Backstory: I have been looking for creative ways to invest my money in assets for a while now. My mindset about money changed while listening do Dave Ramsey recordings that my boss had on the boat; I spent a summer fishing commercially in Alaska. I didn't agree with everything he advised young people to do with their finances, but I realized that his target audience were people trying to get out of unmanageable debt. From there I read or listened to a number of other books including "Rich Dad Poor Dad." It was interesting seeing how many people on the YouTube videos referenced that book.
Current Situation: Recently I have been looking more and more into real estate. It is a good money making asset to own that never truly loses it's value. It is particularly interesting to me because in my area there seams to be a low barrier to entry because of the low prices of some of the houses on the market. The problem is that they must be priced that low for a reason. I am sure that there a plenty of houses out there that look like deals to me that just are not worth buying because the renovations would be too much, or the area is going down in value or maybe there are liens on the title. Maybe the house won't rent. So I know that I need to find a partner to go into my first deal with so that I make an educated decision.
The Problem: I realize that I don't have a lot to bring to the table at this moment. So I can do the footwork and try to dig up deals by networking with people in my area and looking for off market sales. But I would not really know how to evaluate a good deal when I find one. I know that I need to try to find something where my total money invested after closing and renovations would be lower than the money that I could pull out of the equity while still cash flowing to have a good BRRRR.
TLDR: My Solution: I'm going to bring money to the table to help find a motivated partner / mentor. I don't know all the legal nuts and bolts of what I am going to put together, but I know that it is possible and that I can do it while still in Europe before I get back to the States. I plan to put together a network of people who want to invest their money into real estate so that I can raise capital to fund down payments, cash only purchasing or renovation costs. I've already pitched the idea to a couple of perspective small investors and they liked the sound of it. I am working on hashing out the details and am shooting to have 5 people who are completely on board by the 27th of July. And by the time I get back to the States, close to the beginning of next year, I want to have at least 15 people on board with a total of at least $200k in available funding. Of course the availability of funds would be subject to my meeting with them and pitching the opportunity.
How Can You Help? : Well, since you asked. I am still pretty new... really new, to real estate investing. Obviously. So if you have any recommendations for meetups that I can become a part of in the Hinesville GA / Savannah GA / Jacksonville FL area in January, better yet a telecommute kind of meetup that I could attend while still over here, that would be awesome. If you have a good reference book or website about setting up a pooled money fund like I describe then I would love that as well. Finally if you have any input as to how much capital would be best to have available or what kind of interest rates to pay my network of lenders I would like to hear your input.
Anyway, this is getting long winded already. Hope to see you all out there in the webinars and forums.
