All Forum Posts by: Andrew Auger

So I know you are focusing on the cash for the down payment, but I know the bank we are using for our lender, when we actually find a property, they require us to have a set amount of reserve funds, are you factoring that into your calculations? 

I know personally we also want to have money for anything that comes up with the property in reserve as well, that way we don't have to throw it on a credit card and accrue interest. 

Hi Derek,

The proposed outline you have posted is not sound. In fact you will cost yourself more money in the long run with the interest off your credit card, yes even with the 4 months of 0%. If you don't have the money yet for a down payment, your not ready to start buying properties. 

One of the key concepts of real estate is getting rich slowly and finding a deal that is good for you and your finances. My suggestion to you would be to spend some time here on the forums, learn more about real estate, while you build up your savings. Get educated before you just rush in.

Couple things that might help you, things I use being in the same situation as you, saving and looking for our first property...

• Mint.com - Website that helps you budget! Made by the same people who make Quickbooks! As an accountant, I love this site and use it myself. Might help you save more efficiently by showing you better where your money is going, best of all its FREE.
• Househacking - A term to describe living in a property with tenants, something I plan to do, I would look into it.
• Bench mark or rule of thumb metrics - 50% rule, 1% rule, 2% rule, Cap Rate, Ect ect. These will help you evaluate properties.
• Check out the podcasts, they are really helpful when starting out.

Good Luck and welcome to BP

Hi Michael,

Welcome to BP! I think if you want people to Direct you to what podcasts sound interesting , you might you want to be more specific as to what you want to get into! IE Buy and Hold, Wholesale, Flip, ect. I think i have listened to about 30 of them, and they are quite informative!

You mentioned meeting up with people in the Boston area...

http://www.blackdiamondrealestateinvestors.com/

They meet in Waltham and in Worcester once a month. Ann Bellamy who helps run this was also one of the first Podcast interviews on Hard Money. 

Good luck!

I am in the same boat, cant find a positive cash flowing property. Everything I seem to find is either a wreck or obnoxiously over priced. Good luck in your search!

Hi James,

I might start with Podcast #45. In this particular podcast the investor being interviewed took one of the Guru classes you are thinking of. He goes on to describe how it was one of the worse decisions that he made in his real estate career. 

Do I think all classes are useless? Absolutely not! I took a wonderful set of courses at a local tech school that went over all the Tenant/Landlord laws in my state, and was taught by a lawyer. Keep in mind these were at a school and were very inexpensive, like under $100 each. But these were not explaining the "Business" or $0 down purchasing or anything like that, just explaining the laws and for someone like me it was great as it clarified a lot of stuff for me.

Hope this helps!

I had no idea you could do that. I am assuming this is one of the ways people send out those "yellow letters" for direct mailings?

Now I don't know much about real estate, but unless it is a PA thing, and I highly doubt it, that is the biggest pile of Bull I have ever heard. 

The best I have found so far...

http://www.thefinanceresource.com/free_business_pl...

Let me know if you find anything else, I am still looking. :-/

I took them earlier this year. Since I live in Framingham, I get a flyer for the Keefe At Night program for Keefe Tech which has more than just Landlord stuff, but I happened to notice it while flipping thru. 

http://www.keefetech.org/

That is the website for the school. They are under the Adult ED section and Keefe at Night in the catalog. They are under the Real Estate section.

 Hope this helps!

Hi Robert,

As I have yet to purchase a property I have been doing everything I can to learn and prepare as much as I can ahead of time. Something I did recently was I took 2 course's on Landlord/Tenant law which was taught by a former Landlord attorney who is working now for the DOJ. These are offered at Keefe Tech a vocational school in Framingham. The first was going over the Law's specific to MA and the second was more of a hands on course that provided you with a rental package that had all the materials needed to legally rent in MA. Prices were reasonable, under $100 for each class. 2 classes per course and were about 3 hours long. For someone who had very little knowledge it was an excellent starting point for me both in knowledge and in getting critical information and documentation. 

Just a thought for you