All Forum Posts by: Lee Ripma

Hi @Guillaume Elleboudt,

Welcome to BP! I have not been to Belgium but I have met some very nice folks from your county while traveling in Europe and South America.
 

I don't much about the foreigners buying in the US but I know that people do and it's possible. I invest in Kansas City and the company I work with has at least one foreign (Italian) investor who buy both rentals and does flips. 

Are you sure that you cannot find anything in Belgium or Europe to invest in? That apartment you described didn't sound good but is there anything else you could invest in? What are your goals? People often say "I want to invest" but why? Build assets, cash-flow now, appreciated assets later? A place to put all this extra cash I have? I'm asking because if you know what your goals are it will help you make decisions. How much cash in US dollars will you have to invest here? 

Why TK? Why the US? I invest in KC from California and I can tell you that distance is tough and I'm a lot closer than you!

@Yun Liu

I also saw the upcoming tax auction in San Diego. Here is a link if folks are interested. 

http://sdcounty.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=a447f7a91ce04c48861e9da86fcd3435

@Frank C.

Many, many purchases you COULD make will not cash flow. People who buy beach houses, or ski condos, or homes in the desert love their houses but don't think of them as investments. Or if they do think of them as investments then they are defining an investment as a stable place to park some cash and wait for appreciation, they are not looking for or thinking about cash flow. Or maybe they think about subsidizing their vacation home by sharing it sometimes, again, not cash flow. 

You read Rich Dad Poor Dad and learned all about assets vs. liabilities and now you're realizing that the world is full of liabilities that people think are assets. If you run numbers like what you presented above in any desirable market you will likely get a very similar result. If you want cash flow, don't buy a condo in a really desirable location in a really popular ski town. Maybe you could get cash flow in Utah, but it probably won't be in a slopeside condo. You're also talking about buying something really desirable in a hot market at a retail price, why would it cash flow? You'd have to do some work to make it cash flow, like buy under market, have really high occupancy, self manage. Maybe then it still wouldn't, because the world is full of things to buy that won't cash flow. 

Realtors appeal to people's emotions because most people make emotional decisions. If the Realtor was trying to sell these places as something that would cash flow then he or she wouldn't sell any, because they don't cash flow! 

I just want to point out that people define "investment" in different ways. How many people say that their primary residence is an investment? Tons! How many say that their slopeside condo is an investment? Tons! Are either of those people getting cash flow? Nope! 

@Ali Boone

I split my time between San Diego and LA and I work professionally as an environmental consultant helping clients comply with environmental laws as they apply to biology. As a very analytical scientist analyzing deals is my favorite part. I spent about a year researching all my different options and just bought 6 units (duplex and fourplex) that I'm working with a local team to BRRRR in KC, MO. I learned so much from just doing my first deal that now I'm really clear on what I want next. I also learned a ton about how important financing is and how to do it right and wrong. Next I'm going to buy commercial so that I don't have to deal with appraised values and because buying a large deal is about the same amount of work as buying a small one. I'd like to buy a small to mid-sized apartment next and I'm learning more about valuing apartments and syndication. Learning a ton from @Michael Blank and actually considering signing up for his course, I haven't paid for any education at this point. 

My friend (who is a man) and I formed a partnership for investing, Paprika Partners LLC. I often get irritated listening to the BP podcast and how they assume everyone investing is men. I can't stand it when they start talking about how to talk you wife into these things! I've actually informed them that I'm building up my portfolio so that I can be the first gay BP guest!

@Caroline S.

I think you need to decide if you want a dream destination or a place that is great for RE investing. For me, I like the beach of California (where I live now) but I can't afford a house hack property in this market. Or at least I don't think of buying one as an investment, because if I rented I would have negative cash-flow (I know it would likely appreciate).  I would also go to southern Colorado, Durango or Park City, Utah those markets have a similar problem. So my dream destinations are appreciation markets and not the same as my where lower-priced cash-flowing RE investments are. So I live in California renting and invest in Kansas City, MO. I'm looking into buying in the mountains of CA but even those prices are crazy compared to what you can get in KC. So when you say financially free, are you defining that as cash-flow from RE covers expenses? If so, fall in love with the mid-west. I actually think KC is very cool and man is it affordable compared to CA and DC where you live. The people are nice, the food is good, it's blue, and it's got a ton of culture and history. Plus there are a lot of jobs. Maybe Nashville is the same, but I've never been there. People will say live where you want and invest where it makes sense. So I would encourage you to look into where it makes sense to invest (pretty easy to find top 10 cash flowing markets) and see if you like any of them! 

Also, don't buy TK. You could start buying the market that you want to live in before you move there. 

This is a fairly standard top 10 list: 

https://s3.amazonaws.com/cashflowsavvy/Cashflow+Sa...

@Lenore C.

What is your goal? Do you want passive cash flow? A stable place to park your cash? Do you want the money for something else? If there isn't something else you want to do with the money now I'd keep holding it. As it appreciates you'll be able to pull money out of it either through cash-out refi or HELOC to fund other investments. If that's your goal. I guess my thought is that if you're just selling it out of fear and not for some reason then you should probably just hold it. If you've got another plan/goal that requires selling it then maybe think about doing so. If you don't like managing it you could take all that money tax free and start investing passively. My point here is that there are so many options and without a goal it's tough to evaluate them.

Keep us posted! 

@Max May

Could be fun little project to add your own. There are a lot of cool ones on the market! The best might be adding one and living in that while renting out your front house. Or you could airbnb the ADU. I have a friend who does that in LA and it meets the "house-hack" model, his airbnb income more than pays for his mortgage and expenses in his SFH in Highland Park (LA neighborhood).

http://www.avavasystems.com/PrefabHomes/

http://kithaus.com/

@John Arendsen

Hi Max, One thing you could consider is buying a SFH and adding an accessory dwelling unit to the back of it. I just went to a presentation on this today in Carlsbad and learned a lot. Check out AVAVA. There are three new bills that are paving the way for doing this. The Clairemont area is mostly SFH so would be perfect. John Arendsen

@Ben Piper

I'll be interested to see what happens on this. My understanding is that LLC puts you in the commercial realm for lending but I'm going to have a similar problem soon so I'd love to know how you end up solving this problem!

I see more investors in MO but I'm sure there are investors in both KS and MO.