All Forum Posts by: John Suralik

Katera Kennon There are some great deal analysis Excel sheets members have shared on the file share on BiggerPockets. The cash flow spreadsheets will walk you through the numbers that investors use to make purchasing decisions. Purchase price, property association fees, taxes, insurance, Maintenance costs, capital expenditures, and other costs are looked at in proportion to the rental income to decide if the property will cash flow, or earn the investor a paycheck if they are flipping the deal. Let me know if I can help.

Matt Turner This is a great learning opportunity. Go to the file share menu at BiggerPockets and find a deal analysis Excel sheet (find one for buy and hold that calculates cash flow) and plug in the numbers on your current home. Choose a cash flow Excel sheet that includes the following expenses: maintenance, taxes, insurance, mortgage, property management, and any others pertinent to your home. I'm away from my computer, but if you message me, I can send you the one I'm using. Let me know if I can help.

While driving for dollars, I've found an abandoned house and from checking the tax card I learned that it was foreclosed on in 2012. It is owned by Secretary of Veteran Affairs. From doing a little bit of online research I found that the Secretary of veteran Affairs sells their foreclosure a using a third party to list them on the MLS. This property has been foreclosed since 2012 and chance of me buying directly from them before (if ever) it goes onto MLS?

I would commit to doing one strategy like driving for dollars until you get a deal. Instead of will I be able to find a deal, it's how can I find my next deal. On the latest podcast on BP, Andrew Cushman discussed making over 4500 cold calls while working a full-time job to get his first deal. Good luck. Let me know if I can help.

Welcome to Bigger Pockets. I would pick up a book and start learning the simple financial measures of deal analysis. There are a lot of good ones out there such as "What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow... And 36 Other Key Financial Measures" by Frank Gallinelli, or start reading the posts and keeps notes on calculating NOI, DSCR, cash flow, Etc. Let me know if I can help.

One more thing, now that I you did the analysis on this deal, you have a quick guide to like property in your market at this time. I'm looking at making the plunge into commercial and it's taking me longer than SFH because it's new to me and there are les comps. I'll get faster.

Nice work not buying a bad deal. It sound like the wholesaler was trying to pass on a pig. Stick to the numbers as you are and you'll be fine.

I have three experiences with this. One direct and two second hand deals through friends. First deal, a friend of mine put an offer in for 66k on a HUD foreclosure that they were asking 85k. The selling agent quickly countered and said that wasn't enough with a bottom price which was 80k as I remember it. This property wasn't getting a ton of attention because it was next to a railroad track. He ended up buying it close to their counter. Second deal, was a HUD deal that I bought as a live in flip. It was listed for 78k. Someone put in an offer for 80k all cash I found out later, but I ran the numbers and put in an offer for 90k and purchased the house. I knew quite a few of the team listing the deal, fielding offers, so I knew I was going to make a solid offer to win the bid and the ARV was 190,000. The third deal, I put in a low offer, I wasn't accepted. The house seemed to have been delisted. I might offer again. It needs a lot of work, is in a c/b area, and I'm not willing to come up from a gutter low offer. Even with HUD, I think there is some difference on what kind of offer will get it done depending on the property, location, listing agent, and traffic the house attracts from buyers. Run your numbers and make an offer that you feel comfortable with. It doesn't hurt or cost anything to make an offer.

@Bryan O.

Thanks Bryan. Do you know what an acceptable DSCR is to a lender?

@Patrick Liska

I agree. I really try to be honest about property expenses and include that in my NOI calculations for my analysis of deals. I guess I was looking at it as "Am I speaking the same number language to the bank?" For example, if they are getting deals where people are not including PM in their NOI and I am then my numbers wouldn't look as good on paper at first glance. I am so curious what is an acceptable DSCR to the bank and then what is an acceptable DSCR for RE investors. Or maybe I should just stick to cashflow and leave DSCR to the bankers.