All Forum Posts by: Ke Nan Wang
Ke Nan Wang has started 6 posts and replied 302 times.
Post: renting washer and dryer

- Developer
- St. Augustine, FL
- Posts 307
- Votes 376
@Glen Wiley If the tenant is asking for it, if it makes sense to you financially, you could provide the appliances and raise the rent. Just think in terms of tenant's alternative. How much would cost them to either go to laundry mat or buy a used pair? Is the way you are charging them make sense to them compared to their alternatives.
Technically you are "renting" the appliance to the tenant but the wording makes a difference.
Post: renting washer and dryer

- Developer
- St. Augustine, FL
- Posts 307
- Votes 376
It's a capitalistic society so you can do whatever you want to make more money.
Personally I hate extra fees so I don't do charge for washer and dryer. I use them as a selling point that's about it.
They do come with a cost so if a unit doesn't have one and you would like to provide for the tenants, you do need to consider the ROI on your investment. For us, if the unit didn't come with W/D, we rent the unit without W/D and the tenant has to bring their own. If the unit came with W/D already, then we look at the comp in the surrounding and price the rent price accordingly. If the unit is not renting, we priced too high and would need to adjust accordingly. W/D is not gonna make any difference. Something will though, if I'm a renter and I see a W/D in the unit and the landlord said it's gonna cost me extra to use the W/D, my impression on that landlord is gonna drop significantly. It puts a bad taste in my mouth. Especially the W/D is in the unit. If it's in a detached building in a common area, I think it's more understandable.
Post: Waste of time putting home in LLC due to mortgage in owner's name - Lawyer agrees

- Developer
- St. Augustine, FL
- Posts 307
- Votes 376
Just wanna mention another thing that I haven't seen being mentioned here while the OP is mentioning quit claim deeding a property to a LLC.
Often quit claim deed will forfeit title insurance. Even I'm not a title agent, a good one would always want your business and of course they would always advise you to get a title insurance and do a warranty deed. Not saying you have to do it, but just keep it in mind that it's a calculated risk you are taking. Or you may want to spend the money so you can sleep well at night. Or if you want to refinance the property, the lender will force you to do it.
Post: Financing or Deal first?

- Developer
- St. Augustine, FL
- Posts 307
- Votes 376
You need to have a rolodex of money people that you have a good connection with before you do the "find the deal and the money will come" with confidence.
I would build relationship with mortgage brokers, bankers, credit union loan officers for the traditional stuff.
Usually at my local RE meetups there are no shortage of mortgage brokers, hard money lenders and private money lenders there.
Before you go out and look for deals, schedule meetings with these people and talk to them. Also talk to other investors and see which lenders have they used before. The ones that always come through with good a reputation, reasonable cost and terms are the ones you would like to build a relationship with and work with them on future deals.
The more money people you know, the better deals you can get from lenders. We have a local guy who has lots of money but he charges 3 points and 12% 6 month term, he would be the back up plan for most people since that's on the expensive side. Most people charge 2 points 12% and more flexible on time line but maybe they don't have that deep of a pocket. Sometimes we run into people who's willing to do 0 points and 10%, usually these people just have enough money to do 1 or 2 deals and the money will be tied up.
So short answer to your question, get your finance in order first.
Post: Finding a niche

- Developer
- St. Augustine, FL
- Posts 307
- Votes 376
Depend on your personal taste, I know most DIY solo investors start off with long term rental SFR because it's the easiest one to enter. Only require 1 on 1 communication skills. Also low requirement on marketing, sales, analytical and management skills, and the capital to invest is on the lowest side. The downside is that it's pretty slow growth.
I also know people who started their REI journey dive right in into large multifamily syndications with very little industry experience before, given these people were relatively successful in their own professional field with high education so there are some transferable skills, mainly in their ability to analyze, problem solving, management, network and communication. Typically these people can invest some money joining the right master mind and then more experienced people in that group would be able to partner up with them and guide them through the journey.
Like most people have said, you don't find the niche the niche find you. Pick one thing that you know you can do and start doing it today. If you don't have a mentor guiding you to success, essentially you will have to find the rope with lots of trial and error. So it's up to your personal preference on how you want to go about this journey. If you have the money, the drive, the intellect but just don't know where to go and you want to grow fast, I would probably recommend you to invest some money and join a program/mastermind. Although I haven't done any of them myself, the people who I know that I more successful than me, almost all of them are part of a mastermind and they all said it's worth the money, simply because the contact you have access to, not counting other benefits such as educations and investment opportunities.
Nobody can evaluate the pros and cons of different niches for YOU. First develop a habit of doing it, taking actions, either fail or succeed, then learn and grow and continue doing. The actions will lead you to your niche.
Post: Need help estimating a rehab

