All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Elizabeth Colegrove I am curious what purpose do you use TSP for "reserves"? You can only withdraw up to $50k even if you have $50,001 or more. That's one of the biggest negative about TSP. I have been maximizing out my TSP for years and after reading this post, I realized I am limiting my opportunities in real estate. I just decided to cut my contribution by large amount but still achieves my employer's full matching. I think it just comes down to making right decision for yourself to balance out and ensure you have sufficient cash to make a large down payment on your investment property. If you have plenty of cash that you don't even know what to do, then maximizing your TSP would make most sense. Agree?

Anthony G. Good points you have brought up regarding the use of TSP loan. However, since Roth TSP has now become available so the pro is if you maximize your contribution, it grows over years and you will be able to withdraw it tax-free without paying one cent to the government. If you choose to contribute just 5% that max out the employer's matching, whatever funds you choose to place (i.e. real estate property or stock market via your brokerage account) instead, then all the gains you make will be taxed. I have read a book that says that what really hurts people's wealth the most is TAX! So, that's something to think about.

Joe Villeneuve Nice simple explanation about your method. I am curious when you stated you refi it all out to get some cash out of your equity in your first property to use them as DP to purchase your next second property, how many % of equity must you keep in your first property at minimum? 20%? Let's say if I buy 100k worth of a property and I have built my equity at a total of 60k over a couple of years. I have found a second property that I would like to purchase. I proceed with refinance to get some cash out of first property to help with down payment for a second property. What's the maximum I can take out? From my understanding, I can take out whatever % of equity I want as long as it still contains 20% equity so that means I can refi to pull out $40k max out of first property. Does that make sense? Thanks! I enjoy reading your comments you have contributed to this forum.

Michael Siekerka Excuse my ignorance but I thought that to qualify for a conventional loan, you got to put at least a down payment of 20%. That's my understanding. I just got confused when you stated that he could use a conventional loan with only 5% DP? Can you clarify this? If there's such a thing like conventional 5% DP, do you know what criteria must be had to be eligible for this option? Thanks in advance.

Robert Bowles Excellent! Thanks a bunch!!! Happy Thanksgiving!

Can anyone please kindly answer Arvin Daeizadeh 's question? I am also curious to know about this as well. Much appreciated for all your assistance with this. It's been really addictive building real estate knowledge through forum like this!!!

Hello everyone- I have been thinking about starting some buy and hold properties in Baltimore shortly. However, I am not really familiar with the areas in Baltimore. All I know is about the Westport Waterfront development plans and unfortunately, the developer, Patrick Turner, who owns a huge land there is currently trying to save from foreclosure. Anyway, as we all know, there are too many bad areas in Baltimore so I am trying to get a sense of which areas in Baltimore are highly recommended based on higher % of good neighborhoods and its future development in the area that increases better convenience for residents. I am looking to purchase fully renovated single family or multi-family homes approx at 50-70k. Does anyone know? Thanks for reading this and I hope to receive some responses from investors that know the Baltimore area well. Arthur

Arlan Potter Jerry W. Thanks both for your comments. Your comments really helped. However, I am sorry but can you clarify what type of insurance did you mean when stating a good insurance is a must to obtain for each property? Did you mean to recommend getting a general liability insurance besides the homeowner's insurance or will homeowner's insurance alone be sufficient? I know you would probably say it depends... What do you both use for your properties? Again, thanks for your help.

Arlan Potter thank you for your comment. Well, I think LLC is definitely necessary, especially people with high net worth. They will need LLC if they want to protect their personal assets against any potential lawsuits. I could agree LLC may not be necessary if their net worth isn't as high as $100k? What are your thoughts? Thank you.

Jordan H. Thank you for your comment. I have read your comment in the link you provided. I understand that it's best to set up an entity myself instead of having someone to create it for me. I think I will agree with that. However you stated: "He also mentions Nevada LLCs as a sales product of the unscrupulous". It sounds like Nevada LLC isn't recommended, is that correct? If so, may I ask why he thinks that way? What about Wyoming? Delaware? Did the author mention anything about the use of Series LLC? Again, thanks for your comment.