All Forum Posts by: Liam Goble

I've bought a few properties that are sold "As is, where is" (unsure why the "where is" part...)

The first house I purchased for $18,000 cash and required about $3,000 before it was in rent condition.

The second one I purchased was purchased for $38,000 and required about $15,000 plus 500 hours of my labor. Totally worth it because of cash flow, but certainly not low maintenance.

I would say it's worth it to go look at the house, just be aware it may be a ton of work.

I'm unable to give you ball park answers, but I would think a phone call to the electric utility will tell you what your electric costs will be. For my local area, the utility will put up one pole, but after that, it's up to me to pay for it.

In regards to roads, you could probably call a paving company, one of the large guys you see rebuilding roads every year, and ask them as they should know. Again, in my local area, the roads have to be wide enough to allow emergency vehicles to move on, this includes fire trucks which are wider than regular vehicles.

I would check to make sure people are actually building on lots in your town. One of the towns I invest in has quite a few lots available, but when I spoke with the code enforcement office, I was told they couldn't remember the last time there was new construction in the town. Even though I could probably buy the lots for $5,000 and build a 3-unit on them, property values probably wouldn't support the build.

Even the small multis are tight in my local market. In 2010, I had the pick of small multis. Now, there are 4 listed, each of which is significantly over priced (and not selling).

I'm not a tax guy or an attorney, but I do have an LLC set up for my buy-and-hold rental business.

From my experience with my first rental, you can try to get the name set properly on the sales agreement, but it may be difficult. You're possibly dealing with to different time frames: one for the sales agreement (say you agree to close in 45 days) and the second is your state's (and the Fed's) to return your paperwork and get all of the announcements posted. If it takes 60 days to get all the paperwork back from the state, you may be out of luck.

From a tax perspective, LLCs are set up as 'pass through' tax entities, meaning any tax liability from the company is passed through to your personal returns. The tax advantage of an LLC (as I see it) is if you were to have multiple non-married people as members of an individual LLC, the LLC returns (K1's on your tax returns) would allow all of the depreciation, profit, loss, etc to be spread depending on the membership of the LLC.

Lastly, so long as you keep detailed records, I would think your tax professional should be able to set up your taxes to show the 'loss' from the improvements to the property. I would assume the improvements would be classified as "Home Improvements" and be deductible similarly to how home improvements are deducted for a home office.

The badassity of investing is the way to go. I would encourage you to use any of the loans available to military to purchase a small multifamily building. Live in one unit and rent the rest out. That will give you a sense of what it is like to be a landlord and have cash coming in every month.

For point of reference, my wife and I started investing almost exactly 18 months ago. We are cashflowing about $1,000/month right now, or $12,000/year. We will be using flips to get more capital to invest in buy-and-hold, rather than using casinos, but I have a friend who is/was very successful at hold'em ($70k annually).

Good luck.

I'm not a wholesaler, but from what I've read about the subject, most wholesalers have a list of buyers before locating the subject properties. Do you have your buyers list together?

I'm interested in finding some software that is able to handle all aspects of buy-and-hold investing, with associated triggers for past due rent, leases that are ending, etc. Ideally, the software would track each property individually for rent reserves, PM, etc.

In addition to buy-and-hold, I would like the software to be able to handle accounting for flips.

I've been using a combination of Excel (stored in the cloud) and Google Docs, so I have access anywhere, but I would like to combine my spread sheets and use something more conventional. I have some familiarity with Quickbooks, but didn't see an exceptional way to track everything I needed to do in QB. I was looking at Buildium, but that looks more like it is used for buy-and-hold, rather than flips.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

@Alex Silang I'm in a similar position. The ultimate irony of my position is that I CREATED my job (but it's out lived its usefulness). My goal is to leave the 'normal' workforce by 2016, so I can hike the AT with my dad.

In my first 12 months, I did purchase a total of five units (1 SFH, 2 duplexes). After those first 12 months, I was cash flowing (am cash flowing) about $750/month (assuming the use of a PM company). I started in Aug 2012, and want to be done by Mar 2016. I know my journey is an AGGRESSIVE push, but I started with literally $0. I borrowed my first $20k for my first purchase, used a HELOC for my second purchase, then used a business LOC for my third purchase.

If you're smart, you'll invest where you can get significant returns (high cash flow) with the cash you have available. I would encourage you to invest in out-of-state investments, such as Indianapolis.

I'm working with a TK provider right now. You can PM me if you're interested in learning a little more about the process I've gone through so far (my TK purchase will be my 4th property).

I did something similar with one of my properties, except I got a line of credit, rather than a loan. It gives me flexibility for spending, while the bank holds a variable rate (something to keep in mind).

For instance, I got the line, then used that to immediately purchase another cash flowing duplex.