All Forum Posts by: Alan Mackenthun

Impressive.  Welcome to Bigger Pockets.  You've got experience and are working some niches that are a little off the beaten path here, but the perspective will certainly be appreciated.  Hope we can provide some insights in kind.

If you aren't experienced or confident enough to write up your own offers without an agent, I'd strongly recommend you use the agent that you admit has been giving you good service. If you really want to save the commission, get your own license. I was tired of waiting for an agent to be able to see new listings and tired of helping them get the paperwork right so I got my own license. Now I don't have to wait for anyone to see a new listing and I can write up an offer anytime and execute everything with electronic signatures so I don't have to print or scan anything. Waiting for open houses is not something I'd ever want to do.

Bought a HUD house for $30k in St. Paul, MN a while back on a VA loan with little down. Lived there for 5 years while going to college with a monthly payment of $280. Sold it for about $56k. It got my wife and I through college with almost no debt.

I'm flexible on where to meet, but I'm not seeing a lot of interest. Last time everyone chimed in. At any rate, I saw someone trying to explain how the @... works yesterday and I tried, but I really couldn't figure it out. I got your name to show up by 'Quote'ing you and then removing all the text from your quote. I know some people have the knack and others simply can't make it happen. Sometimes it's device dependent (either browser or phone problems). I've been working in software consulting services for over 15 years and it's kind of disheartening that I haven't been able to figure it out, but I've got other things to worry about (like how to get a few more properties so i don't have to worry about buggie tech crap anymore :) ).

If I could find something close to me like this I'd be looking at it seriously. I'd like to get a little higher rent out of the place as it should be a pretty nice place to live.

I haven't heard of any, but met with a few people in the twin cities last year. I'd be interested if you can get anything together. I'm just south of the twin cities, but I'd think Fairbault or Owatanna might be a good place to meet since there centally located between Rochester, Mankato and Albert Lea. Maybe Cabela's or a restaurant near there. I'm always looking for an excuse :)

I don't think the market's as hot as it was last year, but inventory is still low. If you look hard enough, there are always properties available to flip. As always, location is important. You just have to define your criteria and run the #s to see if you can find properties that make sense for you. I'll say this - for me, the criteria I used 3-4 years ago just don't work anymore. I've had to look at different types of properties to get the returns I'm looking for, but these properties don't have all the other qualities I had been looking for earlier.

Welcome Matt. I'm sure you'll learn a lot here. A 203b mortgage might work well for you, but you can use regular fha mortgages as long as the home is functionally sound. If you stay in the house for at least 2 years, you can pocket the gains tax free.

Others have touched on it, but I'd 1st make certain your fiance is on board. You both have to agree on the strategy and sacrifices that will be needed to make it all work out long term (in a lot of ways). 2nd, if I were you, I'd buy a distressed multi-family property. Fix up and rent out the other unit(s) as quickly as possible, then fix up the side you're living in. Some people don't like living in a construction zone, but you'd have multiple ways of building equity and multiple exit strategies. Live there at least two years and if you sell within 5 and you can put everything in your pocket tax free up to $500,000 for the next property.

I completely agree. I can't comprehend how a real estate investor could buy a property to rent to others while they're renting a property to live in. What side of the equation do you want to be on? The buyer's or the renter's? I ALWAYS want to be the buyer.