9 Secrets to Finding Off-Market Properties Cheap

by Rich

Finding off-market properties and getting a good deal is absolutely key to being successful in real estate investing.

Why?

The market is hot. And overpriced.

We are near or at the top of a real estate cycle.

This mean most cities are saturated with investors bidding up the prices of all types of real estate investments.

How can you be successful as a real estate investor in an environment like this?

Find ways to contact motivated sellers that aren’t currently listing their properties for sale.

Finding Great Deals on Real Estate

Here are the top ways to find off-market deals:

Directly contact owners – voice call, text, or mail
Driving for dollars
Wholesalers
Short Sales
Auctions / Foreclosures
Tax Liens and Tax Deeds
Networking (Investors, Property Managers, Contractors)
Craigslist
Probate

We’ll go through each one-by-one.

Through these methods, you find a way to not pay full price on the multiple listing service (MLS) like everyone else.

HELOC to Pay off Mortgage – The Dangers

by Rich

Using a HELOC to pay off a mortgage is an interesting debate.

What’s a HELOC?

A HELOC is a home equity line of credit. If you have equity in your home, you can take out a loan from your bank using that equity as collateral.

Paying off a mortgage with a HELOC is paying off a loan with another loan.

While I’m not so sure paying off a mortgage is the smartest financial move anymore (I used to believe it was), doing it using another loan certainly an idea worth exploring.

I’m going to summarize the issues in a ~~fair and balanced~~ slightly biased way.

So Should I?

My final answer on this is that you should not use a HELOC to pay off a mortgage. HELOCs are variable rate loans instead of fixed rate like a (good) mortgage. HELOC interest is not tax-deductible in most cases. The line of credit can be frozen or reduced by the bank at any time. Also, even if you are making lower, interest only payments on your HELOC, it eventually will revert to a principal plus interest payment that you may not be ready for.

Of course, there is always the debate of should you payoff a mortgage at all.

Pay off Mortgage with a HELOC – How it’s done

One of the main ways to pay off a mortgage with a HELOC is confusing to someone with as simple a mind as mine.

I will attempt to explain the basics.

Each month you use your entire paycheck and apply it towards the mortgage.

Then, you use a good credit card (hopefully with points) to handle most of your living expenses throughout the month. This buys you roughly 45 days of interest-free money.

You then use the HELOC at the credit card’s due date to pay it off, and use the same HELOC to make the minimum mortgage payment each months.

Next month, you repeat the same process with your whole paycheck.

Should I Payoff my Mortgage Early?

by Rich

You will often see articles on how to payoff your mortgage early. People seem to make up their minds it’s the best course of action.

What about the question: Should I pay off my mortgage early? Here is my take on both sides of the argument.

The Answer

Reasons NOT to payoff a mortgage are: It’s an inflation hedge, you can write off the interest, maintaining liquidity is important, and the money would be better off invested in higher yielding opportunities. Good reasons to pay off a mortgage include peace of mind and primary residence equity having special protection from creditors and bankruptcy in many states. Poor, but often cited reasons to pay off the mortgage are decreasing expenses and gain a risk-free return equal to the interest rate.

I rushed through listing these answers. I go into more detail below.

Before You Payoff a Mortgage Early

We will assume you have an emergency fund, your high interest debt like credit cards is paid off, and you are fully maxing out all retirement savings account opportunities.

This means you are contributing the max to your IRA, your spouse’s IRA if you have one, and your 401K, TSP, or equivalent vehicle. You should not bother paying off a mortgage if you have not done these basic things first.

In the end, I’m partial to keeping the mortgage. I feel like the evidence is strongly stacked against keeping it.

It’s a little ironic, because I paid off my primary residence in 6 ½ years. I also have 20 paid-off single family homes.

Yeah, that’s a little psycho.

This certainly qualifies me, however, to make a fair judgement on the subject.

Since I’m partial to keeping the mortgage, I’ll explore the pros of keeping the mortgage first.

Best Cities to Invest in Real Estate

by Rich

As a military member, the largest difficulty I had was finding the best places to invest in real estate. I moved every 1 to 3 years, so I didn’t have an obvious choice. Through a lot of trial and error, I figured out a system that has worked well for me. It goes against the conventional wisdom on picking the best markets for real estate investing. That’s why it works!

How to Find the Best Markets

The secret to finding the best places to invest, especially in this advanced real estate cycle, is two things. First, you must gain a strong knowledge of the market you are going to invest in. This means you or somebody you trust needs to be your boots on the ground in that location. This will allow you to buy the right house in the right neighborhood in any city you end up choosing. Second, prioritize cash flow over appreciation. Make sure the property you buy will cash flow well, and never sacrifice that for a hope that you will get a large amount of appreciation.

