All Forum Posts by: Brandon Pelfrey

@Dustin Ruff thank you for starting this thread, I was literally just thinking the exact same thing when I came across it. I love hearing everyone's stories and successes, it's super motivating to me and helps me stay focused. However, I really appreciate hearing the back sorry behind how successful investors got to the point where they got started. I'm 26 and hungry for success in real estate. My wife and I got married while we were pretty early on in college and by the time we finished school about 4 months ago we had a 2 year old and a newborn. I have a sales job in Boise and my wife stays home with the kids, I also run a small window cleaning operation in the evenings and on the weekends. We graduated with about $20k in student loan debt between the two of us and a small car loan of about $5k. Our goal is to house hack a small multi family (3 or 4 units) by April of 2018 and use that as a tool to save up and payoff debt and snowball up to more units. We've got a long road ahead of us, but we're a solid team and are willing to do what it takes!

(Disclaimer: I'm definitely anewbie, so sorry if this question is elementary) I've done some reading about using creative financing, however I recently spoke with a loan officer about different ways that I could get a specific deal financed and her told me that it is illegal to get any financial assistance for your down payment (i.e. if you're going to get a mortgage on a property 100% of the down payment has to be your own money that got earned and cannot be money that was gifted or borrowed). Can anyone validate this? And what are some ways you have used creative financing to get a deal done?

Thank you all for your responses! It sounds as though it basically confess down to the fact that cash buyers are easier and more convenient to deal with (no need to get approval, official inspection or appraisal is not a necessity, less probability that the buyer will back out last minute)

This is totally a newbie question, but what difference does it make for the seller if the buyer is paying all cash as opposed to the various ways the buyer can use to finance a purchase?

Thanks for sharing (especially for not leaving out the road blocks you ran into along the way). I must add as well that I think the overall positive response to your success is awesome, definitely glad to be part of such a positive, encouraging, and motivating online community.

What's the best way to get inherited tenants out of a property when you buy it?

Any advice, experiences, and knowledge of the potential legal pitfalls and ramifications would be much appreciated!

I've noticed that when a deal is advertised the seller almost always will mention that the unit(s) is already leased out as a benefit, however in the books I've read and the podcasts I've listened to investors have stressed the importance of not inheriting tenants.

I'm curious to know what people's experiences and two bits are on this, and maybe an explanation as to why sellers boast to have fully rented out units in their listings.

@Cody L. It looks like you've been able to go a long way in just 10 years, and that's very encouraging to me. And I really feel like the way to get through this main barrier of entry as a newbie is just like you said: just diving in and getting started.

Thanks for your response.

@Cody Stone Thanks for the advice and the encouragement! Do you ever do any multi-family deals in the area? If so, how do you go about finding those off-market deals (if different than the examples you gave in your reply)?

I am for sure a newbie with real estate. I have zero properties (I don't even own my own residential home) but I know that real estate investment is something I want to learn and succeed at. I am currently reading as many books as I can get my hands on, reading forums on BP, listening to the BP and other podcasts just about every day, trying my best to network, and trying to look at and analyze as many deals as possible, and trying to save up/increase my earnings aggressively for a down payment. My goal is to get into multi-family homes.

The desire is definitely there, however I am worried about how I can possibly compete with investors in my market who have more cash, financing, access to more deals, larger networks, and experience than me. I may be totally off, but it seems as though once a good deal comes around someone who really knows what they're doing will snag it fast before I get a chance.

Any advice, direction, commentary, or otherwise about how I can get my foot in the door and compete with the big players in the market will be much appreciated!