All Forum Posts by: Christopher Giannino

I'm not a specialist so don't quote me on this but I'm pretty sure you can't 1031 exchange into a flip so definitely look into that.

Also, I think there's fees you will incur on the sale side of the transaction other than just the commission.

@Mike Bean

As some of the others have already stated, it's hard to be cash flow positive (at least in the North East markets) when occupying the property.  My thought would be if you can reduce your living expenses (I'm sure paying ~$350/month in your market is dirt cheap for rent), get some valuable experience as a landlord and start working on your systems to be able to scale up (assuming you want more rentals) then that's a win and should be something to consider even though you're not cash flow positive while living there.

Typically for house hacks, I run the property evaluations 2 different ways...  

1. Like how you did..  this will show you how much you will have to pay out of pocket while you live there.

2.  What the scenario will be when I move out.  If your intention is to only live there for a year or two, I would definitely put more weight on this calculation to make sure it makes sense as an investment.

Hopefully you find this helpful.  Best of luck!

I'm not an experienced investor by any means but I want to second what @Larry Turowski stated.  Lots of "base hits" can win games too!  

I feel as though many newbies are looking for these unicorn deals and never actually take action or get started.  I'm not saying to buy bad deals whatsoever but I feel like as a newbie with no experience, you should have different expectations of your returns than someone who has years upon years of experience. 

I don't have any specific referrals but just make sure that whatever course you end up picking is licensed by the State.  I've heard stories where someone goes through an online course and come to find out the program wasn't recognized by the State's real estate commission so it ended up being a waste their money and time.

I've seen a few posts here on BP about this subject and it seems like people's responses show that it really is all dependent upon your situation.  Some people respond with just focus on paying off your debt and then get into investing. Others suggest buying an asset who's cash flow will cover your debt payment.  Some of the factors to consider... What is your risk tolerance?  What is your loans interest rates?  What are your future goals? etc.

For what its worth, my opinion is just pay off the student loans since you say you can pay it off in 4 months.  4 months is nothing in the grand scheme of your investing career and then you'll be debt free (from student loans at least) and have more monthly cash flow to put towards investing.

At the end of the day, the fact that you're thinking about how best to treat this debt is a good sign.  Best of luck!

@Michael Ciesielski

I second everything @Kevin S. just stated.  To me, the biggest thing about pets is making sure there's no clauses in your insurance policy for not allowing a certain type of animal or breed.

Do you have a personal residence? If you do, you can use the equity in that property as collateral and open up a HELOC (assuming you have equity of course.)

@Tyler Fike 

I'd also consider maybe joining a team at first.  Although the pre-licensing class teaches you real estate, the class doesn't necessarily touch on all of the important parts of being a successful agent.  By joining a top-producing team, you will get to learn hands on how to be successful in this business.

Just as a FYI.. team settings don't work for everyone though so that's a decision you'll have to make yourself.   

@Michael Doherty

What's your background and experience level?  For what it's worth, my personal opinion is if you don't come from a construction background and you haven't done many deals it would be totally worth the $500 for the inspection (assuming you don't use the same inspector from last year) because something you didn't initially pick up on which could be a deal breaker to you may present itself in the home inspection report.  If this should happen, you can make a decision on whether to walk away from the deal or ask for some sort of assistance.

I know you said it's an as-is sale and you don't expect them to do anything to help (which is usually the case) but I'm currently working with a client of mine who's buying a bank owned foreclosure.  Bank is selling the property as-is and after the home inspection report came back we were able to negotiate $10k as a credit on top of an already extremely discounted property.  We realized the bank was very eager and motivated to sell so we figured we'd at the very least ask for money because the worst thing they could of said was no.  Who would of thought we'd be able to pull that one off.   Moral of the story, it's always worth a shot to ask...

@Nelly R.

I'm a local real estate agent in the area and I'd be happy to connect to talk with you more about everything.  Feel free to shoot me a PM.