All Forum Posts by: Ke Nan Wang

Most people here who are saying it's possible to deals like this because they have access to private funds or they can negotiate some kind of an owner financing deal. 

Definitely not your conventional way of getting a bank loan. 

When you want to bring private funds into a deal, you can either give up equity or borrow the money on a note and pay them back if you can afford it. Either way, there needs to some trust and relationship established prior. 

It seems like maybe a Pace Morby people can help you. But you do need to pay a steep tuition to get into the program. I've never used them before but have heard many good things about them. Maybe worth to look into. I believe last time I check it was like around $3000 to get into the program and you can have access to many people with resources.  

Good afternoon BP,

We have $329k 1031 Exchange funds looking to park somewhere. 45 day deadline is June 15. 

Open to see any market that can hit close to 1% rule LTR that's in an upcoming neighborhood. Looking for turnkey hassle free properties. 

Yesterday I've connected with an agent and we are gonna explore options in Columbus, OH. We are open to explore other areas. 

Mainly looking to connect with experienced real estate agent who owns a LTR portfolio in the local market and has a good PM referral. 

Thank you in advance. 

You can certainly bring your agent into a wholesale deal if you are so new to this. Just incorporate the agent's compensation into the offer. 

I've dealt with a number of wholesellers in the market. Some are good and some are shady and bad. If you are new to this game and don't know the basic procedures, I'd rather keep a good relationship with my agent and have that person watch my back. 

Keep in mind, usually wholesaler has about 10-30k profit baked in for themselves if you didn't negotiate with them on the price they brought the deal to you. For instance, wholesaler has the property locked in under contract for 100k, wholesaler is flipping it to you for 130k. Your budget is $120k. Then make him a $119k offer and give your agent $1k for all the trouble that person has been through with you and ask your agent to review your contract and guide you through the process. That's assuming your agent is qualified to do it. If not, then maybe talk to a title company and have them walk you through.  

Following this thread and interested to see what others comments are on this topic. 

Feel like a second ESA is a BS. 

I read up a little about NC's interpretations of fair housing law about service animal and ESA here https://disabilityrightsnc.org....and seems like it's very pro tenant and ESA where if the LCSW is abusing his/her authority and the landlord has little say in it.

Personally I like Airbnb's policy better, a service animal is trained to assist a specific disability and shall be reasonably accommodated. Landlord is not allowed to charge extra deposits and fees. That makes sense. 

An ESA is not trained. Although the landlord cannot deny it, Landlord is allowed to charge reasonable deposit and cleaning fees. Also both service animal and ESA cannot be left inside a property unattended. 

Thank you for your post. I think your market cashflow pretty well. I would start talking to property managers, realtors and lenders and start shopping. 

It got me interested in looking into your market and I'm surprised to find hundreds of >1% rule properties that are in decent shape in Detroit, MI. 

Got me interested in what is it like to invest and own LTR there. Did a quick google search and found that Detroit is relatively Landlord friendly. Anyone who's specialized in operating in Detroit? 

House hack it. I would even lease out the master and just stay in the smallest room in the house so I can maximize revenue and get this under control. I think Airbnb is probably the best way to go since you've already have furniture and ready to go. And Airbnb has less of a learning curve than straight up being a landlord. 

Go here: https://chat.openai.com/

Write a prompt: 

"write me a rejection letter to a rental property applicant for not meeting my income requirement. Try to be as polite as possible."

Output (Feel free to revise it or regenerate a few iterations until it's the one you like):

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Your Name] 

[Your Address] 

[City, State, ZIP] 

[Email Address] 

[Phone Number] 

[Date]

[Applicant's Name] 

[Applicant's Address] 

[City, State, ZIP]

Dear [Applicant's Name],

Re: Rental Application for [Property Address]

I hope this letter finds you well. Thank you for your interest in renting the property located at [Property Address]. We appreciate the time and effort you put into submitting your application. After carefully reviewing your application and considering all relevant factors, we regret to inform you that we are unable to proceed with your application at this time.

