tried with no luck since February to sell or rent the property.  I would suggest getting someone very familiar with the area and not think its a good deal just because its a brand new build.

I would suggest talking to other people flipping properties in the area and ask them for recommendations on investor friendly contractors.  I found one and asked them to walk a few properties with me for agreed price of 150 a walk thru for his time.  I just completed our first flip with them, and now have his spreadsheet with the exact costs of the entire job.  It grew substantially from the first quote.  I feel like now I could use this to get an estimate walking a property without him.  If the deal looks like it makes sense, I will have him walk the property and get an official quote.

The 1 inch drop was measured from the inside.  They do not believe it was caused by any sort of soil issue.  They believe it is natural settling from the weight of the kitchen sitting on the floor.  The contractor said he could either Jack the beam that has settled or just fur the interior flooring.  The 1st crawl space company came in and said they are not concerned at all and would recommend fixing the floor from the interior.  The 2nd opinion agreed it is settling and gave a quote for either reinforcement so it will not settle further or jack up to bring level, which could shift the drywall.  I want to do what is safe and best for the house moving forward.  I'm also not a system matter expert and don't want someone trying to sell me something that is not really needed.  The feeling I get it's natural settling for a 50-year-old house, and I should fur the interior flooring.

I have had two opinions when company went in crawl space for foundation settling in the kitchen on 1969 built house.   The floor has settled over time 1 inch over a 10 ft span.  Trying to figure out if this is natural settling or we should provide reinforcement to the beam to prevent further settling.  Thanks for the input. 

Good afternoon,

I just finished evicting a tenant in Milton Fl.  There is a substantial amount of back rent and damage to the property.  I was looking for a good lawyer to help with this judgement.  Thanks.

How's it going.   I've currently invested in all buy and hold.  Looking to start flipping in Virginia Beach area.  Wanted to see if anyone knew of any wholesalers or people that could help find off market deals.