Hello From Lafayette, Louisiana !!!!

[Charlie Bear]

Hello BP Community!

This is my first BP forum post! I’d like to express my gratitude for such an amazing resource the company as a whole, and the community itself, has been in jump starting my passion for real estate investing. I discovered BP and real estate investing in early 2020 and it has become my new mental obsession.

I have read several of the books from BP publication, continue to read daily, and listened to a minimum of one podcast a day since catching the bug.. At this point I have analyzed approximately 100 deals and feel confident and comfortable in investing in my first deal.

My current obstacle is the lapse in my income history due to covid.

I have been the sole owner of a business for the past six years and have been able to consistently generate an income of $60k+ per year, and that number has been continuing to grow, thanks to the addition of taking on new subcontractors working for the company. In 2018 I switched my business structure to an S-Corp and became the only W2 employee of the company. Due to covid, I took myself off of payroll and the company filed a loss for 2020. I did not reinstate myself on payroll until March of 2021. This year has been incredible for my business and we are on track to have the most profitable year to date.

Since June 2020 to date, I have been able to save approximately $50k in investment capital and I feel like I am armed with enough information to take the leap into my first investment property.

After identifying a Triplex that interested me that I was willing to make an offer on, I reached out to the local bank my business utilizes, and they informed me they were unable to lend to me based on the lapse in verifiable income.

I recently reached out to three lending officers/mortgage brokers, referred to me by my real estate agent, spoke to them about my situation, and am waiting to hear back from them about my options…

The questions I have are….

1. Can anyone offer advice or insight based off of their personal experiences who may have been in a similar situation?!?!?

2. Is there a way to circumvent the employment history in order to obtain conventional financing (besides getting a co-signer), or should I start contemplating alternative ways to finance my investment?

I’m awaiting the response to my questions from the mortgage brokers, but was interested in getting feedback from the BP community, to get my brain working on the next step as soon as possible.

At the end of the day, there is ZERO reality in which I wait 2 years before I purchase my first property, and am confident in the fact that I will find a way to put together my first of many deals sometime in the near future.

Thank you kindly for taking the time to read this and I am looking forward to reading your response!

-Charlie Bear