All Forum Posts by: Henry J.

Josh Cohen Are you talking about BP books? Did you buy through BP? You can ask customer service to see if they offer that, but you're supporting BP! :) Happy investing! Henry

Sherry Lee Welcome to BP! Don't be ridiculous. CD is a form of investment. Cash is also a form of investment, just not a good one in normal situation but not bad in a deflation environment. :) It all depends on what you want to do with that amount. As people already pointed out, there are turnkeys, REIT, private loans, notes, tax liens, syndications (and probably many others I don't know about) to invest in. Most of them is illiquid - meaning you can't turn them back into cash quickly, so you want to make sure you have enough reserves (or high credit card limit) to deal with emergency. If you can afford it, SH has plenty of properties too, except I don't know the current law about foreigner buying Chinese property... By the way, I vaguely remember reading on BP that you may need to go to US embassy to sign the loan doc for closing, or sign over the power of attorney. I suggest you to check with a TK provider or through their escrow company to confirm this so at least you'll be prepared. In terms of loan, suggest you to talk to some loan officers to get started so you know what you need to prepare ahead of time. Good luck and happy investing! Henry

@Dan Tsunekawa

I will not comment on TK since I'm / was a TK/MLS buyer.

Do you have a loan officer / bank lined up for your investor loan?  What I heard is that banks don't like sub-$50K loan - unless you have a relationship or a commercial loan set up.  I have not ventured into sub-$50K loan in the past and not planning to either so can't tell you from experience.

Capex of $125 seems low. From what I remember reading on BP from Ben Leybovich, I think he used something like $250/month per unit as minimum. You can search up on BP to find his Capex article.

Not sure about the area to get rent / price of 1.5 and TK property.  Do some research of the area before you buy.  

For you to keep acquiring properties, watch out on your DTI (debt to income) ratio as you grow.

Personally I hold at least 6 months worth of PITI in case all my units are empty and I can't find anyone to fill my vacancy... Of course this doesn't account for repair / emergency / insurance deductibles so if everything happens at the same time I'll still be in trouble. :0

Good luck investing!

Henry

@Page Kelley

Welcome to BP!

Suggest to either look into FHA with 3.5% down and do a BRRR, or find a credit partner to get started. Also look for any local REIA club to network with local investors to see if there is anyone there who can help you. With FHA there may be other government assistant program you can qualify for to lower the amount of money you need to put down.

I don't know Nashville so double check your numbers. Validate the rent because 1.2 rent / value is hard to come by IMO in a hot location like Nashville on MLS. Using 50% rule to estimate is good for quick & dirty, but you should plug in all the numbers into your own spreadsheet or BP's calculator before you jump in.

BP rental calculator - https://www.biggerpockets.com/buy-and-hold-calcula...

I've found Nashville BP'ers really helpful when I was researching the the market.  Connect with them and see if they can give you more pointers.  @Luka Milicevic - can you chime in and give some comments?

Happy investing!

Henry

Ty Mathews I forgot to mention - if you have friends / families, you can ask them to do a drive by to check the houses from outside too. I think there maybe online services you can hire to take exterior videos. One more thing - if your property is at a place you enjoy visiting, schedule your trip so you can combine business and personal trip together and do a business expense write off... now - speak to your CPA to understand the details. Henry

Ty Mathews Welcome to BP! I invest out of state and I try to visit my market once a year to see what's happening since last time I was there. I think everyone's visit frequency can be different, depending on how you answer these questions - How well do you know your PM and how much you trust them? How often does your PM inspect the property on your behalf? How often do you communicate with your PM? How in touch are you with the market and submarket? I check in with my PM about once a month just to see how things are going. I ask my PM to inspect about every year and I will schedule a visit every year. This way the property is 'inspected' about every 6 months or so. The visit is an expense that you can avoid, but I think it's important that your PM knows you care enough to visit, and meet them in person every so often, to stay on top of things. Good luck investing! Henry

Joseph Hamaoui Typing from the phone so please excuse any typo / auto correct. Not sure why you can't qualify for an investment property loan, unless you have issue meeting downpayment / reserve requirements. In that case buying a home with FHA / 3.5% down then 'house hack' by improving the house then rent it out after a year or two, and refi it to investor loan if you've built enough equity. I will also talk to other mortgage providers to find other options. If money is the problem, then you can either find partners, or save more money to get started. Good luck. Henry

@Jeff Bethke

Sorry to hear about your rental was damaged during the storm.  Since everyone's policy is different you should check with your insurance agent to understand the policy details (sometimes insurance company will only pay you if you rebuild - thus you need to know the details).

My understand of my policy is this - they will pay if rebuild back to the same size, minus the deductibles, and will pay for the loss of rent for a year, up to $12K.

Henry

@Tony Nguyen

I'm an outlier here since I'm more into stocks.  We are not ultra rich ($50+MM) so take that with a grain of salt.  :)

I started with stocks / bonds before I bought any SFR so we have lots of S&P / large cap / Vanguard funds through 401K / FA as well as individual stocks (AMZN / AAPL - who can resist those?!).

Our current holding is around 75% stock / 15% RE / 10% cash, not accounting for mortgage balance (% calculated based on RE value - mortgage balance), using personal capital site.  

If we don't subtract the mortgage balance then we are about 55% stock / 37% RE / 8% cash.  Not sure if this is the right way representing the % though.

Working on to have more mortgage so we have 50% stocks / 50% mortgage balance amount.  

Henry

Saw this on LA times and just sharing with everyone.  Love to hear everyone's opinion.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-home-prices-...