need suggestions

[John Bouter]

I am new to real estate and have been reading books, listening/watching webinars, and picking peoples brains for around two years and decided now was the time to act. With talking to a realtor she showed me two rental properties that are priced greatly and rented to long term tenants that plan on staying. The problem is my credit is not that good at all and I don't have a savings. I was thinking of trying to borrow just enough money to get a hard money loan for a year or two and save two put down a higher percentage on a traditional mortgage. Does this sound like a reasonable idea, or does anyone have better suggestions?

[Jon Holdman]

Then get started. Stop dreaming and start doing something to fix your credit and save some cash to invest.

If you were to find a HML to get you into this deal you would end up losing the house. Even if you self manage, this is, at best, a break even deal. There's no guarantee you could get a refi without putting money in. If you default on the loan the HML will take the property. No modifications, no working something out, no discussion.

My example about the sewer link is a real situation that occurred with one of my rentals last summer. I need to head over to the same house this afternoon and have a look at some roof repairs. Houses have a way of waking up in the morning and saying "yawn... I think I'd like my owner to spend $2000 today".