Financing Multiple Deals with less than 10k

[Thomas Hausfeld]

In my current situation, I am two years and a semester from graduating as an Industrial Engineer. I have saved since high school until now and have accumulated a little less than 10,000 and I have been wondering how might I go about getting involved as an investor right now as opposed to waiting for my salary. 

Just recently I got a job at Keller Williams as an ISA for my realtor and I got to meet an agent in the office who sells 400 properties a year while investing to. The main thing he thought I personally should know is that if there is a deal, the money will follow hence why I began investigating where that money was coming from and through small investigation, I came upon hard money lending. 

So I began thinking, and was curious about hard money lenders. Correct me if I am wrong, but if I were to go down this route, I would present to a private lender the deal I have, and if they were confident in my abilities, then we would agree upon his return and then I would be able to purchase the property and begin there.

If the above is true, then would it be smart to just go all in and do this financing strategy multiple times?

Also, it is apparent to me that the long term wealth is in buying and then renting out properties. If I were going to finance a property on hard money, I would want to amaturize it over 30 years, however, I have also read some articles that say most hard money financing is done within a period of only five years. Is this true as well?

If the above is true, then maybe it would make more sense to learn how to flip houses since you could make your money in less than five years, develop a good reserve from flipping, and then be able to purchase other properties on loans from actual banks.

So my main question is do you see any errors in my logic above? 

[Amanda G.]

Hi Thomas,
Your logic is fine. In my local real estate investment group there is a often repeated phrase "one deal at a time." Find the funds for your first deal, including your exit strategy. Hard money loans are short term loans. You will want to do your homework to find lenders that will refinance your completed property, which lets you pay off the hard money lender. Good for you finding a strong realtor to learn from. Next step is joining your local real estate investment group, so you can continue to learn from people who are already doing what you want to do. Good luck!