All Forum Posts by: Lee Ripma

@Brian Garrett

Also, if your realtor has a good deal they won't have trouble finding another buyer for it, so I wouldn't worry about wasting the realtor's time if you decide to buy locally. 

@Brian Garrett

I'm doing major renovations in KC now and I can tell you that doing renovations remotely is much harder than doing them locally. If I had something local where the numbers worked for me I would totally take it! 

I'm no expert but my understanding is that you can buy property, you'll just need to find lenders who are okay with lending to you!

Well what's your goal? Park the capital for appreciation, maximum cash flow, a mix of both? Do you have a set return for cash on cash? A set amount of cash flow per unit? I'm just asking because I think you can only evaluate deals in relation to your own criteria, which come from your goals!

@Luis Silva

Sure, it's an insurance company. It's designed for RE investors and I've been very happy so far. 

@Tyler Hart

I believe your VA loan has to be within 50 or so miles of where you live or your duty station, no? If so you might be looking at a regular investment loan (20-25% down) and then you'll save the VA loan for a duty station where you can house hack.

@Luis Silva

I own property in KCMO and I use REI guard (very happy, tried a lot of companies for quotes). They let you set what you want to get back if the property is lost. I have it set so I'll get all the money back that I have sunk plus the mortgage on the property. To build what I have would cost almost double what I have in it so the insurance is very expensive. I figure if I lose the property to fire/disaster then I'll just walk away and sell the land. In the meantime I won't pay a fortune for insurance. Thats how I think about it - in case that is helpful.

If your goal is to get 8-12% on your money then this is probably a great idea. All you need is someone you trust with a good deal to loan the money too. Maybe you can watch what they do to learn. Hard money is very expensive so you're in a good place to lend. Usually, folks are borrowing quite a decent chunk of cash from hardmoney lenders, especially in SD. I'm not sure what you've got but it might not be enough to pay for the house and renovations. Alternatively you could lend a smaller amount just for renovations in a second position. 

Lee

You could use conventional financing with 5% down if you could get a property with a value add complement. Maybe you have a creative value add. Like the house is on a huge lot and you can subdivide or you know how to add sf or you can do all the repairs yourself and save a lot. Maybe the listing agent missed a bedroom and you lock it up under contact before anyone sees it. It's usually hard for the method to working buying retail because there isn't a lot of upside left. When you buy distressed you fix the problem and then benefit. But I COULD be possible for conventional and the BRRRR strategy, especially if you're willing to bid at or above list. Also if you're in an appreciating market then you'll have value add with just the passage of time.

@Jeff Petsche

If you like the BRRR strategy then you're going to really love forced appreciation in MF! I can't tell you what to do in your situation, however, I will tell you that whenever you talk to RE investors or hear them interviewed you don't often hear, I wish I had started off smaller and taken longer to get into MF. I did a small MF for my first deal and I'm just wrapping that up now. I'm looking for something bigger. Best of luck!