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All Forum Posts by: Robert Musallam

Robert Musallam has started 7 posts and replied 277 times.

Post: How do I make a bad deal into a good one?

Robert MusallamPosted
  • Investor
  • San Jose, CA
  • Posts 294
  • Votes 113
Nice work Sean Pan Could you send me the details on the house via PM and I can maybe provide some insight?

Post: RE agents fee for selling in SF Bay Area

Robert MusallamPosted
  • Investor
  • San Jose, CA
  • Posts 294
  • Votes 113

Hey @Avi Garg

A couple of points:

1- Hire a staging company and someone to assist with the decluttering. I have a great person if you need it.

2- You must request an intent to sell HOA package from the management company. Typically this costs $395 and it provides the most up to date data on the HOA, including the minutes from the last 12 months of meetings. Your current package wouldn't be full disclosure.

3- In our market, Sellers are paying for the inspections. The reason being you don't want something unexpected to show up while you're in contract and now the buyer has all the leverage to renegotiate. It's $400...I'd pay it

4. I'd just keep in mind that agents are even hesitant to show FSBO property because they'll inevitably have to do both ends of the transaction paperwork to secure their client, legally.

Again, this isn't meant to discourage you. Simply to give you one man's professional opinion. As I said, please feel free to reach out.

Post: RE agents fee for selling in SF Bay Area

Robert MusallamPosted
  • Investor
  • San Jose, CA
  • Posts 294
  • Votes 113
Hey Avi Garg You're right, most properties on the market do sell within 3-4 weeks but that's most likely because they have been exposed to the market by an agent and not sold by owner. It is possible to sell by owner here, but here are some of the the problems you'd run into: (1) the availability of real estate documents that help to protect yourself in the sale legally. If you have access to all of them, great! If not, find a provider that does and make sure they tell you which ones need to be used. The key here is that the lender will require specific docs to get the buyers loan funded. Don't expect a cash buyer. (2) Will you pay a buyers agent to bring a buyer? Most of them will not show a FSBO to their buyers if you don't offer a commission and will only try to acquire you as a client. (3) simply placing it on the mls and putting pictures up will not work. Buyers want to come through and look. Will you hold it open? If so, will you host it? It's always a bit awkward when the owner is around at an open house. What about repairs, staging, or decluttering? People don't really want to see photos of you everywhere. Keep this in mid and think about moving out first and hiring a pro photographer to take your photos - I can recommend someone. Get property flyers done. (4) Get your HOA DOCS, inspections and disclosures all done and don't withhold info. Here's where you can really be held liable. Make sure it's available to all potential buyers. (5) Do you have time for all this work? I'm an agent, I'm not ready to say my job is so valuable that I'm the only one that can do it. You can sell your house yourself. But I recognize that for a majority of the people I work for, the idea of selling their own house would be a nightmare. And that's why they're comfortable using and paying for a professional to do it. My .02. Please feel free to reach out if you decide to tackle this yourself, I'll provide what guidance I can. Good luck.

Post: Why are investors not using PMs?

Robert MusallamPosted
  • Investor
  • San Jose, CA
  • Posts 294
  • Votes 113
Might be part ego part necessity. I know a lot of people who think they can manage their own property up until they're over their head in phone calls, etc.. The others simply can't make the numbers work unless they self manage. Either way, I use PM cause I invest out of state. If I had a property locally, I'd probably self manage to start until it became too much to handle.
I look forward to having this problem

Post: Analyze My Seller Finance Bay Area Deal

Robert MusallamPosted
  • Investor
  • San Jose, CA
  • Posts 294
  • Votes 113

Thank you @Account Closed  You've all given me some valuable insight into how to evaluate this deal. I really appreciate it. 

Minh - I'll send the lenders' info via PM.

On to the next one...

Post: Analyze My Seller Finance Bay Area Deal

Robert MusallamPosted
  • Investor
  • San Jose, CA
  • Posts 294
  • Votes 113

Hello BP!

My business partners @Travis Limbocker @Courtney Limbocker and I have found a 6 unit in San Jose that is in need of significant repair. 

Here's the deal:

Sale Price - $1,272,000 - 0% interest for one year. 6% interest after one year if we haven't completed the project yet.

We tried to negotiate a $1.15m buy price with a higher interest rate in order to take advantage of a lower property tax rate after we refinanced out but the seller claimed he'd incur a higher capital gains bill if he did that. 

