All Forum Posts by: Payton Law

@Greg H.- He originally purchased the house with cash and after repairs he is all in for right around 50k. He ended up refinancing the house and got 40k because the house appraised for slightly more than 50k. My plan is to give him 5k plus half of the refinance closing costs so we both have the same amount of cash contributed to this property. My goal here is to figure out the easiest way for the records to show I am a 50% owner without messing up the financing he already has in place, because we've agreed to split income/loss and all tax deductions on this house 50/50 going forward.

@Joe Camarillo - I am  interested in doing the same thing with a partner, so I'm adding this comment to see if anyone will comment on your original questions. I would also like to know if both partners can claim half of the income, expenses, and deductions on their personal tax returns even if they aren't named on the loan.

My partner owns a rental home with the mortgage in his name. I am going to pay him cash and will subsequently own 50% of the home. Will a lender allow my name to be added to the title without messing up the existing mortgage in his name? What all has to be done in order for me to able to claim my portion of the tax deductions?

In the future, we plan to form an LLC before acquiring any other properties and will deed this property to the LLC at that time if the lender will allow.

@Account Closed- Are you and your partner paying cash for these houses or are you taking mortgages? If a mortgage is taken, is only your name on the mortgage and are only you getting the tax benefits?

@Andrew Michael- Thanks for the feedback. I listened to the first podcast that Michael Quarles was on awhile ago, but I need to re-listen for sure. I like what you said about creating a different deal structures for each seller based on their wants and needs. I think it's going to take some time and experience for me to grasp what this entails and exactly how I can do this based off of the resources I have available.

I plan to send letters out within the next month and I wanted to know if I would be able to handle the phone calls if I sent out 50 letters a week. I've heard people say to expect a call-back % of anywhere from 2-8%, and that seems reasonable as I'm already analyzing more houses than that monthly.

Also, I've found a lot of good info on the site surrounding what to write on the letters and how to be cost effective when sending them, but I'm still unsure of how the negotiation process is going to go once a motivated seller calls me. Does anyone have negotiation strategies they would be willing to share and/or any strategies for winning a deal if a seller has multiple offers? 

Hey BP community,

My name is Payton Law and I'm new to real estate investing. Though I'm just now writing my new member introduction, I've been listening to BP podcasts for about 6 months and reading forums/ REI books for 2 months. I am graduating from UNT in two weeks with a Masters in Accounting and I currently work at Hillwood Properties, a real estate development firm in Fort Worth. My fiance and I would like to start off in REI by buying and house-hacking a duplex in the DFW area, more specifically HEB, Keller or NRH (PM me if you have a property for sale in or around these cities). Within the last month I have been consistently running the numbers on properties that pop up on Zillow, Craigslists, Loopnet and Trulia. I have had no luck finding anything worth calling a deal on these sites, so we have decided to send out direct-mail letters within the next month to get the word out that we want a duplex (or triplex or quadplex if the deal makes sense).

A few newbie questions for anyone that would like to chime in:

1. Are there any other sites I should consider looking at to buy multi-family in the aforementioned cities?

2. What are some tactics other than comp sets, cap rate, and experience to help determine the value of a property?

3. Do investors in top dollarmarket live by the 1.5% - 2% before buying a property? I am running my numbers as if I am renting out all units because I plan to move out after a year or two.

4. Before I send my mailers out, should I get pre-approved for financing? Depending on the purchase price of the deal, I am looking to get an FHA or FHA 203k loan with 5-10% down or a conventional loan with 20% down.

5. If I do not use a real estate agent for my deal, is there anyone in the BP community that lives in the DFW metroplex that would be willing to walk me through my entire deal (from property walkthrough to contract close) for either a "mentor fee" or some other value-add?

6. If our direct mail turns out to be successful and we get multiple leads on properties that have the ability to turn into deals (probably not likely but I want to be prepared), should I have a plan in place to sell those deals to other investors that I have met through various network channels? I am not trying to make a lot of money on this, I just don't want any deals to be waisted. If this is common, is there a standard finders fee people will pay? (Note: I do not want to wholesale any deals at this time).

I could ask questions all day but I'd like to chat about these specifics for now. If you live in the DFW area and would like to connect feel free to PM me. I am currently looking to join the Ft Worth REIA or Colleyville REIA, so chime in if you are members of those or any other REIA's in the area.

Thanks for your time,

Payton Law

@Dante Pirouz Thanks for the information. I hope the multi's pick back up because I am looking to buy my first within the next 8 months. Not sure how vetted you are, but you should check out the forum I listed below for tips on buying HUD homes. I've read through the feed and learned a lot!

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/20/topics/262286-successful-hud-bidding-strategies 

@Dante Pirouz Do you mind sharing how you found the HUD duplex? I have been searching the HUDhomestore for my county everyday for last couple months and I can only find SFR's. I was reading online the other day that you could get on a HUD multifamily buyers list but it said you have to have all cash. Is this the route you went with? Also, did you use HUDhomestore.gov or a different site? Thanks.