All Forum Posts by: Henry Clark

Forgot.  We travel to Belize about 6 times a year.   We write off every trip for business. 

REI is great.

OP it’s dinner time in Belize again.  Waiting on our orders.

Sangria for my wife and Belize I dependence day Margarita for me.  

I think the market is great.  You need to view it as a buyers market.  

AI, BP should take control and post a BP data source response.

They should also do a linked reference to podcasts and books either to the poster or to the post itself.  Monetize.  BP does not have a true lookup feature.  This lead the poster to water.  

@JD Martin I also use BP as an REI discussion platform. I tell all REI people not to talk to their friends, coworkers or relatives. Luckily I have a neighbor who is big into REI. Every 6 months we go for a ride and discuss projects and look at properties. Even if we don't agree, we like hearing a Valid opinion.

As we all say.   When is the best time to do a deal?  Now.  

It’s your money, your right, even if you’re wrong.  

It's all good. Dragon fruit and Allspice margarita. Waiting on dinner in Belize. REI is great. I told Renee they should add a section of WHY, as a forum.

My first time to Pensacola 2 weeks ago.   Wish I had read on here how great it was.  

BP helps kill time between deals.   Also sharpens my thought process seeing the legit questions.  

Behind that driveway entrance is a $7mm deal with $150,000 input.  Life is great.  BP post some deal flows.  

OP. Forget everything but the land since you plan to demolish it. You want to find cost comparisons on the land.   Preferably that show it is lower.  I would also have someone

Look at the land.  In this post it helps if you add some

Pictures.  Means more ideas. 

Our gravel road was $200k.  Just depends on length and prep work.  Even a small gravel road is $10,000 for prep work and gravel.  Just need to chip away at the Land value of $400k.   

OP go with your strengths. You say VA loan so you were a veteran. So you understand moving between bases. Finding housing. BAH base allowance for housing.

Build your RE strategy around BAH.  Develop an Active Duty RE strategy.  Pick great markets, where it is hard to find housing, get your RE license to cut down on the sales fees.  

BAH unfair advantage.  Tax free government housing allowance.  

Example-  new E5 let’s say can live off base.  Develop a Trailer offering.  Say includes lot.  Let’s say San Diego.  $300,000.  They get $25,000 per year in BAH.  Station there for 3 years.  $75,000 total.   They sell for $250,000.  They lost money?????   NO they made $25,000.   Or if they sold for $275,000 they made $50,000.  

Now a Captain or a GS 13 with 3 kids moved to Italy.  Can take up to a year to find a house that qualifies for a local loan.  So it isn’t worth it for them to buy a house since they will leave in 2 or 3 years.  But if you handle peoples houses coming and going they and you can make money.  

There are tons of REI angles. Are there any Coast Guard towns in MN??? Same approach.

OP I’ll put my former Controller and CFO hat on.

I agree with your points.   But who cares?  

Believe BP was purchased by a P/E firm.   Normally a 3 to 5 year fix and flip strategy.  So let’s approach from that standpoint versus helping people in a forum.  

To me the forums are the Turkey special at Thanksgiving.  The grocery store makes their money off the other offerings.  

So let’s ask the question.   Would BP be better without the forum?  What are BP revenue streams?  Ads in the forums?  Then more ads.  Podcasts and ads?  Selling books?  Etc.  

Forum posts unto themselves don’t make money.  But I would say without the post forum the rest would die.  Posts are the major feeder program.  But if BP doesn’t think this, then there is no need to improve the post forum.  

If however BP wanted to improve the forums then I recommend they put in both a filter system and a prioritization scheme.

Also I understand REI has slowed down, but we are retired and not pushing growth, but we have way more deals than we want in our lanes of REI. Can't believe other seasoned investors don't have more deals than they could handle or want. Would recommend BP work with active posters to do posts on deal flow.

Example Ohio.  Have some posts following thru on a deal.  

Example LP lost their money-  but none of them can tell you what was missed in their due diligence.  They just want a vote up or down system like lemmings running off a cliff.  Have a poster walk thru their due diligence process and identify the miss.  

Prioritize posts that take you thru deal flow.  Versus where is the best market in the U.S.  

OP try or add some value add strategies to your deal.   Might not help your cashflow but help your appreciation.  Takes the high interest rates and makes them cheap.  

Your multi family.   Pick ones where you can make a 1/1 into a 2/1, or a 2/1 into a 2/2, etc.

Or with a large lot or acreage you can subdivide and sell a lot.  

Or find a great older neighborhood.  Buy the ugliest house there and Reno.

Use the 2 year out of 5 residence for zero capital gain tax.  

With the above your “High” interest rate becomes a cheap short term loan rate.  Your negative cashflow is a short term issue, especially if it offsetting your housing costs. 

OP.  Maybe I’ll write a post so good some day and people think I’m AI.

Your objective is to get the land value as low as possible.  Your $400k above you want lower.  Pictures help.  But try to cut the land up into as many cost types as possible.   This may then allow you to write off some of the “Land” costs.   
Driveway

Culvert or entrance

Fence

Landscape

Storm ponds or sewers.

Water, sewer, fire hydrants, etc

Signage

Security system

Lighting

Permitting

Etc etc.  

You want to squeeze that $400k of land value.  So you can write it off.  Check with your accountant to make sure you can use it.  

Ask them if appraisals will help you.  Normally for this small amount and your wanting to demo I would say don’t do a cost segregation.  But you might get someone to help strip the “Land” cost out.  

OP.  What town are you near even if in Chile your byline or one in the U.S.

We don’t do housing.  But I would look at San Diego if you’re just using 1% metric.  

Go for the military.  Do room rentals.  Looked for my son who is moving there. Couldn’t find anything for just one person. But if you did room rental you can get there.  Plus your guaranteed payment and if any issues just call their commanding officer.