Rehab - 250-300k 

ARV - 1.7m - 1.9m

Technically Zero Money Down...

Except we'll place 36k in Escrow once we're in contract plus an additional 218k to be held in escrow. This money will come in the form of a HELOC and will be drawn out of escrow as needed to cover our rehab costs. It's a show of good faith on our part to put some skin in the game to have it held in escrow.

Current Rent - $7000 a month

Pro-Forma - $11400 a month + $300 Garage rental revenue

Unit Mix:

Four Studios - Pro Forma $1450/mo

Two 2 Bedroom - $2400/mo

We will explore the possibility of increasing the sizes of two of the studios to one bedroom units. 

Our goal is to refinance out at a higher valuation (We need 1.6M but prefer $1.8m) to pay off the Seller. Pretty much a multi family BRRR.

MonthlyAnnual
Revenue
Rental Income$11,700.00$140,400.00
Vacancy-$351.00-$4,212.00
Net Rental Income$11,349.00$136,188.00
Other Income$300.00$3,600.00
Gross Income$11,649.00$139,788.00
Expenses
Property Taxes$1,325.00$15,900.00
Insurance $200.00$2,400.00
Property Management $931.92$11,183.04
Maintenance & CapEx$351.00$4,212.00
Advertising$0.00$0.00
Utilities (water)$300.00$3,600.00
Heloc$1,450.00$17,400.00
Other 2$0.00$0.00
Other 3$0.00$0.00
Total Expenses$4,557.92$54,695.04
Net Operating Income (NOI)$7,091.08$85,092.96
Cash Flow
NOI$7,091.08$85,092.96
Mortgage-$6,959.52-$83,514.20



Total Cashflow$131.56$1,578.76

A couple of final things to note:

(1) We're using a HELOC to fund the construction. As a result, we have a significant expense that we must pay off monthly. Once paid, the deal (obviously) looks a bit better.

(2). This is a long term play. While this property may not be pumping out the eye-catching numbers years 1-5, we're confident years 6-20 will be extremely worthwhile. Both in cash flow and appreciation. Seller financing in the bay area is rare. Based on the current state of the property, a lender wouldn't go higher than 40-50% LTV, which means I'd need a cool $1m in cash or private money to do this normally. This deal will allow me to get into a 6 unit property in the bay area, with very little of my own money down and a significant stake in the equity.

(3) The ARV is what I'm most concerned about. I've spoken to two commercial lenders and they've quoted me at 3.5% interest, 5/1 ARM at 75% LTV...only no one can give me the value. Income based approach had me finding properties that have sold anywhere from 1.75m-2.1m.

(4) At the moment, our goal is to self manage but I included the property manager expense because I know we won't be managing it for very long and it's good practice to include it.

(5) I would like to thank the tremendous amount of people all around BP who have taken the time to answer questions for the new investors like myself. I may have completely mis-calculated my deal here, but to me that's not the point. It's because I come into these forums and get educated from the real, on the ground investors that I had the confidence and (half a brain and) the courage to attempt to put this deal together. So, thank you.

Having said that, please rip my deal to shreds and tell me what I'm missing :) 

Post: Recommendations for young investor

Robert MusallamPosted
  • Investor
  • San Jose, CA
  • Posts 294
  • Votes 113

Hey @Jonathan Franklin

Welcome to BP! You're never too young to learn about RE investing. As for books/videos/websites, I think you're already in the right place for that. Listen to the BP podcasts, they have book recommendations on every episode. You'll get a ton of value from the people they interview, including other websites to check out to further your education.

As for videos, I've got the first $10 on a crowd source to buy you a Pro Membership so you can get access to all the webinars! 

Or we can simply ask @Joshua Dorkin or @Brandon Turner to give you an honorary pro membership for a year ;) 

Best of luck.

Post: Running for Dollars

Robert MusallamPosted
  • Investor
  • San Jose, CA
  • Posts 294
  • Votes 113

Hey @Zach Thomas

Welcome to BP! And nice work taking action! Best of luck in your wholesaling adventures.  

Post: Following Rich Dad's Advise

Robert MusallamPosted
  • Investor
  • San Jose, CA
  • Posts 294
  • Votes 113

Hey @Nate B. Welcome to BP! Nice job on the West Oakland Duplex! That's a super hot area now.

Get networking at one of the local BP Meet ups and take your investing to the next level!

Best of luck on your future investments!