All Forum Posts by: Corby Goade

Hi Andy- In true BP fashion, I had some investors contact me and offer help- some of it very useful. However, in the meantime, a great deal sort of fell into my lap right here in my area, so I jumped on that and am out of the market for a few months. I may get back on the bandwagon and take another look at Indy in the fall. If you come across anything enlightening, please keep me in the loop. Best of luck!

Hi Jacob-

Best of luck from Boise! Looking forward to updates on your progress.

Hey Trio- First of all, it's great that you have prioritized your education. I wouldn't jeopardize that, so keep on track there. 

There are options for you- getting your first couple loans is much easier than it will be as you get older. There are programs out there for first time home buyers- you can pay VERY little down. I'm not an expert on the Chicago market, but from what I've seen you should be able to get into your first duplex, maybe event your first couple duplexes, for just a few thousand dollars. Where it gets tough, especially if you aren't working full time, is that banks don't give you much credit for rental income, which makes your debt to income ratio look undesirable, at least in their eyes. 

I'd recommend a couple things- work a flexible job where you can earn tips- deliver pizzas, maybe drive an Uber, something like that where you can build up a few thousand bucks in cash for a down payment over a few months. In conjunction, start a relationship with a regional bank or credit union where they understand what your goals are. I'll bet if you connect with some other investors from Chicago on here, they will be able to recommend a few banks for you to check out. If a bank knows and trusts you, they may offer you in house products that have a little more flexibility than a conventional mortgage. It wouldn't hurt to find another local investor that you can do some grunt work for in exchange for some mentoring. 

In any occasion, keep reading and learning. There are infinite ways to be involved in real estate and you can never know too much. Best of luck!

@Trio Martinez, sounds like you have an idea of how you'd like to start. My two cents would be to find a duplex near the university and live in one side and rent the other out. A duplex might be more expensive, but you have to keep in mind that the income from the other side will offset your expenses. In my area, if you are patient, it's possible to buy a duplex where one side will almost pay the entire mortgage. Imagine if you went to college for four years, and moved into another duplex each year? When you graduated, you'd already have passive income from 8 units. That's a great start.

If I could do it all over again, I'd house hack. Buy a duplex or a four plex. Live in one unit, rent out the rest. Learn how to be a landlord and how to fix stuff around the house- basic plumbing, electrical, etc. They buy another duplex/fourplex, live in one of those units, etc. If you buy smart and do this four or five times, you should be in pretty good shape. 

I don't have a list of five things that I look for. Regular and honest communication with the owner and tenant are essential. Some property management companies forget that the tenant is their customer too. If tenants aren't treated with respect, they'll leave, which is expensive for an owner. 

What are you planning to do? Flip? Buy and hold? Wholesale? Lots of ways to make money, but you should focus on one and learn everything you can. Once you are comfortable, if you have the interest and drive, you can try another strategy. Best of luck!

I am actually dealing with the exact same problem in my personal home right now. While $15K seems very high, keep in mind, cutting the concrete, trenching, installing the new drains and replacing the concrete is very labor intensive and very messy. You've had a couple people suggest trenching outside and running the sewer line around the house, which would be the least invasive and probably least expensive solution. If you can operate a shovel, saw and ABS glue, you could probably do the job yourself for the $150 mentioned above. However, there is a possibility of pipe bursting- have you checked in to this? Basically, a machine will pull a new drain under your slab at the same time it is destroying your old cast iron ones. It would require much less concrete cutting and it's much less messy. Just Google "pipe bursting Wylie Tx," and get some bids. Best of luck!

Section 8 has not treated me very well. The guaranteed rent is nice, but I've never really had trouble collecting rent from non-section 8 tenants anyhow. In my neck of the woods, the housing authority sends an inspector out to every section 8 property every year. Any time there was damage that the tenants did to my property (holes in the wall, broken locks, etc) the housing authority withheld rent until I fixed it. In my experience, the section 8 tenants didn't have to pay their own rent, so they didn't value the property, it was "free." I am sure there are great section 8 tenants out there, I just don't have the time or energy to weed them out.

I write into every lease that the tenants must have a professional carpet cleaner come service the house when they move out, and they must provide me with the reciept. 

I do most of my maintenance myself, but carpet cleaning is not one of those things. If it must be done, it is one of the simplest and least expensive things to hire out. I'd happily pay a pro to come do the job.