New Guy in Knoxville, TN with big dreams and motivation!

[Bernhard Braeuner]

Everyone calls me Chip. My experience thus far with real estate has been buying my homes and investigations into real estate ownership as well as how certain people paid for their property.  I am a police investigator.  I have been looking at this line of work for a number of years but time has not been on my side so I am taking charge of more of my time to make things happen.  I have found some properties and been "practicing" to go thru the motions I would need to master to avoid making ALL of the mistakes all at once.  But it is time to quit cutting bait and learn to catch fish.  I came across what looked like a deal 2 weeks ago but my planning has been deficient when it came to financing.  That is what I am trying to learn about now.  So I take any advice offered and am glad to be here!! 

[Roger Poulin]

All the above advise is sound. Invest time in your education. There is a group in your area called Knoxville Real Estate Investors Group (KREIG), I suggest you look them up in Google and attend a few meetings before you take action. Collect lots of business cards; especially cash buyers, private lenders / hard lenders. 

The buyers may become your customers once you find a good deal. You may be able to assign the contract to one of them and collect a fee without ever owning the property (called wholesaling). You want to do that a couple times a year though, because the board of realtors may come after you as an unlicensed agent.

The private and hard lenders will loan to anyone quickly, if the deal is a good one.  Side benefit is you get an experienced opinion on your deal.  They charge big fees, but if the deal is good enough it is worth it.

Go to a small-ish regional bank, and get pre-approved. Tell them what you want to do, and say you want to be able to act quickly. Do the application. Have them pull your credit, job history, etc. and they will tell you how much you can barrow and the terms. When you find a deal, they will add the property price and address to the application, and process it in no time flat.

Finally, call your insurance agent and ask about financing. I know it sounds odd. State farm gave me incredible terms on a single family rental a few weeks ago. My mind was blown.

Good luck