All Forum Posts by: Brian Lo

@Austin Monroe Thanks! I’m in Long Beach, CA. How about you?

Investment Info:

Condo buy & hold investment.

Longer stay rental

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Longer stay rental fits our investment strategy because it's not as short term as Airbnb and not long term renting.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

It's taken about 32 hours (and counting) for my wife and I furnish and stage our property. The process definitely goes faster when you have a partner you can trust.

Margo C. Thank you for the tip on the reia group and the upcoming topic. I'll probably check one of them out. Francis Mendoza yes, that's a good reminder That's definitely another step I need to investigate.

Margo C. Thank you for the tip on the reia group and the upcoming topic. I'll probably check one of them out.

Hi BP,

I'm a budding investor and am considering investing into pre-foreclosures. I'm interested in pre-foreclosures because I might have some current skills that might be transferable to this industry. I currently work full time in hospice as a chaplain and occasionally help families through times of crisis, grief, loss; feelings I imagine might be felt by a homeowner going through default. I figure I could use my skills to help homeowners out of their predicament. And as such, I'm open to considering offering these skills in partnership with someone else who is doing pre-foreclosures.

I'm hoping to learn more from investors engaged in purchasing pre-foreclosures in the Los Angeles area. I'd like to know what the business is like, is it still a good niche to be in, how to get started, etc. 

So far I've only read "The Pre-Foreclosure Property Investor's Kit, " by Thomas Lucier (2005). It was a really good book because it provided a lot of great details on the pre-foreclosure process and very easy to read. The only downside is it's 10 years old now and I'm sure things have changed since then. Does anyone have any book and/or other  resource recommendations on the subject? I can't seem to find other such focused books on pre-foreclosures.

I'd appreciate any thoughts, recommendations, advice on my situation/requests. Feel free to respond to this thread or PM me. Thanks for reading this!

@Steven RofferI started by reading "Rich Dad, Poor Dad," a great first book on opening one's horizons on how to look at investing. Then I perused "The Real Estate Game," and "Real Estate from A to Z." 

I also took a free online intro to real estate investment course through the County of Los Angeles (https://education.gale.com/l-down54663/classroom.h...). I really enjoyed this course because it gave both a broad and detailed view of real estate investing. I highly recommend it. 

I also benefited from attending two local REIA groups. It was good just to be around and listen to other investors.

Like I said, I'm a real newcomer to investing and I know there's a lot more out there in terms of education that doesn't cost a lot of money. I'd also just talk to other people around you who might know something about investing and they might be able to point you to resources. And of course, check BP. There really is a lot of information on it.

@Steven RofferSteven, I'm also a newbie investor and am thus far getting a very inexpensive yet comprehensive education on real estate investing through BP, checking out books from the library, reading online and talking to others. I totally agree with @Jon Huber

I highly recommend listening to the BP podcasts. There's one podcast (I'm sorry I can't remember the episode) where the guest talked about all of the free resources available. One such resource is the Yale Open course on finance. I'm listening to that course right now and am learning a ton! I recommend doing a search through the BP site to find it.

All the money that I've spent so far has been on @Brandon Turnerbook on getting started with "No (or low) money down" and a few bucks on some registration fees to local REIA groups. I say save your money for putting it to work on your first deal.

Good luck and let us know if we can help out further.

@Tina C.Welcome to BP! I, too, am a newbie investor and I live close by in Carson. I share a similar hope to invest locally as well.

I've found the BP community to very helpful. I attended my first REIA meeting (FIBI in Long Beach) two weeks ago and asked for any advice on what I should expect and I got some great pointers!

I'm getting a great education through the BP podcasts, their books and reading books from the library.

Best of luck to you!

Brian

I went to the REIA last night and it was a huge education. I realized that I am severely hampered by not knowing all of the real estate and business terminology because I was lost on a lot of concepts. I didn't know about: P & L, notes, equity, amortization, and more.

The people were nice but I still found it kind of daunting to step out of my comfort zone to introduce myself to people. I did manage to talk to about six different people and learn about their businesses and to get their cards.

I got the feeling that some of the attendees are regulars and will circulate about the various REIA groups because some mentioned how they recognized each other.

@Paul Timmins I took you advice and got there early. That's when I was really able to talk and have good conversations with people. That was a great tip! Your guide to the agenda helped me be more comfortable with the evening because I knew what to expect. There was time at the beginning to network, the presentation (there was no pitching/sales), followed by more networking. I took a moment at the very end of the evening to introduce myself to the organizer. He was really nice and offered to talk to me over the phone sometime later. I pointed out to him that his personal email to invite me the REIA really encouraged me to take a chance and attend.

I did my best to just be relaxed and to learn as much as I could. I realize to get into this business requires a huge amount of knowledge. I'm going to have to keep reading and education to get into this business.

Gentlemen, thank you so much for your help! Please let me know if there's anything that I could do for you.

@Chad Clanton you make a good point about not over emphasizing being a newbie and just talking shop. Thanks to you and @MICHAEL YBARRA for the reassurance and the encouragement to just be relaxed about tonight. It helps to put my nerves more at ease.