All Forum Posts by: Elizabeth M Williams

Absolutely will do! 

I should add, we are behind in our retirement plan, hence the need to really play catch up now, and be pretty fearless while we still can. 

Hi all-

As retirement inches nearer, I'm finding myself spending a LOT of time on planning, and am determined to make our money work hard for us. We live in Dubai, planning to move to either US or maybe Brisbane, still undecided, as tons of factors that play into it. 

I'm American, 51, hubby is Australian, 56. We live in Dubai. We have a house in Oregon with $200k equity, rented at $2200 per month, $400 positive cash flow, and planning to refi and cash out $100k to buy a few more houses. Because I live here, the refi has been tricky, but am told by Dec I can do this, so will save on interest, and the house is in a steadily appreciating market.  Also have $60k now to play with, and another $70k by July 2021, saved at the rate of $7k per month, all ready to go into real estate, and not including the refi cash. So roughly $230 to invest in real estate in the next year. I can also pull out some 401k money, but prefer not to.

The plan has been to buy some single or multi family homes in the Rochester, NY area, as that's where my family is and I know the market fairly well. But, there are limited opportunities for equity uplift in terms of appreciation, unless I get lucky and am patient till the right deal comes along. And I am slightly hesitant to do massive rehabbing from out of the country. So, I was hoping to get a nice sfh in a great school district, put maybe $10k of work into it from here, and rent it out, should get around 9-10% COC and some appreciation, maybe 2-3% a year, plus a slight uplift on the cosmetic fixes. We could buy 4 - 5 houses under this model.

But I'm wondering if it makes more sense to sink some cash instead into a well reputed syndication, aiming for a 3-4 year exit, and derive the same tax benefits & appreciation without being a long distance landlord.

We ultimately want to be able to move back, at least to the US, to do some more deals actively, but my husband won't be able to be sponsored into a new job, as that is very rare, so will get his green card while there, ie, can't really count on a job until after we get there, but to be honest, we'd rather have set up some deals so we could just have a model where we can not have to worry about him getting a job at all, and working for ourselves in real estate investment.

And in the meantime, we are also considering moving ultimately to Brisbane, but we can't build that sort of portfolio up there like we can in the US, plus I'm not familiar with the market/taxes/ways to do deals there like I am in the US. 

I should add one more detail. While living here, my husband is able to benefit from 0 capital gains on earnings, so, for example, we could instead put this all into an offshore investment account, and sell off everything prior to leaving here, zero gains. BUT, the market is making me pretty nervous, so I prefer to put the money to work in real estate, which I think is generally a far better safe haven. We are still putting money into the market, but far more allocated for real estate.

Any thoughts much appreciated!

Hi all, I've got a deal I'm considering and would like your advice. We are eyeing a guest house on the beach in Sri Lanka, an island I've been to 5 times now, and which is booming. Here are the details-

The owner is a 69 year old Belgian who wants to sell. And he would love to sell to us.
The villa is over 6000 sf bua, comprising a main villa with staff kitchen, lounge areas, 5 guest suites, outdoor restaurant area, a large veranda overlooking the sea, a pool, and a second villa with staff accommodation and a further 4 guest suites.

The plot is around 26000 sf, beachfront, great tourist location

The build quality is high, and it survived the tsunami of 2004 intact

The place is fully staffed with a manager who's been there for 19 years, with no intention of leaving

The place is one of the few in the area that holds groups (the whole complex is rented out to groups of 12-23)

It is currently earning 100k eur per annum with only 50% occupancy (the owner is older and does minimum to market - old website, airbnb, booking.com, homeaway, tripadvisor)

The average occupancy of the area is 74% so there is a lot of room for revenue growth

The rates haven't been raised for 3 years and it is due for a 5% rental increase

The reviews are stellar on all sites, with many repeat clients

The venue is ideal for weddings, reunions, parties, bdays, etc, and the staff handle everything, including an on site chef

When you stay there it's like having your own resort on the beach to yourself

Owner will act as consultant for up to 1 year for free

So, he wants to sell to my husband and I, as his manager and he really like us and know we would keep the staff and concept the same. He is willing to carry a loan at 0% interest! He doesn't want the taxes on the income. He has a lawyer and accountant in Sri Lanka, and set up a company in Belgium to receive all rental money, so no taxes are owed to the SL govt.
He is asking $900k based on a valuation that was done for a potential buyer (whose financing fell through). But that valuation is based on 74% occupancy, not the current 50%. BUT, it was also done a year and a bit ago and property in that area is seeing 10% appreciation per annum.
I feel like it should be more like $750-800 k but wanted to ask your advice.
We can put $100k down but he is after more like 250k euros.
My question is A- should we buy it B- how can we structure a deal so we put only $100k down (balloon payment in 5 years?) C- what should we pay for it
I spent 90 min on the phone with him yesterday. It is so easy to bring revenues up 20% or more per year. If we paid 800 for it, and put 100 down, at 0% our annual payments would be 70k. Right now its NET earnings are 60-65k, but we are calculating that we should be able to bring the gross to more like $150k minimum (ADR for whole place is $700 and we would bring it to $750, and made assumption of this x 200 days, vs 170 current occupancy). That's still conservative as we should be able to get to 70% occupancy with social media, new website, reaching out to travel agents, wedding planners, retreat organizers, etc. And the operating costs won't increase much as we scale. So in the worst case we'd be at 40% running costs, though he thinks as we scale it would be more like 35% as we wouldn't need to increase staffing.
What do you think?