Finding the Best Cities to Invest – Common Advice

To understand the significance of the advice I’m giving, I want to share the advice every other website would give you if you googled “How to choose the best city for real estate investing.”

O yeah. I’ll also tell you why those websites are all wrong.

All the other websites will tell you the most important things to consider in choosing a real estate market to invest in are items such as these:

1. Population Growth

2. Job Growth

3. Housing Appreciation

4. Low Unemployment

5. Low Rental Vacancies

These blogs will sometimes teach you how to lookup these statistics showing you which websites to use so you can pick the best markets to invest in real estate.

Long Distance Real Estate Investing Secrets

by Rich

What do I know about long distance real estate investing?

As a military member:

I’ve moved every 1 to 3 years while investing in real estate

I currently have 20 paid-off single family homes

I’ve self-managed and used management companies

I bought 16 properties while living overseas

I read a blog post this morning that said investing long distance requires a slightly different approach than normal real estate investing.

It’s a different ball game altogether.

The secret to mastering long distance real estate investing is getting these 5 things right:

The Importance of Boots on the Ground

The Best Real Estate Agent for Long Distance Investing

Choosing a Property Manager from Long Distance

Choosing the Right Property from Long Distance

Managing Contractors from Long Distance

The Importance of Boots on the Ground

This is where I feel a lot of new investors make their first mistake.

They are neglecting the importance of having boots on the ground.

There have been good books written about long distance real estate investing and how easy it can be done using video, pictures, docusign, and aligning yourself with a great “team.”

This all sounds great, and might work for an experienced investor.

I can tell you from a practical standpoint, however, that nothing replaces the importance of having boots on the ground that you can trust in the location you are investing.

Whether it is a contractor trying to rip you off, tenant trashing a house, or just a need to respond quickly to an emergent situation at your property, there is nothing like having someone you trust that can tell you what is actually going on with your property.

TSP Modernization Act – New Withdrawal Rules

by Rich

With the TSP Modernization Act going into effect on September 15, 2019, there are new withdrawal rules. These expanded options greatly enhance your ability to access your money both before and after you are eligible for tax and penalty-free withdrawals.

The major changes are:

Choose if your withdrawals come from traditional, Roth, or both balances

Up to four in-service withdrawals per year

Multiple post-separation partial withdrawals

No longer must make a full withdrawal at 70 ½.

Can take monthly, quarterly, or annual payments and make changes to it anytime

These are a summary of the big changes, but there is plenty more to know about each one of these and how to fully take advantage of them. We will do a deeper dive into each topic and add some more info on new withdrawal options from the TSP Modernization Act.

Here is a pamphlet on a summary of the changes from the TSP.gov website.

tsp modernization act new withdrawal options

Withdrawing from Traditional, Roth, or Both

Old Rule

Before these changes, whenever you made a withdrawal from your TSP, it came out of both your Roth and your traditional balances proportionally.

What that means is, if 25% of your total balance was in your traditional TSP, when you took a $1000 withdrawal, 25% of that, or $250, would be from your traditional TSP balance, and the other $750 from Roth TSP.

These both are treated different for tax reasons. If you withdrew this after separating from federal service and after 59 ½ years old, the $250 from traditional would be taxable income. The $750 from your Roth TSP would not be taxable income.

Investing with VA Loans – A Complete Guide

by Rich

This post was originally published on August 8, 2018. I updated, lengthened, and added a table of contents to it.

Investing in rental property with VA Loan is a tricky subject. There are many rules that dictate how a VA should be used. Investing with a VA loan, even in multi-family, is possible. I will show you how to do it so you can get rental income.

The VA doesn’t say you can use the VA loan for investing, but if you understand the rules, and buy properties as you move from assignment to assignment in the military, it is possible.

You can’t just buy a home and make it a rental property without living in it first. There is an occupancy rule I’ll be discussing.

You can, however, buy a house at your current assignment using your VA benefit, live in it for a short period of time, turn it into a rental property when you leave, and buy a house at your next assignment with a VA loan repeating the entire process.

Another possibility for investing with a VA loan is buying a 2, 3, or 4-plex using your VA benefit and living in one of the units for a short period of time. When you move on to your next assignment, you’ll be able to turn the entire property into an rental property legally.

Let’s start digging into the details!

The first thing we need to understand is the occupancy rule.

