All Forum Posts by: Nghi Le

I get out of work (in Redmond) sometime between 5pm and 6pm, so if anyone wants to get together at 6pm to sit and chat before things get really busy, let me know!  I can talk about real estate all day long; my area of focus is in flipping and private lending.  Or we can talk about IT too, but that's probably not as interesting :-)

Hi @Aubree Webb,

Welcome to BP!  The Seattle real estate investing market is strong and extremely competitive.  When you get here, we can get together to talk about how to navigate it and I can point you to some of the local meetups.

See you here soon!

Welcome to BP, @Jami Morton !

Started 6 months ago and already doing your first flip?  Looks like you're already on your way :-)

Question: Are you funding your own flip with your IRA? Have you already researched the rules about arms length?

@Sean Andersen

Welcome to BP!  I'm a software engineer by day as well.  If you're in Redmond, we should have lunch sometime!

I've a couple you can try.  I recently had a post asking about escrow companies that can do double-closings on short sales and were referred to many, but I narrowed it down to two that I had a pleasant time talking to.  Note that I haven't closed with them (ending up going another route on that transaction).

Lynn Rivera
Designated Escrow Officer, LPO
Escrow Services of Washington, LLC
14205 SE 36th Street, Suite 100
Bellevue, WA 98006
Tel. 425-242-8026 | Fax 877-309-0371
[email protected]

Susan Berry
Des Moines Escrow Inc
22024 Marine View Dr S # 201
Des Moines, WA 98198-6230
2068246602
[email protected]

Hi @Thomas Coburn,

How many properties do you currently own?

To me, conventional financing is the only way to go for buy-and-holds. Any other kind of lender, whether asset-based, commercial, portfolio, etc, isn't going to be able to beat the interest rate of a conventional, and that hurts your cash-flow and overall return.  So I think you just need to find someone who can be creative with your situation to make a conventional loan work for you.  

Also, all the asset-based lenders I know are rehab lenders, not buy-and-hold lenders, so I'm not sure they can help with your long-term financing...?

We can sit down and chat about leveraging, scaling, and fix-n-flips as well.  I think there's a couple of BP meetups coming up early June, so hopefully we can catch each other and chat there!

@Albert Bui

Looks like we've been in touch before! :-)

@Marty Happle

I ended up going with an S-Corp.  With what you're doing, I strongly recommend against having multiple LLCs for flips.  For buy and holds, it makes sense to have multiple LLCs, but for flipping you only need one (and it should be an S-Corp).

Actually, my situation got a little bit more complicated since I last asked this question. I found a couple of partners I wanted to work with, so I also created an LLC on top of my S-Corp (with the S-Corp as one of its members) for the partnership. And I tell you... it has been a pain. I won't realize the tax pain yet until the end of the year (but I know it's a-comin'), but just the process of buying a house and getting financing has been a headache. Everyone of those requires a copy of the Operating Agreement to find out who has signing authority, and because the LLC is partly owned by another... then they need the Operating Agreement of that one too. And even if the Operating Agreement And Member Resolutions clearly state who has signing authority, sometimes they just don't believe me :-/

After I get married and this tax year comes to an end... I plan on dissolving my current S-Corp with my wife and removing her name completely from the business, then turning the partnership LLC into an S-Corp (with me as the member instead of my old S-Corp). This would maximize tax savings for all partners involved, and minimize headaches. Washington is a community property state, so my wife would share my earnings no matter what (and we already share bank accounts anyway). The value of simplicity is just priceless to me.

I would caution anyone who does the partnership under an S-Corp. The partnership LLC adds some flexibility in terms of how money flows (in case you want things to be different for each property), but within an S-Corp, the profits have to flow according to the ownership percentage. Right now my partner and I split everything evenly, and we plan to keep doing that in the future, which is why the S-Corp works for us.

** Note: Please keep in mind that whenever I say S-Corp here, it actually means an LLC with the S-election. So basically everything is an LLC... but one is taxed as an S-Corp, and the other taxed as an LLC.

Hi Lawrence,

Did you see my response in your other post?
http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/93/topics/1963...

If you're looking for an attorney with a packet of contracts (P&S, Wholesale Assignment, and Non-Disclosure), you can reach out to Chris Casey.  He's not in the geographic location you're in, but I imagine you'd only need to talk to him once to grab the contracts (probably don't need to come to his office).  It might take a few tries; he's often very busy.

Hi @Lawrence Eddy,

Welcome to BP :-)

If you're just starting out in real estate doing anything, you don't really need to have any type of corporate entity.  Even more so if you're wholesaling or flipping.  I don't believe it to be worth the cost, unless you have a few thousand freely lying around, but it's probably better to use that money as earnest money to get properties under contract.  Once you get a few deals down, then maybe you can start looking into an S-Corp for tax-saving purposes.  But if you're just starting out... focus on the activities that will actually make you money as opposed to spending it.

You can see my post here for the attorney referral:
http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/86/topics/1956...

As for the cash buyer's list... I really don't think you need it.  The Greater Seattle area is a hot market for investors.  If you have a good deal, it's going to be easy to get it sold.  If you're having a hard time finding people to buy it, then it probably isn't a good deal.  And it sounds like you're a part of REAPS; if you have a good deal, just make a post in the Deals Forum and 700+ people will see it.

But if you want to start building a Cash Buyer's List anyway... feel free to add me to it :-)