Hi all, I've got a deal I'm considering and would like your advice. We are eyeing a guest house on the beach in Sri Lanka, an island I've been to 5 times now, and which is booming. Here are the details-

The owner is a 69 year old Belgian who wants to sell. And he would love to sell to us.
The villa is over 6000 sf bua, comprising a main villa with staff kitchen, lounge areas, 5 guest suites, outdoor restaurant area, a large veranda overlooking the sea, a pool, and a second villa with staff accommodation and a further 4 guest suites. 

The plot is around 26000 sf, beachfront, great tourist location

The build quality is high, and it survived the tsunami of 2004 intact

The place is fully staffed with a manager who's been there for 19 years, with no intention of leaving

The place is one of the few in the area thats holds groups (the whole complex is rented out to groups of 12-23)

It is currently earning 100k eur per annum with only 50% occupancy (the owner is old and does minimum to market - old website, airbnb, booking.com, homeaway, tripadvisor)

The average occupancy of the area is 74% so there is a lot of room for revenue growth

The rates haven't been raised for 3 years and it is due for a 5% rental increase

The reviews are stellar on all sites, with many repeat clients

The venue is ideal for weddings, reunions, parties, bdays, etc, and the staff handle everything, including an onsite chef

When you stay there it's like having your own resort on the beach to yourself

Owner will act as consultant for up to 1 year for free

So, he wants to sell to my husband and I, as his manager and he really like us and know we would keep the staff and concept the same. He is willing to carry a loan at 0% interest! He doesn't want the taxes on the income. He has a lawyer and accountant in Sri Lanka, and set up a company in Belgium to receive all rental money, so no taxes are owed to the SL govt.
He is asking $900k based on a valuation that was done for a potential buyer (whose financing fell through). But that valuation is based on 74% occupancy, not the current 50%. BUT, it was also done a year and a bit ago and property in that area is seeing 10% appreciation per annum.
I feel like it should be more like $750-800 k but wanted to ask your advice.
We can put $100k down but he is after more like 250k euros.
My question is A- should we buy it B- how can we structure a deal so we put only $100k down (balloon payment in 5 years?) C- what should we pay for it
I spent 90 min on the phone with him yesterday. It is so easy to bring revenues up 20% or more per year. If we paid 800 for it, and put 100 down, at 0% our annual payments would be 70k. Right now its NET earnings are 60-65k, but we are calculating that we should be able to bring the gross to more like $150k minimum (ADR for whole place is $700 and we would bring it to $750, and made assumption of this x 200 days, vs 170 current occupancy). That's still conservative as we should be able to get to 70% occupancy with social media, new website, reaching out to travel agents, wedding planners, retreat organizers, etc. And the operating costs won't increase much as we scale. So in the worst case we'd be at 40% running costs, though he thinks as we scale it would be more like 35% as we wouldn't need to increase staffing.
What do you think?

Hi, thanks for that! Everything I've read on fundrise & crowdstreet indicate that you don't get the tax benefits that rentals provide, so if there are operators who defer benefits I'm interested! I'm eyeing a deal in the Rochester, NY area, that gives over 20% coc returns, with a 6.5% cap rate, sitting tenants, popular neighborhood, around the $82k mark. But even if we take that, we still plan to invest more passively, as you recommended, but just not loving the two platforms I've eyed (well I do, but just anticipate lower returns & no tax benefits), and while syndications are very appealing to me, without the tax benefits & not being accredited, and not knowing which projects to jump on...not sure how to proceed. 

Thanks, guys! Very helpful. I likely will put some in syndication/crowdfunding, but the upside isn't as high, is it?

If we were to invest in a $1m multifamily, as you suggested, @tjhines, can you give me some tips on best avenues for financing that?

Hi all- Quick background, I'm nearly 51, fiance is 55, I'm American, he's Australian, we both live in Dubai. I own a rental property in Portland, OR, that pays the mortgage, appreciated about 30% over 12 years, and give me a modest NOI which I set aside for any repairs. I also airbnb one of our places in Dubai but it isn't as interesting to me as having sitting tenants I don't have to worry about.

We'd like to start building our property portfolio, and real estate has always been in my blood. We are open to locations, US and internationally, and have family in Rochester, NY, whose multi family market seems very attractive to us.

We have $100k to put in now, and can pull another $100k out of my property if necessary. In my perfect world I would leverage that $100k across 4 properties as can buy decent multi families in the $100k range, with initial investment of $25k each. Happy to do some simple upgrades and repairs and have a good sense of what draws and keeps good tenants.

My questions are these-

- is it easy/possible to get financing for each multi family unit, assuming 20% down, and given that we are out of the country?

- would you pay cash instead for one unit (though I'm loathe to tie up my cash in one unit) and try to refi after closing & proof of cash flows (or will this still be an issue as I'm out of the country, with no declarable income, though my fiance has very good income)

- are there any other markets I should consider?

Our plan is to move back to the US at some point, at least part time, with a job/proven income there. We have other assets currently but those are for retirement.

Ultimately we'd like to quit working within 5 years and rely on cash flows and/or a flip or two to support our retirement, and we'd like to own a modest place in Europe to escape the US a few months a year.

We are both pretty fearless and I have the time to spend researching and jumping on the right deals. We are good with running numbers, too, and want to be aggressive in our wealth building over the next five years. Even open to purchasing apt complexes and outsourcing the management. 

Thank you, any advice, even if I'm off the mark, is welcome.