Occupancy Rule

7 Secrets to a Successful Diet That Actually Works

by Rich

I am on a diet that actually works for me.

I’ve lost 25 pounds in the last 3 months.

Wait…?

Aren’t you a real estate guy?

Don’t you write about finance and stuff?

Yeah.

But I’m so excited about how this diet is changing my life and how I feel about myself.

Here’s some stats that go with that weight loss. My wife is measuring me in cm instead of inches.

Rich	Chest	Belly	Butt	Weight
1/21/2019	106	102	108	190.6
2/17/2019	106.5	99	107.5	183.6
3/2/2019	103	98	106	179.2
3/16/2019	104	95	104	175.4
3/30/2019	105	94	103	174.8
4/15/2019	103	93	101	171.6
4/27/2019	103	91	100	165.8

And I’m not done. There’s more weight to lose.

Do you want to know what diet I used?

Or why I’ve been so successful on this diet and why it’s been so easy for me to stay on it?

Most people give up on their diets way before the 3 month point.

ESPECIALLY New Year’s Diets.

TSP Loan – Should I Get One?

by Rich

It is possible to get a TSP Loan.

But should you?

Couldn’t we use it to buy real estate and make a fortune?
Couldn’t we invest in the next hot thing, like an IPO, or bitcoin?
What about gold!?!

These are some of the questions we are here to answer today. I’ve heard people suggest these very things.

I’m going to first explain how the program works, then explore how using it will impact your future retirement income (ouch).

If you want the BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front) and skip the TSP Loan intro, click this section , just tell me if I should get it or not!

THE TSP LOAN PROGRAM

I’ll be abbreviating the TSP loan program here, but here is the source link from tsp.gov.

The TSP Loan program lets you borrow money from your own TSP account while you are either in the armed forces or employed by the federal government.

HOW IT WORKS

When you borrow the money, it comes out of your actual TSP account. It can be any amount between $1,000 and $50,000, not to exceed your contributions and earnings from those contributions. It does not include any agency contributions (blended retirement system or BRS) or earnings from agency contributions.

As you are repaying this loan, it is repaid with interest through payroll deductions back into your own TSP account. This means that this large amount of money will not be growing tax advantaged in your TSP account during the time period you have borrowed it. You lose the opportunity for that growth. More on this later.

Keep in mind, even though you are paying interest, it’s a low, low rate and you pay it back to yourself, so it’s not really a cost to you. The interest, however, is not tax-deductible.

LOAN ELIGIBILITY

To be eligible for a TSP loan, the following must apply:

Employed by uniformed services or federal government
In pay status
Only have one outstanding general purpose loan and one outstanding residential loan from any one TSP account at a time
Have at least $1,000 in your TSP account not counting agency contributions and earnings
Have not repaid a TSP loan of the same type within the past 60 days
Not had a taxable distribution of a loan within the past 12 months unless it was the result of your separation from Federal service
Not had a court order against your TSP account

8 Crucial Rules for a 1031 Exchange

by Rich

The 1031 exchange (26 U.S. Code 1031), otherwise known as a like-kind exchange, or Starker exchange, is one of the most important tools for a real estate investor. I’ve seen too many military members not aware of this rule.

I’ve actually talked with military members who have sold their investment properties and had no idea they could defer the capital gains through this exchange. I don’t want this to happen to anyone.

Let’s get clear on it!

CAPITAL GAINS

When you sell real estate, Uncle Sam wants it’s cut of your profits.

There are only two ways to avoid paying the profits, or capital gains, on a real estate sale.

One exception is for homeowners who have met certain requirements with their primary residence, namely you’ve lived in the property 2 of the last 5 years (2 of the last 15 for military).

The other exception is for real estate investors, which we are focusing on with the 1031 exchange.

1031 EXCHANGE

The 1031 exchange got its name from the section of the IRS tax code it comes from. This is the section that allows for a like-kind exchange that defers the tax liability of the sale into the next asset.

Keep in mind, the 1031 exchange, or “like-kind” exchange used to apply to items other than real estate. As of December 2017, a tax reform law that passed limits exchanges to only real estate.

You may also hear the exchange called a Starker Exchange named after T.J. Starker, who successfully sued the U.S. government in 1979.

Before that, the exchange of real estate actually had to be simultaneous. Now, you can typically have 180 days between the sale of the property and the purchase of the replacement property.

Thanks Mr. Starker!

8 CRUCIAL RULES

1) LIKE-KIND

First, we need to understand what type of real estate can be substituted for what.