All Forum Posts by: Kurt Phillips

I'm not sure I follow your question but I think what your asking is do the initial repairs get figured into your down payment on the property when calculating overall cash flow of the property.  What it will take to get the property into functional condition, example: rent ready, at the front end of the acquisition can be used to figure out what your cash on cash return and return on investment will be.  In most cases there will also be repairs needed throughout the year.  That will be a separate percentage than will ebb and flow.  Some months you won't spend it and some months you will spend double what you figured.  This will impact your monthly cash flow.

Of course at the end of the year you add it all up to determine your ROI and COC return.

Hopefully that answers your question.  

We use cozy.co to receive payments.  Everything goes through the program so that the tenant never sees where the money goes.

@Brian Legg there are so many strategies that its hard to say what to do in your instance.  You should certainly buy at a discount rate as @Brent Coombs said and there are reasons for not borrowing the full amount the bank will approve you for. One reason for purchasing at a discount is that will allow you to have a solid exit strategy to get that money back. The acquisition is certainly the hardest part of this business so I personally like the HELOC route if its available. Most people lack the credit and/or equity in their home for this option, so kudos to you.

In saying that, there are other institutions that offer HELOC's so I would spend the time turning over every rock to find the best rates. This is super general stuff so if you would like feel free to PM me and maybe I can help dive into it a little further but hope that helps.

Welcome @Alex Ferrara your right about there being a ton of info through bigger pockets.  Your certainly doing the right thing by learning as much as you can and putting offers in.  Getting outbid is just part of the game so don't let that deter you, it doesn't sound like it is!  As long as you pay what your numbers tell you the property is worth to you then you will have nothing to worry about.  

Welcome @Trey Aubin you will be blown away by the amount of information here.  And your background in insurance will serve you very well in real estate, as you probably already know.  My wife got her start in the insurance industry for many years until we brought her home to be with the children.  Her background has likely saved us thousands of dollars in our real estate business.

@Lonnie Freeman thanks for sharing this story!  Well written as well with some excellent take aways.  I know it has already been written several times in this thread but as a small MF investor (2-4 units) and flipper I've often watched these larger deals from afar and hearing people say, "Its not as hard as you think."  Reading the progression of your deal actually puts boots to the ground on that statement and genuinely doesn't seem all that different from doing a smaller deal but with more comma's.  

Thanks again for sharing.

@William Harkins my wife and I purchased our fist duplex and lived in that sucker for 9 years while renting out the other side.  For many of our friends and family they thought were crazy sharing a house with tenants but for us there was a much larger goal in view.  While I would not have articulated the term "financial freedom" at the time I did have a long term vision of options.  My point, if the goal is big enough sharing a house with tenants isn't really that big of a deal as long as you have a few basic assumptions and are willing to be patient.

Also fantastic advice from@Robert Ellis on finding a lender and getting pre-approved as quickly as possible.  That will be a total game changer for you when you know what you can look for and afford.

And@Shawn Q. suggesting you live with family or friends while you look for a place to owner occupy is a great way to save money for that down payment.  I suggest avoiding paying rent as much as humanly possible and just look for that duplex.

Best of luck!

Welcome to the forums @Andrew Bernthold.  Another Lancaster native, can't say I've seen anyone else from the same town I'm in.  You will find a ton of information on this site for what your looking for and many folks willing to help.

Appreciate your honesty @Ned J. and I can certainly understand where you are coming from.  But just keep reading and pressing in and it doesn't actually take that long to get good at this game.  Have fun with it and know that 1) Freedom isn't as far away as you might think (do the numbers sometime) 2) By just getting started and throwing your heart over the bar whats the worst that could happen.....you lose money??  So what, you can make more money!  Time, however, is not a renewable resource.

Pick one thing you really like and go nail it my man and look back proudly on what you have accomplished.

I realize we are talking mainly about stoves but on a side note: the gaskets for a white refrigerator are much less expensive than the ones for a black refrigerator.  Strange but true.  Just replaced one of both in a couple of rentals.  That alone makes white appliances my vote.  Plus white opens things up to make the kitchen look bigger and brighter.