All Forum Posts by: CK Hwang

Honestly don't have very many rental properties but do have a few and my experience is that if you need to hide who you are from the tenants, it's probably not a good idea leasing out to the tenants. 

Some element of the prospective tenant is creating doubts in you. Every time I've pushed aside these "doubts," it has come back to bite me. But it's all from my very limited experience.  

Ever considered providing your tenant or a potential tenant a lease to own option? So while it might still be hard to get back your $155K, it could stop the negative cash flow for the time being. It's hard to devise an exact strategy since I don't really know how much you owe, but that would be my first thoughts. 

Not sure how the banks are in New Mexico, but a lot of the REO properties around my neck of the woods have asking prices over market value, so I would say where i am, it's hard to find a good REO deal.

But one thing i notice is that it really depends on the bank. Some banks are far more willing to negotiate. My observation have been that smaller banks and foreign banks are more open to dropping prices. Perhaps less access to fed lending? Not sure.  

Nick, I don't think the strategy is too optimistic. What you've outlined is the way many investment firms / REITs structure their business. The difficulty only lies in the execution, i.e. finding the capital and the deals, but that has to do more with the person than the idea. 

Hey Jeb, most of my business consists of flipping, however I do have a few rental properties. I've found that as a flipper, it makes sense to be open to both. I use my rental income as a source of monthly stable income, and then flipping as a bonus income. In doing so, I feel it helps to take the pressure off myself to trade and put myself into a risky deal simply because I need the income from flipping. 

From past experience, you'll also invariably end up with one or two houses that you'd made a mistake on while flipping and end up having to hold onto as a long term rental. 

So personally, if you are looking into this, I would be open to both. Personally, I would start off with flipping if you know what you're doing, build up capital and use it to buy rentals. 

Hey @Karen Margrave , thanks for asking. At this point, I'm not 100% sure yet as I have some meetings before, but I'll certainly try. 

Ok, and this is a really stupid question, but I've always wondered when is a bubble a bubble? and how do we tell if we are in it? I kind of get a vague notion what it is having lived through 2 major real estate crashes, but I really want to know if there is some sort of quantifiable number to watch. Case shiller index maybe?

Hi Paul, no, I haven't really looked at the trash out as a business. Certainly something to think about but I will need to build up a team as my hands are pretty full with the flip business. Tried to sell stuff from our last flip house, but 4 months later, the stuff is still sitting in my garage as the items are all pretty low value items. Will probably just have a garage sale. 

Hey everyone, I'm currently in the process of refinancing a paid off rental property and was wondering if anyone had suggestions on how to check out the legitimacy of a lender besides cross checking their broker license number?

I recently read an article about this brokerage that is trying to simplify the lending process. They are called Lenda, www.lenda.com and have apparently received some seed funding from VCs to digitize the loan application process. 

So far my experience with them have been very positive, good customer service, good rates, responsive to my questions etc, etc, but being such a new company, I am worried that they are not legit, ie sign my house over and never send me my money or try to scam me in some way. 

Disclaimer, they have done nothing to make me feel this way. I'm just a very cautious person. Anyone has heard of Lenda or can suggest other ways to check their legitimacy?

Yes indeed, I totally agree this could lead to another bubble. Of course, the question to ask in the immediate term is has the bubble even started inflating yet? 

Anyone has any sense if we are currently in a bubble market? Right now, OC real estate is over priced by an estimated 15%, a little expensive but certainly not bubble territory.