All Forum Posts by: Ke Nan Wang

Quote from @Andy Verge:

Has anyone used Avail for background and tenant screenings before?  Thinking of giving them a try but wanted to hear what your thoughts were.  TIA

I have used a number of tenant screening platforms in the past. Never have had experience with Avail so I'm interested to hear your experience. 

Out of every platform I've used over the last 4 years (RentRedi, Transunion, ***********, Cozy and now Apartment.com, TurboTenant) I like TurboTenant the most. 

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think any of them will pull OPEN eviction court cases. I had to find that out myself doing court record search on an applicant. 

Quote from @Lisa Marie:

Resurrecting this thread.

@Pandu Chimata, @Ke Nan Wang, @Sarah Kensinger, do you guys have a recommendation on an attorney who has experiences with STR arbitrage? My husband and I own a STR rental property but we are tired of having to manage the PM and still getting a mediocre performance. We have been discussing doing an STR arbitrage deal with an experienced and successful STR investor.

We have agreed on all the terms and conditions, and addressed all the possible scenarios - who is paying for what, and what happens if one party wants to terminate the contract, and etc. We have a document that's written in plain English, now we need to each hire an attorney to review the document and translate it into legalese. I know we could just hire a run-of-the-mill real estate attorney, who will just take a LTR contract and add a couple of paragraphs to fit this application. It's probably ok, but I am hoping that if we are paying the money anyway, it will be nice to have an attorney who has worked on other STR arbitrage contracts so that he/she may point out scenarios that we haven't addressed and help us fine tune the contract even more.

Appreciate any recommendation or insight you may have.

Attorneys are usually bill by hours so the less they work and still achieve the same result the better. 

I don’t have a go to attorney for this. The one I did, I used one who came high recommended from a friend. I felt he did an okay job and charged me a lot so I took it for what’s worth and basically just using it as my standard form and never looked back. Most of the negotiation items are in filling the blanks anyway. I say the attorney’s contributions are the broad clauses they put at the end of the contract to have the clients covered in all scenarios. Some of those you didn’t even think of. That would be the most values attorney could provide. All in all, I don’t see the need to nerd this out with a specialty attorney. 

Quote from @Nick Pries:

Quote from @Bob Stevens:

Quote from @Nick Pries:

Quote from @Bob Stevens:

Quote from @Nick Pries:

Hi, I am a beginner wholesaler looking to build a client base. I am currently working with an agent who is a rockstar and I am looking for advice about wholesaling. Specifically help on how getting the deal under contract works. Thanks. 

 Buyers are the easy part, ( you are doing it backwards) just get a deal, the money will find you, , Post it in the local forum, it will be gone in a day IF good, 

All the best 

 Really? Wow that is amazing. I thought it to be the other way around. Thanks Bob!!

 No all the useless books tell you to build your " power team" NO find deals  everything else will take care of itself

 What kind of deals would you recommend?

I think by deals he means anything that would make sense for an investor to purchase. There are things in the Deals that are valuable to investors, whether the values are presented in its low acquisition cost (most of the deal), high appreciation potential, existing low interest rate mortgage, etc. 

For instance, you find a seller who for some reason can't sell the property on the market but willing to sell it to you at a discount. You do a quick estimate and calculate after the acquisition cost, repair cost and it's at 50% ARV (after repair value). Basically an investor could make money in this transaction by going through process. If you find a deal like this and post it on your local Facebook or RE investor group, you will have more buyers than you need.

Here is probably not the best place to find deals because this forum is mostly for investors and everyone is looking for deals that you are looking for. 

If you are busy with your primary job, probably it's best to find turn key investment properties where someone already have a team on the ground and running, they acquire a rental property, place tenants in them and manage it for you at the price that makes sense to you as an investor. 

Great question. My question would be is the tenant paying market rent or close to market rent? If not, I would recommend let her leave then put it on the market. 

I have had a great case study to illustrate the point. I've sold two identical properties side by side at the same time, one was tenant occupied, one I waited for the tenant to leave, spruce it up and then listed for sale. I ended up netting 50k more on the second house. Where initially I thought keeping a tenant in it so they keep paying rent while I'm selling it is better. 

This experience taught me and I would also advise my seller than once it's committed to sell, selling a property that's in its best condition and vacant will get you the best result. 

If it's an investment property and you want to show best cashflow, then it's a different story but I figure duplex is probably more of a residential comp than a commercial comp. Unless the tenants are paying market rent, people who buy duplex probably would want it vacant so they can do value add and put new tenants in it at top rent. 

Hi Anthony, that's a great question and it's based on your preference. Pretty much as any items on the lease other than the rent, if you let the tenants do it, your safe assumption would be they will not do it. Then ask yourself, is this a big deal to you? If it is a big deal, I would recommend get a quote for a routine pool maintenance and use them, pay them and either put that into your rent or keep the rent the same and just eat the cost. 

I have two high end properties where the owners pay for the bi-weekly pool maintenance that cost $150 a month (a good deal right now for them). It's working out great. Pool maintenance contractor come out every two weeks, clean the pool and send the owner and I a report. The tenants are happy and never complain about the pool. 

Hi Tanner,

Based on your analysis, I'm assuming this is a turn-key property (meaning you buy this place and can rent it out the next day, or if it's already rented, then do your due diligence on their lease and rent roll) and the cashflow looks very solid. If it's not turn key then you need to figure out the rehab cost. If you are new, whatever the cost you come up with, just double that and that would be your realistic cost. 

The only thing I couldn't check is your operating cost and anticipated capital expenses because I have no idea about the property. Also to be conservative and if you are hiring a PM, I would put somewhere between 12-15% on PM cost. Most PM I know charge a tenant placement fee that's equivalent to 50-100% of first month rent. So that would put you on top of 10% unless you can negotiate a 8% management fee. 

If it's this good, I would also ask the seller/agent, how long they've owned it and why they are selling it. What are their major pain point of owning this property. Sometimes you get a lie and sometimes you get a straight honest answer but it's another opportunity to shake the tree a little and collect a data point. 

If everything checks out at this point, and it's in a location where you want to invest in. Make an offer and get it under contract and start the real due diligence. Keep us posted on how it goes. 

To answer your question, none of the title company I've worked with charge a fee on holding EMD in escrow. My title company holds money for me in escrow doesn't even relate to real estate transactions.

I do have to say it’s definitely higher risk in the wholesaling business because it’s not regulated. 
For this type of risk with that many land mines I would highly recommend you have a mentor who can guide you through the process closely. Someone who has your best interest in heart and no hidden agenda. I would start with word of mouth before falling into the online guru trap.

If you are this nervous right now and there will be a lot more. It’s a high risk and high reward game. 

Would love to see other's response. AirDNA is very expensive but seems to have the best data based on my other STR investors' feedback. Personally we live in a AirDNA A rated area and we are just doing STR in our backyard and seeing great results but also competition is coming in fast.
Right now with St.Augustine getting more and more crowded and unaffordable, there is a seemingly untapped area in Palm Coast, which feels like St. Augustine 20 years ago. AirDNA shows Palm Coast is a B rated area. It’s a getaway retirement vibe. My uncle bought a beach lot for 70k and built a house on it for 400k recently appraised for $850k. Real estate is still somewhat affordable there. 
The question would be: do we chase what people’s already doing (invest in hot areas with upcoming intense competition) or going into area that has high potential and lead the cause? 
Would love to hear some insight from others. 

I'm fairly confident that for 1031 exchange, the owner on the title of the exchanged properties has to be the same. But of course, ultimately you should consult with your 1031 exchange intermediate agent and your CPA.