All Forum Posts by: James Allen

Hi BP Members,

Thought I'd get everyone's thoughts on the current market. Are we heading into a real estate crash/correction? 

I've recently noticed that the amount of inventory is starting to pile up in my area and some of the areas I invest in along with reports of some areas experiencing a dip in sales volume last month. I understand that RE is local but this could also be the beginning of fear spreading throughout the country.

Couple things I found interesting:

1.I did a search for housing market (Neutral search) and all posts on the 1st page were negative about the housing market with all of them recent articles. Link: https://www.google.com/search?q=housing+market&sou...

2. Last thing I found interesting was the google trends results for "Housing Market" & "Housing Crash". I noticed we had a sudden major swing to the highest search volume in over 5 years. That change happened in one week! 

Link #1: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=toda...  

and Link #2: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=toda...

This isn't hardcore evidence to start freaking out about and this is all speculative but still interesting none the less. Just looking to get the communities thoughts on what's going on. Do we think this could the beginning stages of a correction or crash? 

@Christopher G. - What market are you invested in? 1.5 bathrooms shouldn't be an issue assuming in general there is a strong rental demand. I've had great success with one of my rentals that has 1.5 baths. I agree with other people saying there is a bigger difference between 1 bath to 1.5 baths than 1.5 baths to 2 baths. Depending on the market your in, I think you could even make it work with 1 bath but you will get less rent of course. Overall, you can't go wrong 1.5 baths and above. 

I would analyze at least 100 properties to get a feel for what is a good deal in your area. Also driving the streets will give you an idea of which neighborhoods and subsections you want to focus on. Assuming you have the rest of the knowledge, this should give you more confidence in identifying a deal in your area. Are you looking for rentals or flips? 

@Robert Jimenez - I agree with some of the others who commented before. I think selling your house up to 500k tax free ($250k each for you & Wife) would be the best play. The good news is you have a decent amount of equity and with that you can get some great returns in the mid-west and the south in comparison to holding this one as a rental. You can even find places that give you cash flow & appreciation if that's more what you're looking for. 

Is there any way to video record it or livestream? 

Hey Ocala Investors,

Let me buy you lunch or coffee! I'm going to be in the Central Florida area this week from Thur-Sat and would love to meet up with some Ocala, FL investors for lunch or coffee to pick your brain a little. Please let me know if you're free to meet up. I'll be driving over to Ocala so I can come to you. 

@Luke Mitchell - Congratulations on your first crypto investment! I feel like investing now is still a good time to get in. My end route is still real estate but I feel this could be a once in a generation opportunity to make crazy returns to throw into real estate. Ripple is the crypto I'm all about. I recommend checking it out. I've been investing in it since August 2017 at 17.5 cents. As I write this it's at $1.13 today and I truly believe it has a lot more room to grow. Crazy times we live in!!

@David Roque @Caleb Heimsoth - SEC concerns is a great point, I have read a lot about that and it's true, I need to make sure I'm covered in that regard. As far as the escrow fund, it sounds as though my plan wasn't far off how people normally deal with these kind of things?

Are you saying that people are normally down to commit their money to a big pot and not earn anything until a deal is made or are they typically getting some return on their money the minute it's committed to the pot?

Do either of you or any one on BP know of any RE attorneys that deal with these specific kind of deals? 

Hi BP Community,

I am looking to partner with people on Long term Buy & Holds (1-4 units at the moment) and I'm finding myself in a bit of a dilemma as I'm trying systematize this process. I realize that for me to have the best opportunity to get great deals I need to offer all cash. I want to do so using OPM (other peoples money) to keep scaling my RE Portfolio but take a slice of the equity/cash flow. Essentially, I find the deals/manage the PM and maintenance, etc, and they bring the money as a passive partner. The problem is that RE Agents require a POF in order to make an initial offer on a property and want it to be in an account of mine.

My plan was to organize an LLC in which people disperse their funds into a giant pool of funds as I fundraise and can make offers with this LLC. When I come across a deal, I'll have it in the contract to say and/or assign in which I will transfer the contract to a new LLC which has me and whoever is partnering with me along with an operations agreement detailing Equity break down structure, etc.

The problem I'm having is that I doubt people will want their money sitting in an account even if it's secured via paperwork written up by my attorney if it's not making them any money. 

So my question is, what process would you/have you used to make offers with OPM, considering it is for a long term buy and hold asset? 

Thanks!

I guess more of what I'm looking for is less of what business entity to put my properties in and more along the line of the nuts and bolts of starting a business. For ex: Putting a business strategy/plan together, deciding specific business roles with partners, all the info you would need to know to start your own business. I just don't want to wing it at all and would like to have a legit plan and business put in place to give me a solid foundation. I'm sure there's some things I don't know that I need to know that will help my business run smoother.