How to get my first investment house?

Question

I am new to the site, been reading for awhile now and thought I would ask for some advice to try to get my 1st house to fix and flip, most likely as an owner occupant.  I recently started my own business, but don't really have provable income at this time and what I do make can be incosistent at times. While I have good credit, I have quite a bit of debt due to business start up, school loans, etc... My fiance has a good paying job and Excellent credit, but even by her self we wouldn't be able to qualify for the type of "starter" home we want.  What I would like to do is to get into a house in a desirable location and fix it up for resale to generate some extra cash.  The going rate for houses that I would like to look at is between $110-120K, and with just her provable income we could probably qualify for close to $90K but also don't have a lot saved up for a down payment.  Any advice would be great, if I left anything out of the equation, please let me know.

Wes Tuinstra · Answer

Any mortgage brokers or loan officers from Lincoln, NE want
to jump in here and offer to talk to him offline?

Anybody in Lincoln got any deals for an owner/occupant?

Is there some way we could help this guy? I like the advice
that's been given, and it's really spot on... but it's also a
bit depressing. Sort of raining on his parade.

But isn't an "objection just an opportunity wrongly phrased?"

N/A N/A · Answer

I would agree.  Real estate is a LONG TERM investment.  Don't set yourself up to fail.

Woods
www.LoansInAnyState.com

Michael Mulrooney · Answer

REI can become a cash cow or a money pit. I am sure all of us have made deals that cost us more than we thought and if you bite into one of those the first time then it willsour you onthe business for good. If you don't have a lot of cash now, then tying what you dona't have into property will hurt. A fiance is also considered a partner and I don't like partnerships. I agree with all cash, buy it yourself first until you are married.

Frank Adams · Answer

I'm a bit more fiscally conservative than many others here, but then I went through a stage when I was taking cash to closings WHEN I WAS THE SELLER. So here's my advice.

Get your savings and debt under control before you buy. I mean cut your lifestyle to the BONE. Slam every nickel you can get onto that debt, work an extra job if you have to, you sound like you're young. Believe me, once you really get into REI you'll be working two jobs anyway, unless you quit your "real" job to do REI full time.

In your spare time start looking, look at LOTS of deals before you pull the trigger on one. When you've only seen one or two "deals" they all look like "can't miss" opportunities. Trust me, steals don't come along very often, and they most likely don't come along on the first two or three places you look at. Even in the depths of the foreclosures in Houston in the early/mid '80s (400-500 per week) I still didn't seriously consider more than about 20% of those I looked at. And I sure didn't buy that many.

Last point. DO NOT BUY PPTY WITH A FIANCE'. Get married first! Lots of sad stories on this site and others on the subject of, "how do my ex-fiance' and I split up this house we're in?" Don't become a statistic.

all cash