All Forum Posts by: John Upperman

@Rashad Brooks - PM me the details.

Thanks

John

I'm not going to comment on the hard money strategy since you have plenty of input on previous replies.  Here is my two cents on auctions in the Raleigh-Durham area:

1.  This is a very competitive market with some very large hedge-fund type investors operating in the area.  

2.  Because of #1-  just about anything that goes to auction that is a 3/2 and 1985 or newer is going to be highly coveted.

3.  Add #1 and #2 together and you must have a very solid idea of your buy price and numerous exit strategies.  

Add all of these together and 9 times out of 10 you are NOT going to take anything down for the opening bid.  Therefore, you have to "take it to the top" of your upper limit that allows you to make the margins you are comfortable with.  Otherwise the 5% rule will incrementally price you out of the market and you'll never win anything.

You'll need 5% down if you win the bid, and then able to close 100% of the deal in 30 days.  

@Austin Mudd 

I would look at a house hack as a long term flip.  Find an MFH that needs a little work and has some upside potential.  You move in, make the improvements, possibly increase rents and the overall value of the property.  Then when you're ready to move in in 2-3 years you can either hang on to it as a longer term buy and hold or sell it at a profit.  

In this scenario you get the best of both worlds by having someone fund your personal mortgage and profiting from the improvements you make.  

@Christopher Webb

I am interested.  I'll send you a PM so we can discuss.

John

The Meet Ups typically do not have a set agenda.  Just a great way to network with like minded people and hopefully discover ways to do business together.  

@Benton Moss

Welcome to BP!  Sounds like you're off to the right start with the Duplex purchase.  

Raleigh is a great area in that it is experiencing both population and job growth, but those dynamics also make it very competitive from a REI perspective.

Once you hit the off season you should come out to one of the local BP Meetups that are usually the last Thursday of every month.  Just set one of your key word alerts to "Raleigh" and you'll be notified of the time and place.  

Good luck this season.

John

 No - we did not do any structural changes so that was not necessary.

@Kyle Doney

@Brian Eastman is correct, and that was actually part of my strategy.  Since almost all of my capital is in tax sheltered vehicles, I wanted a way to quickly generate capital that is not restricted and can be used for investments outside of my Solo 401k.  Tax sheltering has it's place, but I also want the tax benefits of buy-and-hold real estate outside of my Solo 401k.  

So my strategy is to use my Solo 401k loan as "seed" money.  Now that I have paid that back, I have my profits to deploy to other flips in order to snowball my capital which I will then use to purchase buy-and-hold rentals.  

Hope this helps.

 Katie - glad you enjoyed it.  I lived in Austin and made regular pilgrimages to the Salt Lick.  Man I miss that barbecue.  :)

 Rick - the business plan that I brought to the bank included comps for other rehabbed projects in the area.  Our request was based on the worse case scenario, so they were very comfortable loaning us the funds.