All Forum Posts by: Adam P

Another newbie here who will be attending.  Thanks for putting this together.

You need to figure out, do you read a lot of books in areas you are interested in, and easily teach yourself; or do you find learning in a classroom easier?

College is an enormous financial investment. Colleges have differing costs, based on the brand name of the college. The better the brand name, the higher the cost. College is also an insurance policy. If REI doesn't work out, a good college degree will open other doors.

Very few people use what they learnt in college in their day-to-day job. However, many people got their jobs due to having the degree. You will learn far more in REI by joining local clubs, and assisting / learning from successful investors. However being entrepreneurial is risky, and may not work out.

If you decide to go to college, I wouldn't study real estate. I think you get more value studying another area you are interested in, which will give you a backup plan, and then study/work in REI in your own time.

I wonder the proportion of successful BiggerPockets investors (ie, made $1 million+ in real estate) studied real estate in college? 

I am in my 4th year of managing out of state.  I self manage, but the apartments are in a higher end building with employed maintenance staff available.  I pay a local to show the apartment to new tenants.

My apartments cash flow due to buying them so cheaply during the crash.   

I couldn't imagine trying to self manage a $50k property from afar.   Does any manage to make money investing in low cost (<$100k) property out of state?  Maybe it is a bias, but I have always assumed people who rent very low cost housing likely could use a lot of supervision.  Supervision which isn't possible from 2000 miles away.

I am purchasing directly from the seller, so there is no agent.

To be honest, I trust recommendations from the bigger pockets community far more than any agent with a financial interest in closing the sale would provide.

I just got my first Chicago multi-family under contract (thanks to all the information on BiggerPockets), and am looking for any recommendations for Chicago building inspectors.

I am a new investor, and I have learnt so much from these forums. I currently own no property, but am hoping to purchase 2 - 4 investment properties over the next few months. I would like to buy and hold cash flow properties, but would renovate and flip if it makes sense.

I have an offer out on 2 REOs. One qualifies for homepath financing, one does not, so I would need a conventional investment loan.

If both accepted, would I have any difficulty getting 2 conventional loans at the same time? I am pre qualified based on income from my day job for $400k in a conventional or FHA loan (by a national bank).

I have good credit (around 750), good income, and no other debt.

One property is $120k and the other is $60k. I am hoping to put 10% down and get a homepath investor loan on the 120k, and put 25% down for a conventional loan on the $60k property (so getting a $108k loan, and a $45k loan).

I could afford to buy the $60k property with cash, but could I then refinance this clear at a later time? Could I use the equity at least towards deposit on another property? My concern with paying cash is that it would then eat into my deposit for more properties down the road.

I know given REO's, I am unlikely to get both offers accepted, but I would like to continue bidding on REOs, and not have prioritize which one to buy, if multiples are good deals.

I was initially going to purchase more expensive property, but I have found that cheaper properties appear to have more upside, and far better cashflow. Therefore I would much rather buy 3 x $80k properties at the same time, than buy 1 x $240k property.

The reason I would like to buy properties simultaneously, is that I was considering taking a 3-6 month unpaid vacation next year, and would like to build my property portfolio prior to having an income gap, leaving me with more difficulty financing.

Does anyone have experience financing a few cheaper properties at the same time when starting out?