All Forum Posts by: Luciano A.

Don’t get scammed if a contractor is telling you to remove drywall. Heat treatment is used in places like dorms, hotels. They are not in the rooms ripping off the drywall to get rid of them. Keep searching for a more reputable company. 

I hope these responses helps you to save on unnecessary work and $$$

Best of luck 

The likelihood of you seeing any money after selling the property from these tenants is zero to none. Sure you can take them to court but once you sale you can’t evict them. Small claims court is waste of time given it sounds like tenants are judgement proof. They can’t afford rent thus means they can’t afford to have a savings account.

Count your blessing that you have a buyer who is not worried and will buy given troubled tenants in place. Take the hit and move onto next deal. 

I hate to loose money but you need to decide you prefer back rent paid or sale of the property. 

Best of Luck

This is a sellers market. To be competitive in this market you got to give seller something to offset the lower price. For example all cash quick close, or no contengiences if you know what you are doing. 

Two strategies that have helped me to get MLS deals with positive cash flow.

1) don’t use a buyers agent. Email or call sellers agent and ask if informal offer of $xx would be considered. That agent given he might make both sides of the commission will either present or tell you where your offer stands. Going directly to sellers agent has gotten me deal below asking.

2) If you have time and money and you find what appears to be a potential property but it’s $10k-$20k from being a great deal then submit offer just below asking. During your option period get inspection and use that to negotiate lower price. Just don’t nickel and dime the seller. 

Otherwise keep searching to find that needle in haystack. They do exist just got to be patient. Soon you will be a seller and you too will be asking a higher price than what a new buyer might think is crazy. Cycle of real estate.

@Chandra Whittaker I think every person regardless of gender should follow their dreams. Heck you are an architect teacher. Means Real Estate is in your veins. Have a long one on one with your Husband. If this is both of you guys second marriage then there is more to it. He might feel if you get successful he might not be wanted or that you will run off with someone younger. NOW ENOUGH OF MY COUPLE COUNSELING since I am not licensed I will stay in my lane.

If you cant get around this issue thus loosing HELOC you should go to a local bank in your town. You can transfer into an LLC and then refi under a commercial loan. This is easier if you have the equity and if after paying (Taxes, Insurance, HOA, Repairs, Loan, etc) you still generate a good positive cashflow the banks will lend you money.

I think while you are working this out you can do as many webinars, books to help educate you about RE so that you are not just sitting idle for this property to become an investment.

Regarding your Homestead. Immediately call the county in which this property is located at and have them remove. If they were to find out that you are no longer living there they can back date and have you pay for exemption when you were not living there. As an investment it wont quality as a homestead.

ALSO, check with your bank giving you this HELOC. Make sure they are aware that you are not living there and will be converting this into a rental. Dont want to get into legal trouble after you convert to rental and they call the loan back since its no longer your primary residence.

Best of luck and stay positive, real estate aint going anywhere. Always a deal out there.

As a future flipper it would be best if you act as the GC. You will want to learn the language of construction. You would want to create relationships with different trades so that you can learn how to estimate a rehab and if you have direct relationship with a trade then more likely you can get better pricing. Having a GC to do all your flips in essence is like your partner but he is guaranteed a paycheck you are not. 

Flipping is all about numbers and relationships. If you dont have a solid team you cant get flips done in timely manner and at lower costs.

Youtube, books on estimating flip rehab will be good source to learn and get confidence. You can look at a bunch of videos for a particular subject matter before you meet with that tradesmen so this way you can understand what he is telling you he can do and with a little knowledge that tradesmen will assume you know more than you know thus wont get taken on price.

ONE IMPORTANT thing I have learned. Some of these smaller contracting crews dont have listed prices. They price on the job. What the project installs, where property is located and they will size up the investor. So dont wear slacks or suit to do walk through. Khakis and polo will be sufficient. Dont smell of money contractors are great in smell out those they can have pay for their lifestyle.

Best of luck

In Harris County doing eviction is not hard. As many mentioned just go online and fill out paperwork. You can call JP Court to get right courthouse to go and file. If tenant did not pay rent it will take 2 minutes if that in front of the judge. It seems a little scary if you havent done it before but I highly recommend you doing so you can learn and not be fearful of the process so in future if another tenant doesnt pay you get right on to the eviction.

