All Forum Posts by: David Burgess

It seems to be that the jump from 4 units to 5 units is significant in that the 5 unit is values on income, and not on comps.  I've been mulling over a strategy of finding or building 4 unit buildings house hacking to get conventional financing, and the converting it into 5 unit (add one), or 8 unit (two story units converted down to one up and one down).

I understand every market is different, and sometime comps on a 4 can bring a bigger return than income on a 5, but I just love the idea of having a better control over value with the commercial, especially if I can get the leverage of a conventional loan at the time of purchase.

Apart from zoning issues, and parking, what jumps out about this that makes this either a smart play, or really really dumb. :-)

Thanks,

David

I've scheduled lunch with a friend of the family who owns a successful Title and Escrow business.  As I'm finally ready to stop reading and listening long enough to start "doing" when it comes to investing, I wanted to hit him up with some basic questions that might help me on my way.  I'll list some of the questions I plan to ask below, but knowing that I don't know what I don't know.  If you had some time to bend the ear of a guy that knows the title  and escrow business in your area, and is sitting in the room on hundreds of closings a month, what questions would you ask? 

Questions I plan to ask so far:

What are you seeing the market in our area moving?

Are you investing, and if so what areas are you focusing on?

My ultimate goal is a complete investment business that Wholesaling, Flipping, and Buy and Hold.  (Letting each stage feed the next, but with enough volume to cherry pick best deals and sell of the remaining inventory.)  Do you know anyone doing this?  and followup, Who would you recommend I learn from in each of these areas?  Which area would you first focus on given your knowledge of the market at this time? 

In the past who was making money when the market moved up? down? stayed flat?

Besides answering questions, what kind of information is available to him on a regular basis, that would helpful me in my business?

As always, thanks for the your replies!!

Complete newbie here, but I'm struggling to understand the advantage of multiple properties that have small cash flow (due to loan repayment) vs a single property that is debt free with large debt flow.  Granted you can "control" more assets, but couldn't you parlay the large cash flow into another debt free property down the road that is also giving you high cash flow?  Everything I've heard and seen on the site so far, seems to suggest that you should keep acquiring as many properties as you can so long as they can generate enough cash flow to pay for themselves and give a modest return.  I'm sure I'm missing something, just curious what it is.  Thanks in advance for you consideration!

Hello!

I'm new to BiggerPocket, and real estate investing in general.  I know next to nothing, but thanks to the podcasts and the website, I'm learning more each day. 

... I mean, I have a network of investors, and own properties in all 52 states  :-)

A little about me:  I am married to the best wife in the world, and I have a good day job.  We are in our forties, debt free (except for our house, which we are making progress on paying off).  We haven't saved up as much as I would like for retirement, and that got me looking into investments, which led to passive income, which led to real estate, which led me here.  

I do have a newbie question, and while there may be a better place in the forum to ask it, I'll plead ignorance, and toss it our here.  I'm paranoid about debt and loosing my money, but even more so about losing someone else's money.  I hear everyone say that you can only get so far using your own money and personal loans before you have to start finding other sources of money to make deals.  Any stories about people buying rental properties with cash outright, and then parlaying the cash flow into the next property?  (Basically holding a single mortgage at a time, but putting everything into a fast payoff before getting the next property.)  I know it would be a big trade off in speed for security, and if something happens to the property, you've got all your eggs in one basket, just wondering is anyone was successful with this strategy?

I've been very happy to find this site, and I've really been enjoying the Biggerpockets podcasts. Glad to be here, thanks to Joshua and Brandon, all the blog posters, and podcast guests for the great information!!

Thanks,

David