All Forum Posts by: Bram Spiero

thank you @Bill Exeter & @Dave Foster

Very interesting and good to get a better understanding of how this may be interpreted.

Thank you @Bill Exeter

What does one need to demonstrate having held in order to qualify for a 1031 exchange?

This is very personal but I would say, keep the day job and invest in real estate on the side, at least until you hit your ten property max. That W2 will get you loans like nothing else will.

Good luck

1. Nothing wrong with paying for training or education but books should cost $10-$100, courses should cost $100-$1000.

2. There are no secrets in real estate. Anyone telling you so is lying. In fact, everything you need to know is here in the forums.

3. It sounds like what you need is some practical experience. See if you can find a flipper or wholesaler from your area here on BP and offer to bird dog for him.

4. How much time are you spending on analyzing properties? Learning your market? Get on Zillow or something similar and look at every single property for sale in Houston. Analyze them all for potential flips and buy and hold. When you're done, do it again until you know the value of homes just by seeing the neighborhood and the some pictures of the house.

5. Wholesaling is tough because you need to be able to understand how a flipper makes money and what an end user is looking for all on top of being good at helping distressed owners solve their life issues by agreeing to sell their house to you at a deep discount.

Good luck!

That, my friend is called a 1031 exchange. Talk to your accountant. If he doesn't know what it is, get one that does.

Good luck,

Still trying to understand what it is that you are thinking of doing.

Let me give it another try and you correct me if I'm wrong.

Secure a multifamily residence with minimum to no down payment using a balloon loan. Live in one of the units, collect rent from the rest, live off the rent. After 18 months sell the property at a profit due to appreciation (forced or otherwise) and roll that into a larger/better property. Rinse and repeat?

Something like that?

@Jeffrey Odu

What's the interest rate you can get on the FHA loan without the TSAHC?

Is the TSAHC a grant, meaning, is it money you do not need to return? If so, can you take the entire 5% instead of just the 3.5% FHA minimum?

Calculate the net present value of the interest you would pay with your FHA rate to the net present value of the interest you would pay with the TSAHC rate. Then subtract the grant from the TSAHC NPV.

You can refinance, but that costs money, make sure it makes enough of a difference.

Good Luck!

Hey there Emmanuel!

Get yourself a profile picture, makes it easier for us to remember you, even though you have a name we don't see so much around these parts.

To your question, you need to seperate the two, they are fundamentally different things.

Closing costs are negotiable, in the right circumstances you can get the seller to carry some. You can also get the lender to cover them in return for a higher interest rate. One way or another people need to get paid for their work, that includes, lawyers, inspectors, surveyors and bankers.

Down payments, unlike closing costs, is money that is staying with you in the form of equity you have in the property. 

Let's say you're buying a $100,000 duplex which you are going to househack. You could get an FHA loan and have to bring $3500 down payment. Theoretically you could borrow this somewhere else. The question is, at what cost and does that cost make buying the property profitable\unprofitable?

Good luck.

@Jeffrey Odu, how are you going to do a 1031 exchange if you have minimal equity in the place and are planning to do nothing to increase your equity?

Are you banking on appreciation?

You're allowed to own property in the US as non residents, so I imagine that legal residents can too. I don't know about specific H1B restrictions but I would think those apply to employment. Real Estate holding is not considered employment.

Are you buying with the LLC or transferring to an LLC after purchase?