All Forum Posts by: Andrew Stouse

Hi everyone,

I suppose I am on the other side of what this forum is for, however I know many of you are well-versed in tenant/landlord laws so I would like to get your opinions!

I moved into my apartment last March and it is owned by a major property management company. I have had issue after issue in my apartment. Roaches are crazy in there. The AC unit was leaking for several weeks and I had to mop up the water almost every day. Then, once the leak was fixed, I noticed that there were mushrooms growing out of my baseboards. I sent photos to the leasing office and told them of the issue. They sent a guy with a bottle of bleach and water to spray all my baseboards. My personal property was damaged by not only the water but them spraying bleach on my belongings. In january, I called to let them know I wanted to end my lease and gave 60 days notice. They called 3-4 times the past two months to ask if I was renewing, I said no. Then I check my bill for this month, and it is almost double. They are charging me a rent increase, month to month fees, and several other fees. I asked why and they said I did not give them WRITTEN notice (I will be honest, after reading the lease it does say written notice and I did not provide that).

I talked to the manager and was nice, she would not budge. I talked to the manager and was assertive, and she did not budge. I am wondering, with the mushrooms that are currently growing out of my baseboards, am I able to break my lease? I am not even breaking it, I just want to be let go by the time my lease was supposed to end.

Quote from @Account Closed:

Quote from @Andrew Stouse:

I often see these forums flooded with people asking questions that they really don't need to ask, as their questions are very much personalized to their specific situation.

For an investment property, $50,000 plus our training costs, that are 1/3 of that in addition. However, If you use a bank, plan on a down payment of 20%, that's $80,000 down plus about $5,000 in loan fees and $3500 in closing costs. Here is smething that explains those costs depending on which way you go. If you have access to a VA loan and will be living in the property, you can do a zero down.

 Mike,

This is awesome! thank you so much for sharing this!

In the case of using the VA loan, how much cash on hand would you think Id need?

I often see these forums flooded with people asking questions that they really don't need to ask, as their questions are very much personalized to their specific situation.

I will try my best to keep this as short and concise as possible for simplicity and not waste you all's time. 

I would like to invest in real estate by doing something similar to a live in flip just to get the ball rolling with my real estate investing. I have access to the VA loan from serving.

I spend hours listening to audiobooks, reading, browsing the forums, and getting my RL license so I can be as educated as possible, but my question is, how much money would I need to begin investing in real estate? My wife is about to go back to school so she will not be contributing income as well as she will be tacking on a lot more debt to her initial student loans. Obviously this is an investment as once she is finished with school she will make more money, but realistically we are looking at the next 4-5 years being pretty tight on cash from only me working and paying off the debt.

Is investing even feasible with low amounts of cash on hand? is it smart? Investing in real estate is truly my dream, but I have chosen to sacrifice/postpone my dream, so she can get hers. I just want to know if there's any way for both of us to be working towards what we want. 

Additionally, If any of you RE investors are in the Atlanta area, PM me! Id love to pick your brain and go into more detail about my situation.

Thank you all so much in advance for taking time out of YOUR day to help me :)

-Andrew

Work is in Midtown Atlanta, home is in Loganville/snellville area.

Hi Brandon, 

Thanks for the reply! I forgot to mention in the original post but I also am in the process of getting my real estate license. Its very nice to see someone who started out in this crazy market we are seeing today and still was able to find success! and yes...one long commute indeed but I also live with the family so saving $$$ is key ;)

 Hi Jay,

Forgot to mention this in the original post but I also am in the process of getting my real estate license! Thanks for sharing your experiences! So happy to hear you have achieved some success!

Hello Everyone!

My name is Andrew. I am 24 and married to my amazing wife. I also serve in the Georgia National Guard so I have access to the VA loan. My dad was always a pretty savvy real estate investor, mainly specializing in vacation rentals and I remember going to tour 10s or hundreds of properties and loved it. I currently work for a luxury building materials company and my commute is about an hour and a half each way every day. I decided to use this time to listen to audio books on real estate investing so I started out with the guide to investing in real estate, and I am currently on the guide to flipping houses.

I would love to hear from some of you guys who have already started their journey (or maybe are well into their journey!) on how you got started, what mistakes did you make, how much money do you feel a person must start with, what did your first deal look like, and which method of real estate investing did you do and what are you doing now (rentals, flips, etc.)

Thanks!

Andrew