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Hello Everyone,

I'm from St Paul MN. I've been a member for two days and am very impressed with all the information available here and have posted a couple of times already.

I'm a mortgage lender and real estate investor in Minnesota. I specialize in financing for real estate investors and am lucky the company I work for has been well run and is great shape even with the industry in this condition.

I do have some advice for new real estate investors as I have been ill advised and lied to by my past realtor. Research a lot. And I don't mean all the books and infomercials and all that. You can read until your eyes go blurry and still not gain a fraction of the knowledge a mortgage lender who is an expert in investment property financing has or especially that of your real estate agent (of course specializing in investment property).

Research and find people that are experts and work with investment property full time. It's a different animal both from the agents side and from the mortgage side. Get references and make sure you can count on them.

Real Estate investing is fantastic for those well advised and disciplined. It is a great way to become wealthy because it gives you tremendous leverage potential (your ability to use credit to acquire more assets than the cash you have). Time and leverage are what make real estate investing so powerful.

Do the research...I have two clients that retired in their 30's...from their investment property. It'll pay for you, too.

Okay, I'm a mortgage banker that works primarily with real estate investors. Why is it in a market where you fight to overpay for property that real estate investors crawl out of the woodwork to start buying (like 2004 and 2005 where investors were content with sometimes less than 7% ROA) compared to the now very soft market when seemingly every investor I know or meet sits on their hands avoiding the best buyers market in years??

What's the deal there? Isn't that a little (or a lot) like buying buying stock high and selling low? Isn't their something you learn as a kid to buy cheap?? By the way the credit contraction is keeping more and more people from actually owning homes and driving vacancy rates down. Properties are now easier to rent and a proper ROA is easy for even a novice real estate investor.

I've been in the mortgage business a pretty long time (more than a dozen years) and I'm just curious if anyone else is puzzled by this.
:violin:

The internet is a great place to start when considering investing in real estate. Do a Google or Yahoo search for real estate investing, or investment real estate in your area. Many communities will have organizations that exist to support you in your new endeavor. They are both social and networking where you can meet mortgage people and real estate agents that specialize in investment property as well as handymen, property managers, and many other people that might be of service to you at one point or another. In addition you should find teams of real estate agents and mortgage people in your area working with investment real estate by their website. You talk to several. Financing an investment property is more difficult and requires more knowledge from the mortgage person; just like there is more to the real estate agents' job when buying an investment property. It is important to work with someone experienced. The first place to start is with the mortgage banker. Meet with your mortgage banker before you look at even one property. Get pre-qualified for your purchase then have the mortgage banker outline your plan for investing. Once you have your financial ducks in a row you can begin working with the real estate agent. A good agent will make sure you've met with a mortgage banker first. Also...if you're comfortable with your mortgage banker, ask him for a referral to an agent and vice-versa. It's always better to work with people that are comfortable working together. This is just the first couple of steps... 8)