All Forum Posts by: Chris Cowie

Quote from @Diana Froster:

Congratulations on your booking! Could you share how you analyzed this deal before going in and how you gained confidence moving forward with the deal? Would be super helpful for beginners like myself who aren't yet comfortable with running the numbers and have 'analysis paralysis'!

Sure! 

I spent a bit working as an analyst in commercial real estate, so I have been familiar with deal underwriting for some time, however, STR is a bit different.

For projected income, I used AirDNA's rentalizer to get a general idea and then leaned heavily on comparable STR properties. I found a manager who I am using that managed one of the comps as well and did a back-of-the-napkin analysis with them as well which confirmed my projections. It is an out-of-state rental and my first one so I decided to use a well-established manager to help ensure success.

In the offer period, I had the cap that I did not want to go above and when we were faced with a bidding war, I was given the option to come above my cap by about 35K to win the property. I asked the sellers to include the living/dining and basement furniture to come up with the price. With financing the difference, I just had to cover around 7K of down payment costs. The furniture left was more around 12K worth, so I made out well there.

In all, the increase in purchase price only moved the needle for my cash-on-cash ever so slightly, and I could have easily lost the house if I had analysis paralysis and asked for time to think about it. I knew that this was going to be a long-term play and I wasn't looking to squeeze out as much profit as possible as I would in a flip as there will be opportunities to improve on it in the future.

There are some great STR underwriting spreadsheets you can use to analyze the deal from a quick google search. I found one that I liked and made some tweaks myself such as removing appreciation from the annualized return as that is not tangible until a cash-out refinace or liquidation event.

It was definitely daunting but you can't learn to swim unless you get in the water. This is my first one and I certainly have a lot to learn, but I am excited to do so!

Chris

Quote from @Scott Trench:

Whoop, Whoop! Congratulations and can't wait to hear about how the first year goes! 

Any pics?

 Thank you! Here are a few pics, sorry apologies for the blurry quality.

Hi BP, 

Just wanted to say thank you to this whole community. Earlier this year I sold a flip and was trying to figure out my next move and next project. After a few months of zero luck sourcing a decent project (prices for flip properties were so inflated in this market), I was feeling a bit down. After spending some time on BP and reading AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, I decided to explore the STR world.

Fast forward a few months, I have closed on my first STR, furnished it, and put it live on the rental platforms earlier this week. I woke up this morning to my first booking of 5 nights next week. It is in a ski town with peak season in the winter so I was thrilled to see this booking come in.

Long story short, with the help of the BP forums, advice from other members, and more I was able to put together a great STR and am thrilled to see where this goes!

Thank you, BP community.

Chris

Quote from @Lien Vuong:

Typically these are conducted on an online platform just as Hubzu.com for bids - most will entertain some sort of loan but the overwhelming % of bids is by cash or hard money. I would see if you can go inside the property (some do not have any access at all) and then monitor the bids from there. It takes 48-72h for the bid to end. Once you are chosen, closings are 6-8 weeks and often have title issues so have a bit of patience and you should be OK!

Thank you, Lein. The properties I am looking at have in-person bidding, but that is very helpful as I do keep an eye on hubzu etc...  Perhaps attending a few in-person auctions will help me get the lay of the land from that perspective.

I have my eyes on a few foreclosure properties around Boston with auctions coming up. Has anyone had experience with on-site auctions in Massachusetts? I have access to capital and can run due diligence before the auctions but I do not know what to expect on the day of the auction. 

Does one typically provide a down payment on that day or the entirety of the purchase price? What is the typical timeline of a foreclosure sale?

I am looking for a builder in the Greater Boston area. I am a licensed real estate agent and have secured financing ready to move on a deal in the next 30 days should an opportunity present itself. Open to profit splits, standard contracts, etc...