Make sure to send them a certified mail with their 3 day notice. If you need an example of what one looks like hit me up directly and I can send what we use.

Best of Luck

Grant is awesome. BUT remember he is trying to grab attention. He has done hundreds of millions in apartment deals but he can only do future deals if he raises money. To come on to BP and pitch go bigger to a listener who has say $300k in a 401k that is the guy he wants to talk to. HE IS AFTER ALL A SALESMAN. What good will this potential investor be if that same guy with $300k wants to buy duplexes. 

If you are starting out you have no reason to be out there raising money. Raising money comes with responsibilities. Stay in your lane. Learn how to work with capital you have and grow both in education and in learning how to do deals. Eventually you will get to the multi family. We all had to crawl before we could walk then run. 

In our society instant gratification is what is pushed through social and media. Why workout when you can take a blue pill and it will burn your fat away while it helps smooth your skin. 

Why buy SFR when you can go out and buy 50 unit apartment building is the sexy thing and makes an investor look successful. Yet same investor has never rented out a house before, never drafted a lease before. Those are the owners that will loose their shirts.

If Grant was selling seminars to how to grow rich for the average joe I guarantee he would be using SFR or small multi to try and lure in people to his membership program or DVD package deals.

Again Grant is great full of energy so not knocking him down. Get your paper boy. But unless you have a large retirement account or $200k in the bank then his message is not really designed for the newbie looking to get into real estate. 

I laugh how in the last 5-6 years real estate investors have tried to make this age old business so complicated. 

Buy what you can afford and flip it or rent it out and move to another deal and so forth until you have both experience and cash to do big deals. Everyone had to start somewhere. 

@Leanna Mansour Congrats on selling your condo and paying off student loans. I went to Berkeley and lived in Santa Clara for a while so I know the bay area. If its just the two of you and you have extra rooms try renting out rooms or AirBnB it for a short period. Take the income from house hacking and put into savings as a way to raise funds for an investment.  During the savings phase try to do as much research about a potential area to invest in such as Texas. Read as many books about RE investing. Just keep moving forward in educating yourself so you feel confident once you have the money to put down onto a deal you will be ready to pull the trigger when an opportunity presents itself.

Best of luck 

The first deal is always the hardest. You start questioning yourself, fear and the unknown is scary. However, stay focused and write down what you want out of your first deal, the first year. Then use Zillow, Realtor or your local MLS and put the list of criteria so only those that match come up. This will eliminate looking at an area you have no desire to invest in or looking at higher price points. Staying focused to your list of criteria will help make the best use of your time. Once you find contact sellers agent and put in an offer. Put property under contract and during your option period can decide if you want to move forward.

Each potential deal you should grow and move a little closer to purchase until you find that deal. Some deals just need creativity while others just not worth it. IT IS A SELLERS Market so just be patient. There are deals all around. 

I have heard many people keep saying that the market is too hot to find deals. And the market will crash soon and once it does that is when they will get in and start buying. Like @Cody L. said... back when houses/multi were cheap it took effort to get a bank to lend. Now it is easy to get money if you have a really good deal. Too many investors sitting on sidelines waiting. I have no crystal ball but I know how to look at numbers and buy good deals. BRRRR only works with good deals. If market gets correction the only people who can get loans and get deals will be those already in the market and connected with banks. Too many newbies think they will get in when the next crash hits. I can assure you when the news keeps reporting the sky is falling the newbies will be on the sideline wondering if they should get in now or wait a little longer.

I bought a property and 3 months later did BRRRR and got all my money out and some. Still producing positive cashflow. A newbie will more than likely not buy a property like the one I bought because it is scary. To think you can buy a house and slap some paint and carpet and call it a day to get all your money out is false. IN 2008-2013 you could buy great deals in safe areas like Katy, Cypress, Spring. Now you have to adventure to areas that once was not safe to see that active investors are in those markets (Fifth Ward, Sunnyside, East Houston) and making a killing while newbies still waiting for prices to come down in Katy.

If you are new and try doing BRRRR and only get 50-80% of your money out that is still good. We all have to realize investing means putting your money into a deal to make money. Once you get really good at it then you can do deals in which all your money is taken out.

The fairy tale to come in and be a newbie and have home run on first deal is just that...a fairy tale. 

Why are hedge fund managers making more than the average stock investor. Experience, knowledge and connection. Same plays out in Real Estate.