Need some advice, Negative cash flow EVER a good idea?

[Troy Brown]

Evening all,

Im at what i think is a huge decision point and need a little help. Just some quick background... Im a Young military invest with three properties under my belt and a strong appetite for risk.

My Investor minded realtor always sends me deals and he recently sent me a listing for a 10 property portfolio of SFHs for about 450k. The owner is willing to owner finance @ 4% amoritized over 10 years (the terms are flexible) I cant qualify for traditional financing on this deal simply b/c my D/I wont allow for it. At the end of the day i'd probably be in the red about 100/month after being VERY conservative on PITI, and 10% each for property management, maintenance, and vacancy.

My income can handle much more than 100/month in the red on this and my rationale is that after "investing" 100/month over 10 years i would have a 500k (conservative estimate) portfolio i only paid 12k for. I also understand that i could shop for a refinance on this portfolio at some point in the future and possibly get different terms if i need them.

There are a few variables, of course. If these properties are deeded independently then i assume that the closing costs will be very expensive. If, somehow they are deeded as a portfolio then i wouldn't have the easy ability to sell, say 5 of them, in the future if i want to.

I will post more detailed numbers once i complete the property analysis spreadsheets i've dowloaded from the BP thread on the subject.

Thanks,

Logan