All Forum Posts by: Wenyu Zhang

Hi Adam, did you get any connections so far?

I'm running the same situation now. How did it finally go?

Hi All,

I'm purchasing a small commercial lot in Florida and planning to build a mechanic shop (wanted to start a small used car dealership as a side hussle). Now I'm facing too issues. First, I need to know where I should start the construction project. I talked to a GC and they said I need to have an engineering plan before they can give me a quote. From my understanding, plumbing should be the first thing to do before pouring the concrete slab. Second, I might need some finance help with the ground up construction. The entire project (utilities + foundation + interior + landscaping + exterior paving ) should be rought at 100k, just very rough estimation from my perspective. Many steel building companies provide installation and rent-to-own option so that should save a lot of upfront cost.

Here's what I'm planning to build: A 1000 sq ft warehouse-like steel building with two 10' x 10' doors and one walk-in door, plus one office and one restroom inside the building. So eventually it will look like a two-bay mechanic shop. 

Can anyone recommend someone who provide engineering plan drawing service in Florida? And what's the step by step for me to start this project?

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $180,000
Cash invested: $52,000

My first rental property. A 3b/1b single family house in Orlando. Brings me about 12% ROI.

How did you finance this deal?

15% down conventional loan.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Bought with tenants who stayed there for over 6 years. Rent is very lagged compared to current rental market. Thought it's a turn-key deal since there's no vacancy. Later realized that it's hard to increase their rent with a huge leap. Lesson learned: long-term tenants' rent is usually lagged probably because most landlords are very kind with their tenants. In a hot rental market, no need to purchase a property with tenants inside.

There gurus on the internet not all those YouTubers. Rule of thumb, they don’t make money investing in real estate or they probably used to. But they are now making money being a YouTuber by attracting more subscribers. They have to make something “surprising” so people will watch them, just like newspapers. There has to be some kind of big news so people will buy newspapers, regardless true or not. 

For me, I do buy and hold strategy and basically do long term rental business. As long as there is cash flow, I don’t give a damn what they “predict” the market is going to be.

I won't speak for other cities, but here in Orlando if you buy a 200k SFH, you can reach the 1% rule nowadays.

That's pretty good ROI. Small town with increasing population is always a wise choice.

By foreign nation, are you completely outside the US without any US residency or you are on a temporary visa? I know a lot of bank do foreign nation loan but just need 30% down. If you have credit history and a valid visa, you can find lenders treat you the same as a rensident.

Quote from @Anthony El Khoury:

Hello everyone. I am an international student working in Civil Engineering on my OPT. Is there anyone who bought real estate and generated rental income on their F1/H1B visa that I can speak to?

Just search for banks and lender who can give you loans for you. Local credit unions and small banks are preferred. WF and Chase probably won’t allow an F1 visa. I bought a rental with only 15% down on a F1 visa. There are no restrictions. Just do it. 

Quote from @Andrew Yu:

@Santosh Nalu @Shalin Shah @Naeema R. @Vaishnavi Thaker

Fast forward... I quit my software engineer job last June. Became a full time real estate investor, primarily focusing on wholesaling, doing 5 to 10 deals per month. Own a few long term rentals. Also dabbling in Short Term Rental a little, about to acquire my 2nd STR property.

For people that are on H1B status, I would advise you to start off by doing HOUSE HACKING. Either buy a 2-4 plexes, live in one side and rent out the other side(s) to your friends. Or buy a big SFR, maybe 1600 - 2400 sqft, with at least 3 bedrooms, rent out each room.

After that, you can work on BUY & HOLD. The great thing about this is you get to enjoy the cash flow from your asset, but also enjoy its appreciation over years. And this is not considered Active Income by IRS. You can pretty much buy as many long term rentals as you want. Make sure you have hire Property Manager to manage them for you. That way you're 100% hand-off, only collect checks. 

Stay away from WHOLESALING, FIX & FLIP, and SHORT TERM RENTALS. These are all considered Active Income, unless you're just a passive investor in the deal that fronts the money without any other work involved. Hope this helps! 

*DISCLAIMER: I'm not a CPA or attorney. 

 Congrats! That's one more step closer to financial freedom lol.  I'm about to on H1B visa soon and looking to invest a commercial retail property. Do you know if there are any good banks to work with? And how much down usually required? Thanks.