All Forum Posts by: Bob Ewoldt

Thanks, @David Beard and @J Scott I read somewhere that ~1.72% of mortgages default, so I've been using that as a mortgage risk percentage in my Excel formulas (as an added monthly expense), but I was hoping there was a more accurate way to do it. I guess if you invest conservatively enough (as you were saying, David), then you should come out OK in any case.

All, I'm new to real estate investing, but I'm good with numbers (I am an accountant). Here's my newbie question...

I listen to Dave Ramsey regularly (and I see that there are several on here that do as well), and he recommends buying investment real estate without debt. When I run the numbers on deals that I see, I see much higher returns with a modest down payment than buying with cash.

I know that there's a risk factor overall, but I can't find anywhere that says how to calculate mortgage risk into your deals.

Questions:

1. Is there a formula for risk when evaluating a RE deal?
2. I've seen people on this forum say that putting all your money into one property is risky, but couldn't the opposite also be true (that dividing your personal and business focus on multiple properties is also risky)?

I would say that the out of state owners are more likely to produce deals (as a whole), because there are added headaches of living out of state over living in the same city.