All Forum Posts by: Bryan Clement

thanks @Colleen F., that's a good idea. Would it be possible for me to get the bill for the oil, but then add it to their monthly rent? I want to be able to keep my house above freezing in the winter if they can't pay their oil bill. Burst pipes are not fun! 

Hi BP!

So my wife and I decided to rent out our house. One of my concerns was the heating oil currently in the tank. I am on automatic delivery so at the end of the year the oil company filled it up. When you rent a house out, do you pass this cost onto the tenant somehow? Or do you just eat $1,000 in oil? Thanks! 

@Maria Luna just listen to Josh Dorkin on the older podcasts. Enough said! :)

trucks are great! Get one if you can afford it! I can't, so I looked to other options. I got a 2012 Jeep Liberty and a small trailer, and just that change has been night and day different for me. Truck would be better though! 

@Branden Sewell You need to have the full picture. Commercially, if you do a rehab yourself (you're listed as a contractor) you could potentially get 100% financing if you add enough sweat-equity to have 20% of the value in the deal added. This is rather difficult to find though as you have to add square footage typically. Residential, you could do an FHA on a multi-family or single family, but you'd have to have between 3-5% down, but that may be your cheapest route. The other problem is your credit, and the deal. You typically have to have two of the three. If you have money and a deal you can usually get someone to lend to you. If you have no money but a good deal with a good credit score, then you may be able to find someone.

it's interesting to me that so many people think the 401k is still viable. I could see a solo-401k or self-directed IRA being profitable, but by and large the 401k doesn't work anymore, simply because of the sheer numbers of people that are doing it. Large, above average profits are possible in a fund at first, but as a fund gets too big and buys up all the good stock or bonds, naturally the fund becomes either overinvested in one niche, or has to take the excess money and apply it into other stocks that aren't as profitable. Thus, the bigger the fund, or the bigger the amount of money placed in a fund, the faster the fund's returns regress to the norm. Warren Buffett cited this as the reason he closed his investment fund. With Real Estate, the opposite is true, the larger the scale, the bigger the profit potential. Thus, the 401k is dead, as is any stock market fund in general at this point.

Wondering what the BP universe thinks of going into business with family? I've heard everything from, "that's a horrible idea" to "that's feasible, but be careful" to "my first source of capital is my father-in-law" 😳. Anyone have any insight into this?