All Forum Posts by: David M.

@Laura NA

How long you been at this?  A few months?  For example, it took me 2 years to find my real estate agent.  

You've viewed all of 5 properties in person?  Not sure how far apart are they, but that's not even a day's viewings...

Keep going..  Keep learning..  Find the neighborhood / property that suits you..

Even around here, multi's tend to be pretty crappy.  Lots of "slumlords," or just landlords who can't afford to fix things up.  Saw listings where you could just walk between units because the sheetrock/"fireproofing" wasn't there.  

Yup, agents are in the sales business.  You could get your own license, but don't forget the carrying costs and finding a broker will to take you as effectively a non-productive agent.  Remember, brokers make their money off the backs of agents.  So, if you aren't producing then you are costing them money being on their books normally.

As mentioned, plenty of agents, and other vendors, on BP are pretty bad, too...  Its too bad newbies see this site as a way to find "good vendors" when all it is is free advertising for them.  You know what they say:  its tough to find good help.

Letss see, whether all properties will have non-cosmetic issues really will depend on your neighborhood / location.  Or, look at it the other way:  if you were flipping or brrr'ing, it'd better have some issues.

Hope this helps.  Happy to chat.  Good luck.

@Jesse Buchanan oh one more advantage to hiring your own trades:  when/if you have small jobs, such as a smaller repair on your own home or a rental then you already have the trade ready.  I guess you could hire the gc, but that would be overkill when you only need one trade.

@Lisa Gooding

If you are still looking for advice being this thread is a month old..

I think the key is what are you comfortable?  If you want to self-manage, then you should have the time, energy, and competence to make your own investments.  This includes learning about it.

Not everything works for everybody.  Put it another way, I don't do equity investing in the public markets well.  However, I am better, at relatively and enough for myself, investing in dividend growth and income.  Others are really good at trading options.

Good luck.

@Noah Clark I don't think you really need to work a job to learn about real estate.  So many investors haven't.  Honestly, that's sort of like saying you need to go back to school to learn about real estate --- what investor has done that...

Looking back at your OP, if you haven't you might want to see what part of your "extroversion" doesn't fit your current job duties.  Also, you are just starting out, so your job duties should change.  CPA's still have to interface with people and get/keep clients, i.e. your sales desire.  For example, there are plenty of people, including accountants, trying to sell their services on BP (granted with various competencies...).

Even if you did a "sales" job, there is still paperwork and analysis to be done.  

Maybe you just need to grow into a more managerial role or team leadership.  This is really mentorship stuff...

Good luck.

@Jonathan Rivera

Hmmm... Don't know about other states, but nothing "wrong" with flipping here.  I kinda like it since we have higher property values, there is "something to work with" when looking for profit.  While in the past several years its been a super strong sellers market, at least normally here the market is pretty strong so you know you can sell...

@Landon Hale

Even though you have a w2 (there are all sorts), how many hours do you put in doing what?  Is that just the "reasonable salary" from an SCorp?

Of course, you probably should just consult your accountant.  I assume you have one for your returns.

I would just take a look and see if its tax efficient for you to do this.

If you qualify for REPS, you'd be able to take the passive losses that year onto your main 1040.  That's the income that it would offset.

@Noah Clark Consider working in accounting to "support" what you want to do.  Real estate investing is normally done by the "white collar" professional because they have the incomes.  

Aside from that, until this "recent generation," employment was to provide for ones family and pursuits.  Perhaps, the concept of "doing what you love" is taken too literally.  You still have to make ends meet, at the very least.

Your plan appears to be do real estate "investing" as a job.  Its not a job, its "investing."  

You might consider how you can leverage your cpa into a different job or field.

Good luck.

@Alice Goodson

Your welcome.

I've pondered even just using the brokerage account as a bank account.  You can get checks for it.  You can even do online bill pay.  Business accounts still get the market interest rate.  I'm not sure what sort of liquidity concerns that you have, but my experience they are fully liquid.

Business bank accounts don't get any interest.  As I understand it has something to do with historical banking regulations.

Good luck.

@Randall Cornelison

You can do what I am doing...  I'm liquidating my rental portfolio and pivoting into debt investments and high dividend stocks (generally 10%+) as well as bonds giving high returns at maturity (more debt).  After generating wealth, its time to move to generate cash flow.

Its all very passive with a different/better risk profile.

I'm actually not paying that much tax, much less than the 1031 proponents and other investors would have you believe.  Could be partly due to my financial situation, but definitely due to my built up Passive Allowed Losses (PAL).  For some reason, not discussed at all...

Goodluck.

@Amanda Feack

In general, I'm fine with that approach.  I do look at my rentals as a "portfolio."

For example, years ago I refi'ed 3 loans into 2 --- so one property became free and clear.  If you looked at the individual properties, obviously the one cashflowed great and the other two were negative.  But, as a whole/portfolio, I was doing fine / better (because of the refi to lower rates) and it was cheaper since I only had to get 2 loans instead of 3.

So, it sounds like you are doing something similar.  If so, I have done it, and its works out just fine and I didn't see much of a downside.  I suppose the issue is when you liquidate, depending on what order you sell may imbalance your numbers.  But, I saw it as a moot issue since either I'd have a huge pot of cash to cover the bills or I'd be just very positive each month...

Good luck.