All Forum Posts by: Geordy Rostad

@Edward Robinson

You can make decent money this way. You just need to know your numbers and have the confidence to push the ARV when possible. If you can find the correct suppliers, sometimes the parts for mobiles are really cheap. Fixing it back up to new is sometimes better than trying to tear into it and upgrade. As long as you watch your costs, you should basically be ok.

Keep in mind this isn't really a real estate deal. It's more like flipping cars. That said, the place the mobile is park is really where a lot of the value lies. If you start fixing up places in one park and making the park nicer, the value of the whole park will start to increase and you'll be able to charge more for your subsequent flips.

I'm my area here, it usually costs minimum of about $40,000 for a ratty trashed mobile in a park just because of where it is. That is to say that someone will buy an old $40,000 mobile, tear it out and put a new one in and still have to pay $600-$900/mo for space rent. I have a friend around here who retired from fixing up mobiles in parks. Sometimes he'd buy a repo out of a park for $25k then move it to another park and put $40k into it. He'd turn around and sell it for $160k.

@Peter Vazquez

One way or the other, it sounds like you need to make a change. You are not on a sustainable path.

You are correct that you won't be able to easily get a conventional loan of any kind with a job that pays less than half of what you used to make and with less than a couple of years of work history in that new profession.

You can probably get hard money loans all day though. If you can find properties to fix and flip, the money should be available. The problem is that if you need to live off of the money you make on each flip, it's going to be really hard to ever dig out of the hole.

If you have an opportunity to get back into a $70k/yr job, I think it might be best to do that and then pay others to do the flipping for you.

There's a book I really like that changed the way I thought about some of this stuff. It's not particularly related to real estate but it's definitely worthwhile: Financial Freedom by Grant Sabatier

@Julian Fung

One strategy I've seen people use on a primary residence is to buy an extra large lot and subdivide it while you live there. Of course this is only worthwhile in an area where land brings a premium. You can even go the extra step and build on the lots if you have the resources.

At my own house here, I've rented out an unused parking space in the back yard to a guy with a boat for $185/mo.

@Aaron Arce

Have you been trying to manage it remotely or do you have someone there in Oak Harbor?

Have you made sure to comp the rents and keep up with the times? Check hotpads, rentometer, craigslist, zillow, etc because rents have really shot up a lot lately. If you've had it since 2006, there's really no way you shouldn't be generating a decent cashflow on it by now.

I would be hesitant to sell a property before trying a few different things to make it perform. You could potentially take equity on it with a HELOC and go secure the new places you want with that.

Did you move to Florida? Otherwise, I'd probably say there are closer places to make a buck.

@Cody Ringler

I had a funny feeling that was in Taxas. I have a friend in Austin and I'm always blown away when I hear about the property tax he pays. The main problem I see with your deal there is that you won't be paying down any principal so equity will build a lot slower. Hard to argue with a property that cash flows at zero down though. 

@Madison Loftis

If you are not planning to help others buy and sell real estate, it probably does not make sense to go get licensed. There are some cons:

1) You always have to disclose you are a broker. Some people don't trust brokers and won't deal with them. This is part of why wholesaling is a thing.

2) Real estate agents pay a lot of fees to keep that license. You have office dues, local MLS dues, local and national association dues, keybox access fees, clock hour fees, etc. It all can really add up and suck down some of those savings.

3) You won't have an extra set of eyes on your deal. An attorney or broker bring experience to the table that could be helpful. 

I would say do some deals first before bothering to get a license. See how all the pieces fit together. Then if you are doing a big volume or decide you have a large sphere of influence you can tap for clients, maybe it makes sense. 

@Cody Ringler

Ouch! Those are some brutal property taxes.

Looks like you are using a HELOC for the purchase and to hold it? Are you planning to refi later? Be careful not to max out your HELOC or you will run the risk of lowering your credit score and making it harder to refi out later.

@Edward Seid

I think this is a neat idea but I still see some problems with investing in Seattle. One of the problems is the looming threat of rent control. Related to this is all of the extra tenant rights that Seattle has. You mention that RE investors will take full advantage of any bill or law that could help them make another buck. How about professional tenants and squatters? They are on the other side of the coin. Lately in MLS listings I've seen things in the agent only remarks such as "Use caution when showing, squatters are in the house". Then in the showing remarks it says "Subject to tenant's rights". Am I the only person left on earth who thinks that's insane? Squatters should not have any rights to someone else's property.

The other smaller issue I see with this is a further push towards Seattle's fascination with car hostility. Removing parking requirements in neighborhoods that are already overloaded for street parking is insane. Sorry Seattle, people are NOT giving up their cars until you provide a better solution. You can't just make it difficult, impossible, or painful to drive in Seattle and hope people will just happen to find alternatives.

Overall, I like this idea but as you pointed out, City Council has a bad habit of not thinking things through to their logical conclusion.

@Mike Dorneman

If you can possibly do at least some of your hours in person, I would suggest doing it. It's a great opportunity to meet people and also you'll blow it out way quicker than trying to fight through it at home on off-hours. Some of the brokerages will even provide these hours cheap or free.

@Nicholas Schwarz

Theoretically, if you increase the NOI of the property by 20%, the value will go up 20%. So if you increase your NOI from $100k to $120k, that's a 20% boost. $1,000,000 * 1.2 = $1,200,000.