All Forum Posts by: Franco Vallejos

I have a few airbnbs. Guests never use the upper shelves. Put what they need on the bottom ones and the stuff they may use up higher. Don’t change them. Not necessary. 

Lots of land is listed on the mls. 
If you find something that isn’t listed for sale don’t let that stop you. Many land owners are open to selling. You can find their information through the tax assessors website in your county. If you don’t know the exact address find something close and use the map feature to look around until you find the parcel. That listing will have the owners address. You can write them a letter showing that you are interested in buying the property. 

In our experience it was easier to pay in full because the biggest problem we had was the time it took to sell. If we couldn't buy the land ourselves I had a friend who would put down the money to pay for the land and then when it sold we'd pay him back with interest. 

Most of the time we would get larger profits selling the land on contract. 

So for example we would buy 30 acres for like 5k. Sell that for 30k over 10 years with 10% interest. That would be a payment of about $400 a month. The first 16-18 payments would go to the money guy then he'd be paid off with interest. After that basically we get a monthly payment for the next 6.5 years. 

One other thing we would notice is that when they decide to build on the land in a couple years you do tend to get a lump some when the pay it off with the construction loan. 

When evaluating land you have to make sure there is some use in it. It has to have access to roads, power, water and sewer/septic. Otherwise it's pretty worthless. If it doesn't you have to buy it really cheap cause your only buyer will be someone who wants to use it recreationally. Hunting, 4 wheelers that kind of stuff. 

One other thing. It takes a while to build up the monthly payments so they are significant. It took a few years of making nothing but now we have lots of residual payments coming in. So be prepared for delayed gratification. 

Hope that helps.

@Dan Cumberland That's awesome let me know how it turns out. I will definitely hit you up when I am in Seattle next. 

I use what is the Ackerman bargaining method and it works great. Find the number you are willing to pay. This is the number that you walk away if it goes $1 over. 

So let's say they are asking $130,000 for the property but running your numbers you can't pay over $100,000. 

You would start with a $65,000 (65% of max) offer. This usually gets a pretty strong reaction but that's ok. We expect this. They will want to negotiate. They may throw another number. Doesn't matter what it is unless it's something you want to agree to. Let's say they come down to $120,000 your next offer is $85,000 (85% of max). If they counter your next offer is $95,000 (95% of max). Depending on where they are your final offer will be your max allowable. But you will offer a non-round number. So like $100,134.57. 

This method gives the seller the feeling that they are squeezing you for every last penny. I've had good success with this method. 

If they don't accept your final offer you have to be willing to walk away. Don't overpay.

So 

65%

85%

95%

100% Non round number

 Lol. Absolutely. 

 I think you are the first person I have heard mention graveyards on this forum. Here I go down the rabbit hole of what it takes to invest in them. 

@Brian Pinckard That's what I was thinking. I think we will do our buy and holds in our names and transfer them once financing is in place. Thanks. I will check and make sure that that's possible here in washington. 

Also, what did they tell you about having it in your LLC? I have 2 properties under contract right now. I have them in my name and I wasn't sure if I should move them into the LLC at closing. Sounds like I should wait until I have long term financing in place and then move them.

Awesome job. I'm in the process of my first one too. Great to see someone go through the process and make it out the other side.

Did you buy it with hard money or how did you pay for it? With cash? I'm just wondering since you said you could do the refinance before 6 months since you owned it outright.