All Forum Posts by: Chris Low

Yes, especially if you would include some financing options in your SF and LA buying seminars.

@Russell Brazil I really like your comment above "I plan to lock in as much debt as I can for as long of periods as I can." I have to say this blew my mind when I heard you say it on a BP podcast, but you're so right! Interest rates are crazy low. Like Natasha, I've been sitting on the sidelines waiting for a deal that meets ALL of my criteria and I, too, am nervous about the economy. But your philosophy has been a game changer. I'm now comfortable relaxing some of my metrics in order to get into a property because it's doubtful we'll see lower interest rates any time in the next couple of decades. I'm not saying we're going to make bad deals, but, for example, maybe being satisfied with 8% profit on a flip instead of 10% in order to buy now. Or a 7.5% cap rate on a multi family instead of 8-10%. I'm more afraid of having money sitting in the bank if there truly is a big blow to the economy than I am of having it sitting in tangible real estate assets. So thanks for the perspective.

Like many people, we're intrigued by the BRRRR strategy because it combines the best of both worlds: accumulating buy-and-hold properties but not tying up all our capital. But our preference for buy-and-hold properties is small multi-family (duplex, tri & quads). Unfortunately, those can be difficult to get comps on and if you can't estimate your ARV, it's hard to run the BRRRR calculator with any hope of accuracy. So my question is two-fold: what's the best strategy for getting multi-family comps and do these properties typically make for good BRRRR candidates? Any help will be much appreciated!

Welcome! You're off to a great start by joining the BP community. Best of luck to you!

@Mark Nolan thank you so much for this comparison between Solo and Self-Directed 401k's. VERY helpful!

Dylan Vargas, that's a great idea! Maybe one of the forums could be dedicated to suspicious lending or something that might not push the legal envelope too much. At least that would give people a go-to place to look for info.

How is the real estate investment market in Boise? We're in CA where things are terribly expensive but looking to move out of state and Idaho is one of the areas we're thinking about getting into. Would love to chat with you about the local market. We're due to move out of state in the next 2.5 years after our youngest graduates from high school so now is the time to get our ducks in a row. Thanks!

Wow - you did a GREAT job! Congrats to you and thanks for sharing the before and after photos!

I have found Zillow, Realtor.com and Redfin to be incredibly inaccurate. In fact, Zillow is so unreliable with data of all kinds that the only thing I use it for is the alerts because they have a much better alert app on properties that you're following than the other sites. If I get an alert on Zillow, I'll go to Realtor.com to get more accurate (which isn't saying a whole lot) information! My strong recommendation is that you become partners with a great Realtor in your area. I always get my best information from our Realtor. She is fast, reliable and totally dedicated to helping us find the properties best suited for us. Besides, she can dig in to MLS details that aren't available on sites like Zillow.

Thanks, everyone, for the feedback. Yes, costs in California are generally higher than most places. And this is a major repair job with lots of tedious taping and repairs before the new stucco can applied. We are not interested in sloppy repairs that last just long enough to off load the home so it becomes someone else's problem - that's just not in our business model. I like the suggestion of looking for an independent stucco contractor but absolutely only use licensed contractors in good standing. I'm still hoping some stucco contractors will be on this BP thread who can tell me if it's possible to completely remove the existing stucco (as opposed to trying to repair it) then applying a new coat that has proper lathe behind it.