- Developer
- St. Augustine, FL
- Posts 307
- Votes 376
Some insight from a contractor, price per sq ft never works well either the investors get screwed or the contractors get screwed because everyjob is different and the scope is different. You would be lucky if somehow worked out for both.
If you say, I just want a price per sq ft for budgeting purpose. I don't believe anybody who says to me "I won't hold it against you, tell me what's the ball park?" especially if that person is new. I did that a few times when I was new, and later on the quote came back higher, the customer always said "I thought you said it's gonna take XXX." Doing this long enough has taught me, the number that came out of your mouth will get stuck in the customer's brain, even you say lots contingencies afterwards, the customer will remember none of those words. And the number you put out, will always come back and haunt you no matter what they said. Either I had to meet their expectation and not make money or they have to be upset with me and pay me the "extra." If the customer is a pro investor and their words have meaning, then I may shoot a ball park number from the hip. They understand my job and they do not hold it against me if I'm wrong with explanations. I do the same with my subcontractors.
So with that being said, as a new investor, just ballpark the cost this way for a house that's less than 1500 sq ft:
1. light rehab: flooring and paint (10-20k)
2. medium rehab: light rehab + appliances, kitchen and bathroom, windows and doors, builder grade light and plumbing fixtures (50-60k)
3. Heavy rehab gut job: Complete redo down from the studs forward: medium rehab + replumb, rewire, new AC, drywall and insulation. (150-180k)
Add a $15 per sq ft for the roof if new roof is required. Assuming shingle roof. typically around 10 to 15k for small to medium houses.
This is just for your own budgeting purpose when you look at deals unless you can find a trusty contractor who doesn't mind give you free estimate for all the deals you are analyzing (unless he just got too much time on his hand, another sign of starting/bad contractor)
Once you locked in a deal, walk with the contractor and come up with a specific scope of the work. You want to make sure that you discuss everything you can think of and have that specified in the quote (if you are working with someone you haven't worked with before).
Once you have done it a few times, you will get a better sense one what items cost how much for your future deals.
Post: Best Courses, Coaches, and/or Mentors

- Developer
- St. Augustine, FL
- Posts 307
- Votes 376
Hi John,
I do this everyday. I'm busy but I have spare time, like commenting on this post right now. You can talk to me and see what is like. Or you can find me on social and my website, K.Nan Homes or K.Nan Construction in St. Augustine. we post pretty frequently. Trust me, I have nothing to sell you. I'm a professional, I only charge people if they use my professional service. Chatting is free.
I'm my local land wholesaler's biggest customer. I buy land for myself and for my retail RE investors. So learn what I'm looking for you will have your disposition buy box for builders/developers.
Cheers,
Kenan
Post: Do you wire the money or receive a check

- Developer
- St. Augustine, FL
- Posts 307
- Votes 376
I highly suggest you use an attorney/title company and wire the funds for all of your deals.
Post: Tenant with 750+ Credit Score and 150k Income trashed my apartment... what's next?

- Developer
- St. Augustine, FL
- Posts 307
- Votes 376
Document all the cost and how much they owe you after security deposit and send it over to collection. If you have a judgement is better but they will work with anything (lease, ledger). There is no cost upfront with them but they take 33% of what's collected. It's best you have their full name, DOB and SSN, it's pretty effective. Usually this is where leverage comes against a good credit score tenants. When collection company contacts them with emails, phone calls, and text and present them the stick (ruin their credit score) and the carrot (work out some affordable payment plan), most good credit score people will come to their senses.
Doing all that cost you nothing other than paying the collection company 33% of what you would have lost anyway. At the minimum, you get a chance to harass them for being a terrible human being even if you don't get anything back.
Post: Tell me your Real Estate story!

