New to group. Trying to learn and understand financial options

[Jenny Jones]

Trying to learn about hard money ,and private investors in buying new properties!  We currently own 8 addresses we rent. One being a double, and one being a triplex.  We owe no more than 35/40 on each.

I love owning and managing rentals. My husband and i do all the work our self. Been doing this for  18 years.. Just sold my oldest  rental unfortunetly, to pay off all credit cards!!.... Still have   5 mortgages, which includes our  own dwelling(non over 550 a month)... Considering  flipping a house this winter, or buying another rental in a place I  like to manage.   I have the one triplex , We make over 25,000 on  a year rents.... No mortgage on it, kinda look at it  like a  pension. I dont have a pension. My husband still works full time by choice construction, and for health insurance.  Currently bringing in around   7000?? a month rents before bills.... I debate to pay more on principal on the rentals, as i have always heard re investing is the way to go.... My question is  should I go for  a traditional bank loan,  this new concept of hard money? Private investors loan, or  use my "pension  triplex" to purchase other  place or two?? The triplex is prob worth  250,000?? Since i have no pension, it scares me to  mortgage the triplex tho, or take equity out of our own personal home.. My  husband leans towards wanting to pay each rental off at times, instead of re investing.Hes not as big of a risk taker as I.... I cant get my husband to quit his job as of yet, to be able to flip houses thru week and not just on his 2 days off,so i know a serious large flip would take us longer than 3 months to finish!... We are both 60 years old...thoughts please on how to proceed with our passive income investments? 

Thanks Jen Jones Indianapolis , In

[Dave Foster]

@Jenny Jones, There's nothing that is cookie cutter make sense for all.  Especially for you since you're more adventurous and your husband is not.  He likes the security of the job and you like the thrill of the flip.  You guys are like Jack Sprat and his wife.  And to top it all off retirement is looming (well not looming but at least in your mind).

Debt is death to retirement.  I've seen it through several decades now.  I know the little old people sacking groceries at Publix from the last crash, the sales clerks at West Marine in Stamford after the dot com crash, and the other little old people delivering the Denver Post after the RTC crash there in the 90s.  If you go into retirement overly leveraged you will end up losing properties and working the rest of your life to make ends meet.  

But enough of the doom and gloom.  There's a middle ground that will appeal to each of you.  BTW congratulations on your portfolio to date.  Now is the time to begin insulating yourself against bad times and down turns.  But you don't have to do it in such a way to limit your active investing.

Use refinances now while money's easy to separate your debt from cash properties and personal from business.

I'm guessing that IN has protections for homeowners and your primary residence. So refi some of your properties to pay off other properties starting with your primary residence. How do you think that would make your husband feel to have the security of a paid off home and some rentals debt free as well. meanwhile you've got other properties heavily leveraged. Leverage boosts ROI to a point so those will up your blended return. And in a catastrophic downturn you can lose a property or two and not hurt your retirement life style. Then you take those heavily leveraged properties and use those in 1031 exchanges to buy potentially better performing properties. Value add flip types that you can turn to rentals. Yes you'll use leverage to make up the debt difference but this time your back is covered with the bed rock of the cash properties.

the quicker you can get your husband comfortable with your financial position the quicker he'll be out there hustling flips with you full time.