All Forum Posts by: Mark Frattini

I'm looking for open a HELOC on my primary and am looking for recommendations as well. Looks like I definitely should start with my local credit unions here in San Diego. Thanks for the info in this post!

Looking for recommendations for a real estate savvy CPA in southern California to process our complex tax return this year. Anyone have recommendations? (Or, who to avoid?) THANKS in advance!

I live here . It is a nice place to live. 40 min to beach, about 1 hr to San Diego and about 1 1/2 hours to Palm Springs. We moved here when it was still rural. 32k people. Now over 100k in each city. 2006-2009 this place was an investors dream. The homes were cheaper than build costs. The last few years the prices have gone ballistic.  My home has gone up over 400% 

I had a prior CPA set up my LLC and they also made it an s-corp. New CPA is telling me to dissolve it, don't need it, costs me more than it's worth. My own research is leading me to believe I don't want an s-corp tax status, but it's also sending me down a rabbit hole of land trusts, out of state LLC's, how many to have, etc. Talking to a company that is specific to tax, legal, and entities for REI has gotten me an estimate of $20k for a complete package, which I'm fairly certain I don't need for my 4 properties. Are there any recommendations from investors that have used someone that will look at my individual circumstance (live in San Diego, properties in Phoenix) and can help me out? Thanks in advance :)

My wife and I started out paying double mortgage payments in our current primary after she finished college in 2016. We were maybe 2.5 years away from being debt free. Then, we refinanced, pulled out cash, and used the refi money and some of our own to pay cash for an investment property in Glendale, AZ (we also live in Glendale, AZ). We have some options a year from now that we have been debating.

1. Use the cash flow from this property and our dual W2 income to save up 25 percent down on the next property. Once purchased the cash flow after expenses on both rentals would come close to covering our refi mortgage (not that we would use it for that but worst case).

2. Refi the rental and pull out $100K for another rental property.

3. Refi the rental and pull out the max cash. Put $100K for another rental and the rest to pay down the principle on the primary. She still wants to be debt free on the primary in the next 5 years.

We are buy and hold people for single family homes, but eventually would love to buy a shorr term vacation rental in San Diego. I understand some people put aside part of the rental money for maintenance, but is it also okay to just have a $10K slush fund per house that you replenish as needed?

I'm comfortable with any of the options. I know people would buy 3 more rentals after pulling out max cash from a paid off rental property but we are new to the game and that option is too big of a leap for us.

I have been lurking on these forums for a while and hope to connect with other folks in the area. Biggerpockets has already helped me connect with Brock Embree from Trelora who also invests in the valley so it has been invaluable so far.