All Forum Posts by: Craig Curelop

@Tom Cafarella, thank you for the informative reply! I have noted your response and will certainly take your advice. 

Hi everyone,

I have a 2017 goal to purchase my first 2 properties (one FHA and one conventional) in the central Florida area (Orlando, Tampa, etc.) . It seems like deals on the MLS in certain markets are drying up. Given that I do not have an endless supply of capital to deploy, what do you recommend as the best way of sourcing potential deals?

My thought is that if I do direct marketing, I may be wasting money and getting over my head with the amount of leads I can handle. However, the MLS likely does not have as many good deals. I'm curious to know how you all found your first deals?

Thanks everyone! I appreciate the help. 

Hi everyone,

I am looking to purchase my first multifamily purchase in the first half of 2017 in the Orlando area. I am doing some research on the market. Thus far, I have read the Marcus & Millichap reports and have been recording the sales price of the recently sold multifamily properties to get an idea of what the comps go for. 

Are there any other recommendations on strategies for gathering a better understanding of the market? 

Welcome aboard @Luis Suarez and thank you for your services! 

Be sure to listen to the podcasts, watch the webinars, and spend a lot of time on the forums. Education is extremely important. 

Check out this link for the top 20 books real estate investors should read.... www.biggerpockets.com/books

Hi Peter,

We share similar questions/concerns when researching a market to start investing in.

From a broader standpoint, Marcus & Millichap provide decent reports for each market. See link below: 

http://www.marcusmillichap.com/research/researchre...

Hope this helps,

Craig

Welcome aboard, Trent! 

Be sure to listen to the BP podcasts and continually educate yourself. 

Hi Miles,

I highly suggest you read Brandon Turner's book on investing with no (or low) money down: http://get.biggerpockets.com/nomoneydown/. He describes a variety of ways to purchase a property with no (or low) money down. One of the last chapters describes ways in which you can use a combination of the methods explained in earlier chapters to creatively finance the deals. 

If you don't want to forego equity and also don't want to put money down. I would suggest finding a private lender (i.e. a wealthy colleague) and offering them 6% or 7% return on a loan (sure is better than dealing with the stock market) to help you with the down payment. Then you can use their $$ for the down payment and you have a house with no money down. 

Hope this helps.

Best,

Craig 

Thanks, @Daria B. 

Conventional lenders typically do not lend into trusts so the guy I was interacting with said to get the deed in your name, then once it closes, immediately transfer it to a trust. I do like the idea. Especially given that trusts cost virtually nothing to set up. 

I am leaning towards setting up a trust for each property and have the series LLC be the beneficiary of each trust.

Thanks for the responses!

@Daria B., do you remember the name of the individual who spoke at your REI group? I know the one that came to ours travels. I don't think there are too many land trust gurus out there (so he says), so it wouldn't surprise me if we interacted with the same person.

The series LLC seem interesting because, from my understanding any liability realized from one property will not jeopardize the other properties in the series LLC.

The Land Trust idea seemed to be a good one to keep yourself anonymous and reduce the risk of being sued or having anyone figure out your net worth. 

I have not purchased my first property yet, but am looking in the first half of 2017 and would like to protect myself from the beginning rather than pay tens of thousands of dollars later.