All Forum Posts by: Josh Bowser

I'll shoot you a pm - may be able to help!

Quote from @Josh Bowser:

Hey Jordan - welcome to BP in the REI world!

Strategy you are talking about it definitely something can be done. However, this is not a cash out refi.

Cash out refi is when you refinance an existing loan, with another one (i.e replace the loan) where there is enough money left over at the end of the process where you can put some proceeds in your pocket.

When it comes to your strategy - just make sure you're being conservative with your numbers on the purchase / rehab if you don't plan on using other proceeds to payoff the HELOC.

If you have any questions on this - please feel free to reach out to me via pm I'd be happy to chat. My contact info is in my bio as well.

Good luck!

Read some other comments - I guess it is technically a cash out refi, but you're paying off a line of credit as opposed to putting the cash in your pocket which is what I typically think of when there is a 'cash out refi'. Semantics!

Hey Jordan - welcome to BP in the REI world!

Strategy you are talking about it definitely something can be done. However, this is not a cash out refi.

Cash out refi is when you refinance an existing loan, with another one (i.e replace the loan) where there is enough money left over at the end of the process where you can put some proceeds in your pocket.

When it comes to your strategy - just make sure you're being conservative with your numbers on the purchase / rehab if you don't plan on using other proceeds to payoff the HELOC.

If you have any questions on this - please feel free to reach out to me via pm I'd be happy to chat. My contact info is in my bio as well.

Good luck!

Ambrose - welcome to BP!

I'd like to chat with you to find out about the types of projects you plan on working on and can connect you with a few GCs I like. I'll pm you!

Perfect - do your best to make the floors as even as new construction. You have to offer a great product at a competitive price in this market. Typically with houses of this age - you'll need structural folks to dig and install piers into the soil. Lot of the issue stems from pillars / blocks that sit on top of the soil in the crawl. Generally speaking, these are roughly $1500 / pier give or take depending on the crawl space height.

If you need anything - feel free to reach out to me (contact info in bio). Happy to help!

Jenna - hope you are well!

What are your goals, what is your current living situation, and where do you live? Lots of the time, newer investors will be better served by house hacking in the market they live in before branching out for other investments. Cleveland and Toledo are solid cashflow markets from my understanding - however, if you're in a HCOL area that cashflow may not move the needle for you.

Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions - always happy to help however I can!

Guillermo - just please make sure you are checking local regulations on STRs along with the covenants of the condo associations you are looking at. In all honesty, I'm not sure if $150k PP will be in an area that is attractive for someone renting out an airbnb - better strategy might be renting out the rooms individually on longer term leases and keeping one of them open while you're in town / or sleep on the couch haha.

Feel free to reach out if you want to chat through anything!

Will - hope you're well!

What area are you looking in? If reducing your cash to close is first priority, using a 5% down conventional is a great option to get into a property, while saving some $$$ for the renovations.

My wife and I are looking to do something similar in the Acworth / Kennesaw area this year as well. We house hacked our townhome in the past before we got married and we're going to turn it into a long term rental here shortly.

I work with investors / house hackers across the metro as an agent full time - would love to chat to see if there is anything I can do to help. Shot you a PM!

Marie - I'd love to hear a little bit about your lifestyle. Mainly, what % of that $500k are you able to save and is there a desire to relocate? Do you need to make that much?

If someone is willing to pay you $500k / year, I'd bet that you're a pretty high value / hard working person. If you're interested in real estate, would you be able to make a pivot over to something like RE Law? If so, there are a huge number of groups out there that would love to bring in a partner that practices RE law. 

I have a friend that is in my GB pod who is a patent attorney but loves real estate - he's constantly wanting to leave his gig and go into real estate. It's really hard to replace that active income with passive income without a huge pile starting out.

From a pure ROI perspective, the highest returning strategies right now are flipping and lending. You can get similar returns with co-living (padsplit ect), but that will likely not be a long term solution for you since you have not enjoyed being a landlord.

My favorite thing you mentioned is hiring to scale the house flipping model. It's not neccesary the house flipping that get's met excited, its business of finding deals that is important. Acquisition is the root of real estate investing - if you can master the systems and processes around that you will have a skill that can be translated to bigger and bigger deals.

I'd advise against developing on your own at first - if you find a partner that is knowledgable then go for it.

Syndications can be great, they also can be horrible. Make sure you are vetting the sponsors based off their character and experience. Be wary of how you come across the deals you come across - i.e. clicking on an add to invest is probably not great. Most folks I know that raise money for deals are oversubscribed and it is by relationship only to invest.

Regardless, I'd have discussions with trusted advisors in your inner circle to see what they recommend.

Feel free to reach out if you need a sounding board - happy to help however I can

David - hope you are well! 

Here are my unsolicited thoughts / observations. Might not apply to what you're seeing as I am 100% focused in the Atlanta Metro.

1. Flippers - I'm advising clients to pass on deals where DOM are high across the board. If everything in the neighborhood is 90 DOM (market dependent).. I'd pass OR get it at a no brainer price which we are actually able too in some instances, even if it's listed. Best way to find end buyers is to ensure it's well marketed - Professional photos, professional clean prior to listing, aggressive list pricing. This is not a market where you can price it high and pray for a buyer.

2. BRRRR - Almost impossible to find a BRRRR in the ATL right now that cashflows. You absolutlely need to be direct to seller or have close, personal relationships with wholesalers and active agents. I have seen a lot of folks that typically BRRRR pivot to flipping for the time being. Reason - you can still make $20-$30k on a flip where that same property would be -$100 to $200 / month when taking Rents - PITI.

3. Wholesalers - I haven't seen many good wholesale deals come across my desk.. Often times, they are priced at market and makes it tough to get deals done with agents. That said, good wholesalers have a handful of buyers in their back pocket that get all of their best deals. You definitely should network with them.

Relationships are very important in this environment. I'm focusing on building relationships with high volume agents, wholesalers, buyers, and sellers in this market to create dealflow for myself and my clients.

From a strategy perspective - we work heavily on co-living properties as it is one of the best ways to make things pencil. Atlanta in particular has high co-living demand due to the economic growth and prevalence of padsplit in our market.