All Forum Posts by: Kory Thaut

I think it's a matter of spending a little time in your target market and meeting with a variety of people there.  I am doing this now.  I live and invest in Portland Oregon, but am adding a couple of lower cost, higher cash flow, duplexs up in Washington State several hours away from my primary home.  I am a bit old school so I have been doing a ton of calls to people up there followed by some quick speed dating type in person meetings.  So far, it's working and I feel good about who I am comfortable and excited about doing business with and who not to.  

I love looking at property and meeting new people so I have no problem making the drive to meet with people and check things out.  

@David Nelson Cloud9 cleaning (Lake Oswego) does most of my SFR turnover cleaning.

@Collin Golden Welcome to BP!  I am starting the process of investing out of state of state as well to compliment my Oregon investments.   Lots to learn on that front.  My experience to-date has been primarily SFRs in Lake Oswego, Tualatin, & Tigard.  Lots of great information on this site, and mostly free too.  

@Sib Bahjat@Joe Splitrock@Billy Smith

Umbrella's are good only after you've settled / lost. I personally want to avoid getting to that point all together. Part of the value of the LLC is that it makes it more challenging for would be attackers and can deter the initial attack all together. Sure, any good lawyer can poke a hole, but in a lot of cases there is no value to the lawyer in doing so... which translates to them advising their client to move on. Depending on a state's charging order laws, they could still win a lawsuit and essentially never see payment from the asset.

In a state like mine, Oregon, it's only $100/yr filing fee per LLC so it's really been a simple decision for me.

@Sib Bahjat I wish I had a $1 for every time my CPA and attorney disagreed on something. I assume you're primary objective for using an LLC is asset protection? There are also tax advantages running your operations as a business but it could mean more work for your CPA (and you).

Personally, I've weighed this all out between my CPA and attorney and chose to run all of my operations as businesses (a few SFRS and working on a plex now).  And yes, it causes a little more work for the CPA... but I am sure he charges me for it anyway.  

@Patrick O'Neill I think you'll get the best rates from commercial lenders if you always have a 80, 75 or better LTV. The value is going to be based on whenever you go to do your refi. You're going to need to do something to create more value in the property if you want to pull out more following your original 25% down... which could come simply from 3-4 years of waiting on appreciation. My personal game plan is to always buy properties that have some sort of value creation opportunity outside of waiting for appreciation. Then, I can chose to pull the equity while keeping an LTV of 75%.

@Account Closed I use Coho Electric a fair amount but not sure they fully meet your small shop criteria.  I've never had a problem with timely scheduling and they've done full kitchen rewires for me all the way to improper ground troubleshooting in bedrooms.  

@Account Closed I am a big fan of the Loopholes of Real Estate Investing  by Garrett Sutton. It really helped me understand the asset protection and entity setup part of the REI world.

@Anush P. I personally don't think so, too many other factors at play.  If I can buy a house at 80% retail and the numbers still work out... well, the numbers still work our.  I think it's important to have a go to property analysis approach that works for you specifically and your goals / plan.  

I do mostly buy and hold and have had success that I am pleased with... and all w/out ever reaching the "2% rule".  

@Eric Hathway Choice a.).  b/c of the lower rate and 5 years is a long time... and the delta between 5 and 7 isn't much.  (since they'll both adjust every 5).

What do I win?