All Forum Posts by: Carrie Carlton

Hey ya'll I am a current investor in Middle TN looking to break into the Memphis Market.

This is so far off. First, Dave Ramsey is the high school education of financial literacy. 

Secondly, most wealthy people understand the power of leverage. 

 No one is going to get wealthy doing the envelope system.  Fortune favors the bold. Also Dave Ramsey is a cult leader.

So my story will hopefully give you some perspective. I graduated with 145k in student loans with a 6.8% interest rate.  I unfortunately HATED my career so I had some serious hustle fueled by hate. 

I invested in rental property AND paid on my student loans. Looking back this  was definitely the correct decision for myself. 

I lived very frugally and house hacked while also making decent payments on my student loans. I would save up 10k or sometimes borrowing 20k from a family member for a down payment on a rental property. I would pay the family member after I  was able to get the rehab done and refinance out. 

It was a risky play but it worked out for me. Eventually 5 years later my student loan balance was down to 60k and my first rental property  had appreciated 80k over what I paid for it so I refinanced that house pulled out 60k and paid off my remaining balance on my student loans. Now 8 years later all that risk and serious hustle has paid off. My student loans are gone (the renters are paying them now🤣). 

I make a nice cash flow now from my rentals, that work has truly become optional for me. I have done some stupid things in my life (like getting 6 figures in student loans for a career I hated), but my approach to buying rental property and paying hefty amounts on my student loans was a stroke of genius.

I live in Nashville TN. I just purchased our forever home and closed on 9/22/20. It was common knowledge that our property taxes were going to be increased by 34% and we were going to have a tax reassessment. 

This week we received via the mail for our updated tax assessment and bill for 2020. The total bill for 2020 was $2759. I went to our closing paperwork and noticed that the title company only credited us $859 from the seller for property taxes from 1/1/20 to 9/22/20. This left us to pay $1900 for the period of possession from 9/23/20 to 12/20/20. 

I contacted the title company and explained the situation to them. Their response was that when they asked the city for the tax assessment the new assessments were not available and they went by "what the city told them". 

I have been in real estate for 8 years and am always dumbfounded when I find new ways to screw myself. If anyone has any pointers I would greatly appreciate it. 

I am going to reach out to the seller to ask them to pay the difference, but imagine this will be met with silence. This just seems like this SHOULD be addressed by some kind of errors and omission paperwork in the closing papers, but I have been met with dismissal when I have asked for help from the title company

Hey Alex! My husband worked for Gannett for 7 years at the design studio in Nashville.  He was rehired after the layoffs, but we decided it was time to make a change. He went into web development and so far so good. Over the year that he was retraining, he managed our real estate in Nashville. I have several friends in  RE that have started looking (and investing) in Chattanooga.  I would like to make a trip down there for a meet up.

I am familiar with Nashville and can help you out with areas, but I think finding a cash flowing deal will be difficult.  Maybe get on some wholesalers list? Let me know if I can help. 

Why 500 units? I have always found it perplexing that the number of units seems to be a quick and dirty test to determine ones success in real estate. 500 units sounds like a headache to me, but I guess if it was an apartment complex with good management... I think this may be worth a discussion on another thread.

I guess my point is how much money do you need to make your financial freedom number? Figure that out then start making deals. I am confident you can make that number with 5 units or up to 100. It depends on cash flow, financing terms, and what your number is. Start small, have short term goals then go forward.

Also, real estate is a lot about networking. I recommend joining REIN Nashville. 

Good Luck!

I need to research the opportunity zone situation.  I still don't really understand it. 

 I am on surgery leave for 4 weeks. I am not quite mobile yet. Shoot me an email and we can set up a time to chat. My email is on my profile page. Was not able to post here. Thanks!

Congrats!  I sold you this deal. I walked through this after you were done. I can't believe you did all you did with 75k? I have a similar house around the corner. We should talk some time.