What I would do if I were to start investing today (especially, in today's market)

[Logan M.]

To give everyone just a little background since 2018 I have built a portfolio of 194 rental units. I did this through seller financing, creative purchases, and utilizing other people's money. 

I want to take a moment to give a few quick tips to new investors jumping into this market.

Tip #1 Every market has deals, don't fall for the downers. Investors made a killing buying homes in 2010 when many companies were going under and everyone in real estate panicked.

Tip #2 Only listen to investors who are where you want to be. There is so much noise out there that is often incorrect.

Tip #3 Invest for the long run, it is safer and builds wealth.

Tip #4 Be humble, always be willing to learn, and never let your ego stop that.

Tip #5 Sales skills and communication will have a greater impact on your success than any other skill.

Bonus Tip #6 Stay positive, no matter what happens.

[Mike Reynolds]

Quote from @Kevin S.:

@Logan M.

Thanks for the tips but these tips are just general tips that probably most of us are already aware of.  What would be helpful are tips that go deeper.  Yeah, different markets are different, every investor's goal and situation is different.  What we want to hear is how you did it, your story, your experience.  In snippets if you would/could.  One story at a time followed by more stories.  Trust me, you will have no shortage of audience.  Now that, would be more meaningful, and helpful.  

To be fair, judging by the “ask about the guru” posts on here, many people might not realize this. The gurus tell you that you can do anything with nearly no money at all. But sometimes it’s just plain old luck and good manners that can get you most deals. 

I’ll tell my story though. 

2019 I was living check to check pretty much. I was on BP and soaked up everything I could. I did a lot of side work to gain some money but it was taking time. I came on a MHP that was a good deal. Smoking deal. I didn’t have the down payment but I had a vacant lot in Galveston county. Most of the people on here told me it wouldn’t refi because it was vacant. I kept trying and one person on here told me that it could. Maybe. He gave me a few pointers on how and it did actually finance. I got 80k off of 100k value. Even though I was cash poor, I had good credit that I had been working on since I’ve been a member of BP. 

Getting the park under contract was the next hurdle. We had competition and they had bucks. I didn’t. We sent one of those “love letters” through our agent and he sold to us for the same price as the other guys offer because he liked us. If fact, he is still in our lives today because he is a valuable resource and now a friend. 

The park should have been a slam dunk at the bank. It was 230,000 with 26 units. But the previous owner only collected cash so we didn’t have an income to draw off of for appraisal. Bank said the land was only worth 200k and that’s all they would loan. They wanted 60k down on that. That only left me with 20k left over that I wanted to use for fixing stuff right away. So how do I get the park now? Was it over?

Went with hat in hand to the owner and asked if he would O/F the 30k. Our goal was to sell the houses and rent the lots. As we sold the houses we would pay on the side note and he would release the title one by one. He agreed. The houses that sold paid off the side note in 8 months or so.

Now, the hardest part was the double close. The bank doing the park kept asking where the money was for the down. I told them it was coming soon. The bank doing the refi was slow slow slow. It was the most aggravating part and I thought it would cost us our deal. We closed on the refi that morning and closed on the park that afternoon. It was that close. 

14 months later and a lot of work, we had it appraised. It was worth 750k and cash flowed nicely from day one. Still does. 

For me, I would say don’t pay a guru when you have thousands of them right here. They don’t always give you the answer you want but they usually give the one need. But also, never give up on your dream. I have more now but the first one is hard to forget. I learned more on that one than any other.