All Forum Posts by: Nicholas Lohr

Pick a market that you know or at least have some connection to through a relative, friend, partner, etc.  Having "boots on the ground" from someone you trust and can rely on is hugely valuable. 

Also the closer to you, location wise, the better. 

90 - 125 per square foot?! damn maybe I should move to NC?  I'm smack in the middle of building a duplex in downtown Sacramento CA right now. Even with me GC'ing it all myself we are at $205 per square foot easy.  Thats not including the land.  ($450,000 for 2200 sq feet)   This includes all the "soft costs" though.  

I don't know about that zoning is particular but I do know a couple things that might be pertinent. 

If you have any question for the building department it's MUCH better to just go there and ask them.  (300 Richards Blvd)   You'll probably have to go a bunch of times and navigate all the desks but you'll get the answer eventually.  And no a phone call wont work, I've tried. 

Also be aware of the following, I have a 4-plex downtown that had zoning for 2 more units and I started the Sacramento building department "process" in August 2017 and we have just now this month broken ground on the new units.  And none of that wasted time had anything to do with me taking my time to get things going.  Be sure to factor that in your planning. 

I'll put my vote in for the BRRRR approach over flipping. I've been doing it in Northern CA for a few years now and it's been astoundingly great. If you don't want this to continue, "always work for my money and it disappearing," then BRRRR is the way to go in my opinion. Feel free to reach out with any questions.

Every time I've calculated it the breakeven point is well before 15 years, meaning that 15 years IS a long time.  The only time I don't bother buying it down is if I plan on refinancing within a couple years.  So in your case of a 15 year plan I think it would make sense to buy it down as much as you can. 

if they are a grower don't forget to make sure they pay for electric. 

also make sure the security of the building is tip top. 

I don't know a thing about those markets but what I do know is that being a less than a 2 hour drive from where I lived (SF to Sac) for my first BRRRR deal made it mush "easier." Easier is in quotes there because it wasn't easy. And it would have been that much harder if it wasn't a short-ish drive away. I guess what I'm trying to illustrate is that you should figure distance into your choice of where to look. It's is a huge factor in my opinion, especially on your first one.

also just my 2 cents, there's not really a whole book's worth of things you'd need to know about LLC's anyway.

I've bought books about them before but they end up being so dry that I didn't get too much out of them. Honestly I've done much better just Googling things about LLC's and reading various websites.

I live in SF but have done my BRRRR deals in Sacramento and they have worked out really well. If you ever want any advice feel free to reach out.