All Forum Posts by: Keaton Smith

@Arn Cenedella I am looking for mostly passive investing, recognizing that the initial setup will take time and energy.

As I crunch numbers I do see what you're saying about the reasonable CoC return rates. I will keep searching for great deals, of course, but am adjusting my expectations.

Thanks for the advice! I understand that one of the most important rules to growing wealth is to protect the wealth from downsides. I have too much to lose to be unnecessarily risky.

@Erik Mielke Great advice, I will narrow down my risk tolerance for neighborhood class and include a higher emphasis on NOI goals.

My biggest struggle with purchasing with lending initially is that while I have cash to invest, my income isn't strong enough to merit good lending terms. I'm sure there are private money lenders interested in going in on some deals, I'm just still working on finding them.

I'll pick my most promising markets and start out with those. Thanks again!

@Chris Phillips Thanks so much for the thoughtful reply, Chris! Is the rent you're getting net of the expenses?

I will heed your warning and make sure that the properties I get are sound investments both for the short-term and long-term. It sounds like, despite your doubts, you guys did a great job investing the cash you had.

@Danny Grey After running numbers, I see that you're pretty spot on. I'll keep looking, of course.

@Sanjeev Advani Thanks for the advice! I'm glad to hear Bakersfield is a good pick, I've been through the area before and it is a lovely city to live in. I suspect you're right that it is currently blooming.

I see what you're saying about mitigating expectations, and I will do so. I didn't want to settle for less than great returns at first, but I see especially in this market that my initial expectations are difficult to reach, and that your guess of 10.5% is still much better than the liquid investment market.

Thanks for the reply!

@Dan DiFilippo Thanks for reaching out! I'll definitely let you know as things progress if I need your team.

I see where the returns I'm looking at definitely don't come from standard deals that are running right now. I will look further down the risk curve, as you said, and see how much I'm comfortable with. Thanks so much for the insight!

@Justin Ancheta Welcome back to the US! Best of luck as you look for deals. If you find a rental that you'd want to go in on together I'd be happy to talk about it.

@Jesse Daconta Thanks for the advice! I see that with the amount I'm talking about, cash flowing that much will be difficult. I hope I find it too! ;) Likely, the only way is going to be to leverage several properties before I can get close to that cash flow, I think.

Great idea on the syndicators for apartments, I'll check that out.

Hi there! I am blessed to currently have $400k cash to invest in real estate deals. I am looking to invest nationally (remotely). I have a running plan but I am just starting out in REI and am not interested in moving forward unwisely. Here is my current rough outline of a plan, please consider letting me know where I'm right and wrong.
I plan on:

Focusing on monthly cash flow.

Hunting for deals remotely in Austin, TX, Fayetteville, NC, Fargo, ND, Columbus, OH, Sioux Falls, SD, Killeen, TX, Manchester, NH, Bakersfield, CA, Fresno, CA, and Clarksville, TN-KY.

Purchasing the property in cash (as an incentive to discount), rehabing (as needed), renting it out, then securing lending after it is occupied (currently I have no debt but also no loan-worthy income, so would likely need the property to have existing rent before financing through a bank).

Using property managers

Looking to have a CoC return of at least 15%, so that annually the $400k invested will make at least $60k gross.

I know each deal is different and this is a rough outline, but this is the general direction I am heading. I don't want to miss anything, so what do you all think? Is this the most optimized strategy to achieve strong cash flow?

Thanks so much for reading!

@BRAD THOMAS Are you looking at a specific type of analysis, such as rent comparisons or neighborhood data, or are you just interested in all kinds of software?

My favorites are Mashvisor for quick deal possibility analysis (like you mentioned), NeighborhoodScout for neighborhood market research, Rentometer for comparing rental prices, and of course the BP calculators. I also have an excel spreadsheet for analyzing comps that you might be interested in.