All Forum Posts by: Adam Britt

@Jason Carter

Now that is my greatest fear realized right there. The house has been vacant a while now. We have been very lucky that she never had an issue. A single old lady living there for the last 70 years and not a single spot of trouble ... very lucky.

I would be afraid of theft as you describe though ... one of those heavy risks I need to consider before making any outreach to get the property.

@Linda S.

Actually this family member is staunch that they don’t want me to buy it. She thinks it is in terrible condition. But I think she exaggerates. I would have to make an anonymous purchase offer through an agent to get it because she doesn’t want me buying it. I just happen to know what she would sell it for. I would 1000% get it inspected before I did ANYTHING. I just didn’t want to spend $300 on an inspection if the theory itself is stupid and I should run from this area.

You feel that with 3k over cost that would be enough? That’s doable actually ...

@Michael Ealy

Hmmm yes great advice. And I think you are spot on. I may consider the wholesale rout ... not my area of interest but a quick dollar is better than no dollar.

Thanks for sharing your expertise in this market. It’s encouraging to me that you CAN make it work but I can see how it may be more problem than it’s worth.

A lot to think about. I was certainly planning on not making that full 700$. In fact I was planning to put 100% proceeds aside for repairs and or future investment.

@Nick C.

Yes sir, I could borrow more money than required to have a rainy day fund but even that frightens me.

As for that % interest student loan ... very long story. Short side: The majority of the debt is in my wife’s name. Her credit is probably in the negatives. Only way to refinance favorably would be to put it all in my name ... which could cripple me in credit forever. Currently her debts aren’t considered in any of my loans or credit etc.

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE an answer to that situation but even bankruptcy doesn’t eliminate student loans ...

I would like some opinions about an upcoming possibility. I apologize for the wall of text but I want to provide accurate detail for best advice.

I’m one of the millions struggling hard against a massive student debt that currently requires 1/2 of everything I make. Money is scarce even working 2 jobs.

Real estate is the only way I will ever escape. The rat race, while I am paid semi-decently, can never get me out of 12-15% interest student loans of 100k.

Paying off my loans aren’t really an option. I would need to massively increase my salary to even pay the loan down with that interest rate. Let alone pay it off.

All that is to say ... I’m dying to get into real estate, but saving up to buy isn’t practical. It would take me 60 years to save that kind of cash. So I need to use the magic of OPM (other peoples money).

Now, I have great credit and can probably get some solid loans, including from family. But I want to be very cautious from overextending myself. As such, higher price properties are ... frightening to me.

An older relative has just moved out of a 3/1 in a very rough neighborhood. I would probably consider it C/D class. She built the house in the 60s and has lived there till recently. I believe I could get the house for probably 10-15k. She is only expecting pennies for it. My ideal would be to Section 8 the house.

However, I would love y’alls opinion.

What costs would you all warn me about? Will I need to redo electrical and such due to the age of the house to make it housing compliant? What would you budget for that?

Would a rough area stop you from considering a deal like this? I see dollar signs with a 700-800$ section 8 rent with nearly no overhead if I can get this thing with 10,000$, but I don’t know what dangers and problems to expect down the line.

Please illuminate me to what you would look for! I originally wrote the house off due to expected repair costs but ... a friend who flips for an investor insisted it may be worth it if I can cover those with private loans .... unless the area itself would make this a no-go.

This is near Birmingham AL in a higher crime area in case that helps.

Originally posted by @Matt P.:

@Adam Britt I'll save you the trouble of reading the whole thread lol. She was saving 5k a month from her and her husbands job AFTER they paid all of their living expenses, health insurance and income taxes... At 24 years old. Great thread and it is motivating but people need to keep things in perspective. This is not realistic for most of the population.

5,000 a month after living expenses? To be completely honest, if I had that kind of money I probably wouldn't be bothering trying to get into real estate! It is my extreme struggle that pushed me to learn about REI. Naturally I would chose to do it now but I never would have tried to learn REI if I had that kind of cash.

Thanks for the summation! Still an awesome story but definitely not something I would ever even be close to able to accomplish myself unless I got a raise of 5 grand a month. Gives me something to shoot for at least. 

Oh wow, posts like this give me both hope and shame. My wife and I are in a somewhat similar boat, but with double the student loans at high interest rate. I'm dying to start REI but I find it very difficult to start with current financial restraints and lack of that awesome team you built. I've found that all the local REI meet ups in my area happen when I'm at one of my two jobs just trying to scrape by!

Would love to hear how you guys got the financing for the earlier deals. If you have already answered that, sorry. I wasn’t able to read all response posts yet just the first page. And actually my break is over. Back to work lol. 

Wow, my jealousy knows no bounds.  Your story is what I feel I can only dream about accomplishing.  But every word you said with your goal resounded with me.  I just hit 30 and I'm still at 0 properties.  You are at a massive number of properties (to me) in 30 months. I'm doing it very wrong.

Maybe I need to study your story a little closer and figure out how to get myself into that same spot...

I have another question to add. I too have recently learned about using these to fund real estate. Is borrowing from a 403b the same as “rolling into a self directed IRA?” I hear both terms but am unsure if they both are the same thing. On topic, if my hunch is correct, shifting over to self directed instead of simply borrowing would have tax advantages beyond either of these, since you would simply be changing management of your account. Not taking it out.

@Kevin Romines Ohhh I see, thank you for the clarification. That makes sense!