- Developer
- St. Augustine, FL
- Posts 307
- Votes 376
Quote from @Samuel Jolicoeur:
Quote from @Ke Nan Wang:
Quote from @Samuel Jolicoeur:
Quote from @Ke Nan Wang:
Quote from @Samuel Jolicoeur:
Quote from @Ke Nan Wang:
Hi Sam, kudos on doing a open house on Saturday and use your time as productive as you can be. I'm from St. Augustine so we are 3.5 hour away.
I totally understand your parents' concern. I would be if I was in their shoes. Just like my impression on the stock market. Many people made a fortune owning the right stocks, and I just seem to have okay experience with it. My overall stock portfolio is a net positive but nothing I have to show for. During COVID period my stock portfolio had like a 40% gain and I was happily thinking, yes, I'm doing it right by diversifying something from real estate into stocks. And I continued to putting more money into my stock portfolio, thinking it's the right way to do things, even though there were no reason to support my initial success other than luck and follow the trend. But this new woke culture war hit some of the big name companies really hard and I had a huge lost on them: Meta, Disney, Target, Nike and NIO (this is not so much the woke culture but just the company did not perform as expected). I invested in them at the peak of their performance and now they are all 40%-60% less and essentially broke my portfolio into pretty much even. I think overall I came up $15k ahead out of a over six figure portfolio over 3 years which is pretty sad but I'm fortunate that I didn't lose money. My mom had a similar experience during the dot com bubble crash time and lost her lots of money so she vowed to never touched stock again because she thinks she's bad luck with stock.
With that perspective, I can imagine someone has a similar experience with real estate investing, if they started with a bad experience, they probably think they are born with bad luck and even though everyone is winning in real estate, they will think they won't be that person.
I have a great plumber who works for me. Two days ago we just had a conversation, both him and his dad grossed $2M last year, their take home pay was $375k each, that's pretty incredible for a plumber. But he says both him and his dad only put money into CD's and money market after reinvest into their business. His dad advise him to not to play with any investment that has risk, in their mind, they think money in the bank is "safe".
Life taught me that it's incredibly difficult to change a person's mind through outside persuasion, but it's incredibly easy, if that person just changes their mind themselves. So for these type of people, I just tell them, hey, just watch me. See how I'm doing. If you like what I'm doing and doing better and it's something you are interested in, then maybe I can help you. And I'll just leave it like that.
My story right now is that I'm trying to work with more investors, providing values to them and help them with their investment. I do not sell, I show them what I have done and what my data is showing, I give them all the pros and cons I know. Slowly but surely, my credibility has grown in my market. I'm a slow but steady kind of a guy. And I put a huge value over networking and relationship and trust building. So I always carry myself with the upmost integrity and always do what I say.
It's nice to meet you and hope you have some foot traffic at your open house, and better, get an offer.
I also am looking to work with investors and would like to be included on the BP investor friendly agents list however it is I can do that. To learn from them and see how they operate and negotiate and grow their money. After all, my real goal isn’t being an agent, it’s being an accredited investor.
I see you’re a developer - do you have your own company?
Working with investors is a very broad scope because there is no credential for the title "investor," everyone can wear the hat so you just really have to pick the right ones to work for. For the right one, we pour our heart and soul to provide the best value to them, be available to them pretty much 24/7 and earn their trust for them to be our life long customer. My goal is to onboard 2-3 investors a year (I'm working with on and off and on average about 6 right now, all mom and pop super wonderful investors). I know I'm not the Ten-X super scaling business empire type of guy but life is good money is good and no stress. I like it this way.
We run a family own business, I'm fortunate that both my mom and brother are CPAs so I have an in house accountant right off the bat. I'm basically the person who wears every hat for now and so far I'm leveraging technologies and vendors to run our business. We develop about 10 single family houses (from land to a well built house) a year and we own and operate on and off about 30 rental properties that's 90% LTR and 10% MTR/STR. We currently own and planning ahead about 3-4 small development projects of ourselves in the next 3 years.
You say your real goal isn't being an agent, same here. But I don't want to be just a LP investor, at least for now or in the foreseeable future. I like to get up and do stuff. Going into the field and see houses coming off the ground and eventually move people in give me purpose and satisfaction. I can pretty much do this all day every day for the rest of my life even I don't need to make a single dime. Right now some of my good investors pay me my share everything upfront (of course with a discount) and I bust my *** for them just as hard if they have not paid me. Money is more of a measurement for self worth to me at this point but it's not a motivational factor to do what I do.
I'll keep your contact and let's find an opportunity to connect either next time I'm in Tampa or you come visit St. Augustine.
It would be awesome to meet you sometime! I drive up to Tampa frequently, and though St. Augustine is far away from me I do love the area.
It sounds like you're doing well for yourself, and good for you! I hope to someday also be at the point where money is no longer a major motivational factor. Development is another aspect of RE that I'm very interested in exploring more, but have not had the chance to. I want to be part of the growth and help to relieve the nation of its housing shortage. How would you describe the developments you produce?
Our business model is pretty exclusively a build to hold model. Similar to the BRRRR method but instead of renovate a old house, we build a new house rent it out and refinance. Since we are our own contractor and PM, in today's market we still aim to achieve the 1% rule. 2021 to 2022 we were achieve 1.5% no problem. For our investors, we help them achieve at least 7% annual COC return (After our GC markup and PM fees, our new constructions are cash built). Obviously it's not for most of the aggressive investor here. Our investors are mostly busy career people and they have $300k cash and where can they park their $300k and still get some healthy returns and ride on top of inflation. If you are building new relationship and finding these type of investors is definitely a slow and steady effort.
Our business model is to be very flexible and present all the options to investors. We are in the field everyday and it's very easy for me to show investors the house we are building, the house we have built, show them my data on our current rent roll so we are 100% transparent about what we do. I even showed them how much money I make from each of the operation. The money I charge them is very affordable, all of them is either fair market rate below market rate based on what they can find if they have to shop for a GC, a PM and a real estate agent. It helps a lot to build trust.
In the last few years we were mostly our own customer with the low interest rate. But with the new high interest rate, we dial back our own operations and mostly working with new cash investors this year and going into next year.
Is build to sell or build to hold a realistic strategy for a newer investor without a lot of cash? I am a fan of contributing to the supply rather than flipping an existing house but in your experience do you think one is better than the other for a first sale?
It's doable but certainly more challenging. In general ground up new construction loans are more expensive (higher origination fees and higher interest rate). Usually the LTV in the land doesn't justify the risk for a hard money lender unless you have other assets to put down as a collateral. If you have private money lender connection, then that could be a more affordable option than ground up new construction loan. In summary, the first build without cash will always be the most challenging part for newer investors. After the first build is complete, then investors can refi the house and repeat.