All Forum Posts by: Jake Kucheck

Frankly, agents are a terribly inefficient way of procuring properties. So, to limit yourself to only one agent in an already inefficient venue would likely have a negative impact on your acquisitions. That said, there are great agents out there for investors, and typically they have an investor background themselves, or several investor clients. The trick is to be going after properties that the agent themselves (or a buyer that the agent gives a higher priority to than you) is not interested in.

If you can find one agent that you can have a mutually beneficial relationship with, that's good. If you can find multiple agents like this, that's better.

In no circumstance are you negatively affected by having multiple agents looking for properties for you, so long as you keep the inventory overlap to a minimum and allow each agent to focus on their niche/specialty/geo area of focus.

1) The waiting list for Stonegate is usually at about a 2.5:1 ratio of buyers to available units.

2) This would be an appreciation/speculation play, not an investment.

3) There is zero chance this will be a positive, neutral, or slightly negative cash flow rental. This will be a massively negative cash flow rental (just based on price, but you'll also need to account for high property taxes due to MR and middling HOA dues).

So, if you're going to live in it because you like the area and want tenants to help pay the bills, that's totally fine. But, you should do this with the intention of selling it after you've lived there for however many years, not renting it upon your departure.

It is feasible, and of course there is risk. Most EB5 investors will be less concerned with their ROI and more concerned with their visa. Claiming that returns will be doubled in 3 to 4 years is downright stupid, in this context or any other.

Mainly... lawyers. You need to talk to lawyers that specialize in the EB5 program. There aren't many of them that are good at it.

You're on the right track, but I think the perspective is slightly off.

The guy stuck holding the bag (in your example, the "pension fund") is never evaluating any of the individual assets. This was true with MBS tranches and CDOs, and this will also be true with SFR REITs and whatever derivative products are created out of that asset class. The holding the bag is simply buying a yield. Maybe the assets produce the yield for a little bit, then don't, or maybe they never do. But that isn't really the point. The point is for the guys buying, packaging, and selling the assets to make a lot of money. Whatever else happens is collateral damage. It will cause a market blip, or spike, for the next 18 months or so, though. Enjoy the gravy train while it lasts.

Talking to tenants seems so problematic...

This post was from almost two years ago. We were looking to raise capital at that point... not so much looking to do so now. Of course, if you've got a deal that is worthwhile, I'm more than happy to buy you a beer!

For my money, one of the better clubs in OC is Investors Workshops, which meets the last Wednesday of each month. This month happens to be their 10th anniversary, so it will be even more valuable than usual.

From my view, investing in a multi-family in a C/D (or seedy, if you prefer) area is kind of missing the point. Since vacancies, late payers, vandalism and crime all come up at predictable intervals but not necessarily hyper specific locations (i.e., we know to expect Arson and Drive By Shootings in a certain area, but cannot predict 123 Main St vs 125 Main St), buying a multi-family (especially as many as 18 units) puts all of your eggs in one basket.

The purpose of a portfolio like this (or this slice of a portfolio) is to have the law of large numbers take effect (it is unlikely that all of your tenants will die in fire/lose income source/go to jail) in the same month. However, your odds of a catastrophic event increase exponentially when all of your screwball tenants are in one place.

BTW... what market are we talking about here? Your estimate of "85% occupied" is almost certainly wrong. You should be very diligent in examining tenant ledger and lease information.

Sent them a decent amount of business... don't need any short term debt myself so I haven't used them, but I get great reviews from the business I send their way.

"Bull Run"

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?play=1&video=3000152867