All Forum Posts by: Brandon Turner

This is a deal I am working on now. Not for myself, but for a friend. I thought I would post it to see if anyone had any comments or suggestions.

My best friend Adam was looking to cash in on this stimulus money thing and get a house, but has no money for a down payment, awful debt-to-income due to a high truck payment, but a steady (low paying) job and good credit. So we worked out a plan that we are in process of doing now.

I have done a few flips with a hard money lender, and currently have 4 notes with him that have a good deal of equity. So my friend Adam found a house in need of a good amount of work to be done and got in under contract for 29k. We are purchasing the home with three names on title -mine, Adam's, and his wife, with the hard money lender I use - including 15,000 for repair costs. Once we close, I will do the normal paint/carpet/etc to get it in good shape and Adam and his wife will move in. I will then Quit Claim myself off the deed, and he and his wife will then own this house for $50,000 total. He will then get a refinance (USBank and others offer a no-closing cost refi that is fairly simple) for $65,000 which will pay off the truck - leaving my friend with a house worth $90,000, a mortgage for only $65,000 and no truck payment - making his Debt-to-Income much more manageable and enter the world of a homeowner.

Hey, as everyone else said, just dive in. I went to my local library, which is connected with a dozen other libraries in the region, and over the course of a year I read every book on Real Estate they had - at least a hundred. Some were crap, some were great. I also found a lot of sites on amazon that sell books for under $1 (thriftbooks, etc) and you just pay shipping. Thats an excellent way to cheaply add books to your own library.

As for specifics, one of my favorite "well rounded" book was "The Unofficial Guide to Real Estate Investing" by Spencer Strauss. "Buy Low, Rent Smart, Sell High" by by Scott Frank, Andy Heller has a great easy plan for lease/options; and the richdad advisor book "The ABC's of real estate investing" by Ken McElroy was an excellent overview of apartment buying and building great wealth.

Then as Josh said, dive into the articles and forums here. Its great!

Hi, I've used PEX in several flips and rentals, and absolutely love the stuff.

I found that Home Depot caries a PEX tool which only costs $30, but requires the use of your Vise Grips (which most handymen should have several). I found this tool works great, but takes a lot more muscle to work (to squeeze the copper ring closed). But for those who don't mind the extra work, its a cheaper way to go but works well.

Also, I've been able to completely re-supply an entire house (with a crawlspace) in half a day - without a single leak. I don't think even professional plumbers can say that with copper.

I've spent a few months reading articles from the site, and more recently the forums. I thought it was time I actually signed up.

Banking. Its been great to learn how underwriters think in doing a loan. To come at it from that direction is neat. Maybe I'll write a blog or article or something on it sometime. But learning how to get loans approved by getting all the numbers lined up will greatly impact me - such as making sure Debt-to-income is okay, learning how to boost credit scores, the simple fact that business credit cards don't report on one's personal credit report (except the initial inquiry) unless its in default, which then can incredibly effect Debt-to-income because no other creditor will know I have $10,000 of debt on a home depot commercial card, and more.

Hi there anyone and everyone. My name is Brandon, and the lovely lady in my photo is my beautiful bride Heather. I started flipping a house (fix & flip) to make some extra money to go backpack Europe for a summer - but ended up spending all the money on my wedding. So rather than Europe (which I am still planning), I found a career and so much more. I fell in love with every aspect of real estate, read every book my library had on it, and then just jumped in. Recently I ended up taking a part time job as a Banker to pay the bills, which has given me a whole new perspective as well. But I'm now a landlord of several properties, fixing up two in my spare time to maybe sell, and trying to learn everything I can.