Our rental application process includes a thorough evaluation of various criteria, including income verification. Our policy requires tenants to have a minimum income that is at least [specific income requirement] times the monthly rent. Regrettably, your application did not meet this income requirement.

Please note that our decision was not made lightly, and we understand that this news may be disappointing. We strive to maintain fair and consistent standards for all applicants to ensure a positive living environment for all residents. We encourage you to continue your search for housing, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

We appreciate your understanding and thank you for considering [Property Name]. We wish you the best of luck in finding a suitable rental property that meets your needs and requirements. If you have any questions or if there is anything else we can assist you with, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Thank you once again for your interest in our property.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

A good question for you is how much knowledge do you have in construction of a house? If you are very knowledge about construction and just need to find a builder, then it shouldn't be too hard to find the right one and negotiate a price that will work for you and the builder. Once the project is done, you should have good amount of equity right away. And you should enjoy a good period of maintenance free and low insurance premium cost for your investment.

If you are not very knowledgable about building houses, or building quality houses, I would ask around and have an owner representative who can negotiate on your behalf (it can be a family member or trusty friends who have credible experience in the industry, or hire a third party professional such as a reputable architect/engineer). This is assuming you plan to build a quality house that's gonna be a very comfortable home for at least a quarter century with minimum corrective maintenance. Please note when I say quality I don't mean beautiful and fancy. You can still build a quality but cost efficient house. The focus are foundation, walls, insulation, water and air tight house envelope, good windows/doors and a solid roof. 

All the money and work done upfront (due diligence, design, hiring the right representative to cover your weaknesses) in new construction will pay off big time in the future. It's very easy to fall into the "cheap" quote trap when we are talking about quarter million dollar contracts. 

To us, we rarely buy second-hand houses anymore unless it's absolutely at a killer location. I trust ourselves to build quality houses and it's money well spent. 

There are enough free content out there I'd say you can easily gain enough knowledge to get started without paying much at all. 

I just followed a few Youtube channels I liked, listened to BiggerPocket podcast, and talked to a few friends who are in this business for some insights and recommendations and went ahead and started my own. 

I would say probably it's bad to read a book specifically on things like STR because this space is very fluid and dynamic and things change constantly. You need to follow the trend, just like growing a social media account, lots of practices as far as optimizing your STR is probably outdated if the book is a few years old.

I would rather read a book on improving social skills because a lot of it is people management. Book such as the famous "how to win friends and influence others." Either managing your property manager or manage your guest if self-manage.

Right now the trend is having a killer location plus unique design and a nice pool. These properties seem to be exceptional properties. 

If you are self managing it, it's more relevant to learn more about hospitality and hotel management. 

Seems like you are very new to this and does not have a trusty mentor. Unless you either come from a wealthy background and somebody's gonna offer you the financial security, or you don't mind paying a tuition for real life experience, I would recommend start with or keep working your W-2 job, save money and do flipping as a side hustle to start, in the evening or on the weekend. 

I would start with one small house that maybe just need painting, flooring and new kitchen bathroom cosmetic remodels, learn as much as you can from watching YouTube videos, ask friends who has experience and do a project DIY. 

Maybe do one a year just to learn the game, take it slow. It's the least stressful, least risky way to do it. It take years of experience to understand construction and learn how to talk to contractors, pick out and appreciate the good ones, and keep them accountable. 

Trust me, 90% of the gurus you see online you don't see their complete story. Usually many of them achieve success not on their own, because someone in their life guided them in the beginning of their journey. Most of the gurus don't talk about these people because it undermines their credibility. People such as parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, or very close trusty friends, who they really trust and can rely on their expertise to get started without hitting too many landmines. 

But if you can afford to pay thousands or tens of thousands of dollars as a tuition for real life experience, then you can go ahead and dive in deep as a full time gig from the get go and just learn as you go. You may learn faster this way but you will certainly pay. 

Lastly to answer your question, you don't need a RE license to be a flipper. It will be another cost in terms of money and time and be a distraction from you become a professional flipper.