All Forum Posts by: Stephen Morales

Quote from @Elvin Torres:

Hi everyone. how do you deal with property taxes after you rinse and repeat several times? meaning you buy a single family home, live in it for one year and then rent it out, and do that same thing several times, since if you move, that residense will no longer be your primary residence, and you can no longer claim property exemption/homestead exemptio? depending on your location, that could be a few hundred dollars a month in extra expenses.  

 Hey Elvin, 

Nice to see someone from the 904. Luckily, in the state of FL you have homestead portability. You can "port" your differential to your new primary residence. 

For example: Your original home had a market value of 300k but was assessed at 200k under homestead, you carried a 100k differential, and when you file for homestead on your next house you can cap its assessment by the same 100k differential. 

Now since you no longer have the exemption the rental you need to leverage rental property tax deductions to offset the new out of pocket costs. You deduct your property taxes every year along with all the regular expenses you can expect (insurance, management, mortgage interest, other fees etc.) 

The best way to deal with the increase is to underwrite your deal with the anticipation of the increase in property taxes. 

It's like they say, in real estate you make your money when you BUY.

I have actually built a buyers list on the CRE multifamily side by having my team reach out to prospective Sellers asking if they are looking to divest any of their assets. If not, then I ask "If you're not selling then it sounds like you might be a buyer" or something along those lines. Then we end up talking about the local market conditions, I go on asking about their portfolio, what their current strategy is to navigate this current market, if there was one type of asset or metrics that would get your capital excited, what would that be? etc.

It's just building relationships. Don't be a robot when you approach a multifamily owner/buyer. Ask about their business and bring value to them and they will be happy to have a conversation and make a connection. 

Quote from @Eden Vaschon:

Hey guys,

I'm new to this and wanted to ask a basic, question about flipping houses out of state. I'd like to know how some of you have successfully managed to do it while maintaining a job and presence in your current location? I'm thinking of working with a partner and starting a few small flips on properties with smaller investment costs in states outside of California, but I'm struggling to come up with some of the solutions to some of the obvious questions like: 

- How to carefully monitor the quality and quantity of the contractor and sub-contractor's work without frequently visiting the site in-person multiple times a week?

- How to maintain communication with contractors and quickly resolve issues while working a full-time job, out of state and in a different time-zone?

- How to find & hire truly trustworthy & reliable out-of-state contractors that you've never met?

Any tips on how some of you folks have worked out this issues would be extremely helpful!

For the flips that I have done out of town it has mostly been through people that I have professionally connected with over the years on socials or meet ups. They refer me to someone that is local to the site or they themselves can PM it. I normally just look at the quotes for cost and have them handle the inspections on quality and essentially have them do major update walkthroughs to keep us up to date on the progress and the quality of the work that's being done. 

These updates can be once a week or once every other week depending on progress and delays. 

Start networking more on socials! Get involved with people that are doing deals already in the areas you want to flip in!

Hey Tejas, 

Glad that we connected earlier! If you need a good dialer I would advise checking out Readymode or Kixie. 

I would actually advise against mailers unless you have enough to budget for 3 months in the same area to see an impact. It's better to stick to one method when you're starting out VS getting distracting with multiple tools. 

Quote from @Ivan Hernandez:

Ive been using SMS texting as my primary marketing source, along with cold calling. Im quite curious as to how others are making their offers  while texting and how many offers a day are being made roughly. What strategy do you think works best or have you implemented which makes a significant impact? (Making an offer via message? Calling the seller once they ask, "How much" and making that offer over the phone? Or sending the seller a purchase agreement with your offer in the document? OR NONE OF THE ABOVE). Looking forward to see what others are doing, thank you. 

Hey Ivan! Nice to see you here!

If they replied to you via text I would make an effort to schedule a call with them so you can make introductions and get specifics about their property before making an offer. 

Now if they're not open to a call I normally ask for additional information. If I don't get a response from them, I normally give them an offer range based on the available information I do have. 

Hope this helps!

Quote from @Josh Otero:

Quote from @Stephen Morales:

Quote from @Josh Otero:

Hi, my name is Josh and I'm a property manager in Los Angeles. I have a few clients and I wanted to know what are some methods of getting more clients. I go to networking events, I'm on websites such as thumbtack, working on SEO and reviews to appear higher on Google , have posted flyers in parking lots, and am currently building up the social media pages. 

Yes, word of mouth will expand business, and I want to know if there are other ways that I may not know of that can expand my business. I would love to hear the input of the BP community. Thanks.

 I used to own a PM company for a couple of years before selling. All of my clients were from me helping them find opportunities and then offering my PM services after. Slowly grew from there and ended up selling it after I got spread too thin trying to keep up with management and my other businesses. If I was looking to really scale back then adn knowing what I know now I would definitely consider building a list of portfolio owners in the areas I manage in. 

Coming from the wholesaling side where our users pull cash buyer lists, I can see how you could include certain criteria such as them having 5+ properties in their portfolio which would reflect an owner that may have PM needs. You can even check to see when they purchased their last property to see if they're still active with additions to their portfolio. 

You're doing all the right things as far as inbound strats go but I think if you can perfect and outbound strategy and call those kind of owners you can see some serious success and "outwork" your competitors. 

 Hi Stephen, what software/websites do you recommend for finding people with 5+ properties in their portfolio in my city?

 Happy to reach out!

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Quote from @Dominik Geib:

I hope everyone is doing well! I appreciate you all for taking the time to read this message—I know your time is valuable, and I’ll keep this short.

A bit of background: I’m getting married this December to my wonderful fiancée, we are 23 and 21. My fiancee is a college student and will be graduating in April of ‘26, she has had summer jobs and we both have been working towards this moment. I’ve started a couple side hustles as well. That said, we’re trying to make smart financial decisions as we prepare for life together—starting without a lot, but with a lot of drive and responsibility.

I had a few questions I was hoping to get your perspective on:

1. Buy vs. Rent – We've been looking at apartments and ADU properties, and surprisingly, some rents are higher than monthly mortgage costs. Do you think buying makes more sense than renting in today's market, especially for a young couple?

2. Requirements for Buying a Home – We don’t have a traditional two-year work history or a large down payment. What are the key requirements we’d need to meet to even be considered for a home purchase?

3. Is It Realistic for Us to Buy? – Are there viable opportunities or programs out there for couples like us? Or would it be more realistic to rent for now and revisit buying later?

4. Loan Options – Are there any specific loan programs (like FHA or first-time buyer loans) that might be better suited to our situation?

Again, thank you so much for your time and advice. I value your perspective and appreciate anything you’re willing to share.

Best regards,

Dominik

Hi Dominik, 

I started answering your questions but then it turns out you're really asking about purchasing a home lol. 

In order to buy you need good credit history, stable work history/income, money saved for a down payment (unless you're getting a VA loan) with standard DTI (Debt-to-Income ratio) being 43% or less.

If you pass all 4 then you can probably prequalify for a house. Student loans can be a killer on DTI though...

Quote from @Jiovoni Davis:

I'm 18 wanting to get into Wholesaling Real Estate to start out, and I've been researching and learning about it for around 6 months now and I have a strong foundation for what I would know and what to do. I want to actually know how I should start out doing it from people that have actually experienced it.

I would look into saving up some working capital before taking the full dive into Wholesaling. You need about 60-90 days of runway and that's if you absolutely grind your tail off and work the phone and your leads. 

I have helped a couple hundred people get started in their wholesaling journey and I can count 2...maybe 3? that were able to get their first deal with no money invested. 

You need to have systems in place ready to go, You need to building relationships/network, You need to have working capital, You need to have insane discipline and most importantly you need to have VISION.