All Forum Posts by: Ashan D

I have enough money to do a rehab finally and now it's time to get serious. Any good resources someone can recommend? I have these 2 so far, have yet to go through them but they're about to be devoured:

FLIP
Buy it fix it sell it profit

Any other good texts (or whatever else) before I attempt my first rehab would be appreciated, thanks!

I am somewhere inbetween those 2. I definitely want to buy distressed properties and rehab them, but I don't really want to become a full time landlord and I don't trust property management for residential properties.

So my plan is to rehab and rent out 2-5 properties including my first purchase which will be my residence (I'm single so I can rent all the other rooms), then after a year or so when I can 1031 most of them, I'll sell them and pyramid into my first commercial rehab. I want commercial tenants for the long term so my target is retail or office, and I plan to hold the building indefinitely from there unless there is a very good reason to sell.

Anyways despite high property taxes, Texas looks like my ideal spot. I actually like the high property taxes because they help to suppress property values, and I don't value appreciation that much because I want to make money at the rehab/turnaround phase. Since Commercial value is tied strictly to NOI and cap rate I figure I could make almost as much money in a stagnating market as a appreciating one (because if the market is appreciating, every larger property I pyramid into will cost an appreciation premium)

Hi all,

I've decided to make a big change and move out of the Los angeles, CA area in order to begin my real estate career. I can work anywhere in the country due to my income source coming from online.

I know that opportunities can be had anywhere if an investor is astute, but my mindset about that is different. I want to maximize my opportunities by getting into markets that have more potential and lower barriers to entry (ie lower than $440k median home prices)

On the other hand I am a young guy and would still like to live nearby a big city. I know this will make finding good real estate markets harder but I can't completely neglect my social life.

So my question becomes this: How do I find data on what areas have better than average potential for investing? I know employment rate, population growth, median income, etc are all factors. But where do I find this information? And what other factors should I look at (especially anything not quantifiable)

Thanks

Hi all,

A big advantage of real estate is that it can be a large tax writeoff. The "depeciation" and mortgage writeoffs can save quite a bit.

I plan on living abroad so US real estate won't be an option for me for at least a couple years, so I was thinking of just starting internationally. My question is will I lose those nice tax writeoffs that I know US real estate has, or does it apply to any real estate?

Thanks

This magazine is published by the CCIM institute which is spoken of highly here. Does anyone have an opinion of this magazine?

I spoke too soon and am once again torn between degrees. On one hand I could do the international business management degree and possibly do the import/export business.

On the other hand this would further complicate my plans, I just wanted to trade for a while and jump into real estate. There is a real estate degree offered in Bangkok, the city itself is much less desirable than the city where the international business degree is offered (Chiang Mai) but it is also cheaper.

So different temptations are pulling me in different directions right now. I think I may have to change my mind and do the real estate degree. Trying to split my attention in too many ways is counterproductive, real estate is my end goal and I would probably do best to stick with that field. Even if the knowledge is not very practical it is still imortant to know when dealing with sophisticated competition in the future who will know all about those things.

On the other hand, Bangkok is awefully hot, congested, and expensive compared to the mellow, beautiful nature of Chiang Mai. Lots of fun stuff to do out there too. Arg....

Ok guys, I’ve made a decision with a bit of a spin. I’ve decided to finish my degree abroad somewhere. Because the degree is mainly for my own education as well as a very basic backup, the prestige of the university was not much of a factor. Therefore I could actually study abroad and not go broke doing it.

So it looks like I will be doing an international business degree in Payap University, Thailand. It has what I feel are the important elements of a finance degree minus the emphasis on securities which frankly I know enough about. I actually know less than people might think I would, but the interesting thing about investing is that the more you know about how it works, potentially the worse off you are. I wonder if RE is similar. I tend to doubt that because real estate is more rational, but maybe in some aspects this is still true?

When I was younger I was dead set on an import/export business. It never materialized but with my new conditions (money to work with, proximity to china, schooling in import/export) it looks like it will become a reality. So that fits another cog into my career path now… investing… import/export business…then real estate. The opportunities are truly endless now.

This route seems like a win/win all around. I will save a significant amount of money in living expenses and taxes by living in Thailand for 2-3 years AND my entrepreneurial potential will still grow despite me sticking with school. Only disadvantage is that my piece of paper is lessened in value but that no longer matters to me, as far as I am concerned now the only person who’ll ever size up my degree to see if I’m “qualified” is myself ;)

Thanks guys, I really don't want to do nursing anymore so I'm undecided between finance and economics. If anyone has feedback for taking one va the other I'd appreciate it!

I was reading Reed's review of Buy it Fix it Sell it, and he pointed out some flaws in the book and said his one was better. I'm interested in getting it, has anyone read his books?

Hi,

I am a nursing student who is basically done with nursing, I used to have a passion for the profession but other life priorities have taken over and now I consider myself a business person. I am a successful commodity trader so a degree is no longer as important as before.

However I'm not going to drop out of school, that would be narrow minded. I know I still need a degree if for nothing else than as a backup. To put my schooling in alignment with my new goals I want a degree that will help me with my end plan of commercial real estate investment (I'm not a dreamer, I have saved close to $100,000 so far). I was planning on taking the CCIM classes for that end, but I still need a degree in something (my parents would kill me otherwise)

I'm considering the following options:

Real Estate
Finance
Accounting

I don't know if the real estate degree is worth it because Im taking the CCIM classes in the future. Also I have heard from other RE investors that the degree does not offer much practical knowledge for an investor. But what do I know, I haven't taken any RE courses, they could teach me much more than I could learn from my RE books and CCIM courses.

The Finance degree sounds interesting for understanding how finance works. If I went this route I would not have to spend extra time in school either because I meet all the prereqs already. So even if not practically useful, I get the degree/safety net with minimal fuss and am able to get serious with commercial investment that much faster.

Accounting has the obvious benefit of me being able to handle my own books. Then again as investors we try to delegate what we can to focus on what we most importantly need to handle (the A&D) so maybe this degree has limited use as well.

The finance degree can be finished the earliest, the real estate degree will require the most amount of time (that one is not even at my school so it'll require a significant change of plans)

What do you guys think is the best option?

Thanks!