All Forum Posts by: Kyle McCorkel

@Nick Sears

That sounds like a cool idea. I haven’t found it yet. I’ve considered in the past scraping the rent and sales Zestimates off of Zillow to do this analysis. It would not be super accurate at the individual property level but the neighborhood/city aggregate might be useful.

@Bryan Geary

I use TC Settlement Services. They are in Camp Hill. Not sure if they do double closings but they are definitely investor friendly.

I’d also like to be added to your list!

@David Rosengaft

I invest in the Harrisburg area. I’m interested in hearing why you are choosing this area being from Virginia. Anyways, I’m happy to help!

@James Gleeson

I have a local portfolio lender that requires no seasoning. I found them by asking around on Bigger Pockets!

So, I’d recommend asking people in your area either on BP or in local meetups.

Once a few investors in my area discovered the portfolio lender the word spread like wildfire! Now it seems like everyone is using them.

@Rahul Sunkavalli

It doesn’t have to be black and white. Others have said you need the job to qualify for loans. If your wife has a good job she can qualify for loans.

Here’s what I did: I was a full time, salaried, W2 employee. Which required 80%-100% travel. Then I had kids and started investing in RE around the same time. I went to my employer and asked to be a contract (1099) employee instead. This gave me much more flexibility to choose what days I worked and what projects I did. I ended up only doing local projects or working from home (no more travel). This gave me more time to put towards investing as well as to help out with the kids. My wife kept her cushy W2 with benefits and we didn’t miss a beat qualifying for loans.

Of course your situation is probably different but I’m just saying think creatively on the best solution to fit your desired lifestyle and goals.

@Matt Wallington

The system that has worked well for me is to use my own cash plus HELOC's plus private money for "short term" financing. Then repositioning (a.k.a. refinancing) into a nice, long term, fixed interest mortgage after rehab.

If you haven't learned about it yet it's called BRRRR (Buy Rehab Rent Refinance Repeat)

For example I got a deal for $37K which I used a $31K HELOC plus some of my own cash. Then I used a private loan (12% interest only, balloon after 12 months with no prepayment penalty) to finance a $38K rehab. Once the rehab was done (about 3 months) I did a cash-out refinance with a portfolio lender for about $75K. This was 80% LTV at 5% interest amortized for 30 years.

I did incur some closing and holding costs but at the end of the day I was left with only a few thousand in the deal.

Use the riskier, higher interest rate debt for short term only and have an exit plan to either sell/flip (and pay off the debt) or refinance to pay off the debt.

@Sol Bier

Welcome to BP from one engineer to another. I’ve been a buy and hold investor for almost 4 years now. I like that it seems that you are super analytical which I can relate to. On the other side of the coin, don’t let let that hold you back from taking action after an appropriate amount of education.

My interests and strategies have evolved, but I would definitely recommend buy and hold for you for a number of reasons, such as the great tax benefits. I would start with a small, local deal - something that doesn’t eat up all your capital and will give you a chance to learn.

BRRRR is the superior buy and hold strategy but it is extremely difficult to find deals to make the numbers work. I'd imagine it's a whole other level of hard in the Bay Area.

I've done out of state turnkey with varying success. If you do that I'd recommend visiting the area, meet with the team, and view some properties. And buy it truly turnkey - don't try to be fancy right off the bat and do a long distance BRRRR. It's much easier to manage the rehab if you are local.

I agree with your thoughts on syndication - you aren’t learning as much. I say start in your own personal portfolio, learn the game, and invest in syndications later once you can walk the walk and talk the talk.

@Corey Samuelson

Good call. You don't need it. I had mine for 1.5 years and it helped with MLS access but it became more of a hindrance because of all the guidelines regarding marketing to off market sellers and disclosures.

Use it as a lesson learned going forward. I learned the same on my first BRRRR. I build the closing costs of refinancing into my initial numbers. I think I conservatively estimate $5k which includes the initial escrow for taxes and insurance.

And yes you are right that the proportion of the cost is higher for lower priced properties. Many of the fees are fixed costs, although some are variable with the total loan value.

@Steve Emling

Three!