All Forum Posts by: Chris LumLee

Welcome from Hawaii!

I'm not particularly a fan of services. What I would do- not trying to push, just giving an alternative- is read up on how to repair credit. And it's usually the same stuff anyway like pay your bill on time, lower your credit card usage, stuff like that. And in time when you fix your numbers your score will jump quick.

I think that's more than the "American Dream". I'd say that you're a case study that aspiring real estate investors should learn from and emulate.

For me, it's trust. I have trust issues so one of my property management companies I don't trust at all. I also don't trust that the tenants will stay long-term so I tend to pay more on my loan payments to try to pay down the balance even though the opportunity cost is that I won't have a bigger cushion for set-asides.

I was curious about this myself. Thank you all for the responses.

I would say look outside and look at (dollar-for-dollar) cheaper jurisdictions. I live in Hawaii so for me the only way to get into real estate with reasonable prices would be to invest outside.

I keep track of all my expenses myself using Excel. Just record date, transaction, and amount, and the last column would be for what the net total is after initial investment plus returns. OR you could look it up on Google for templates. That's usually a pretty good resource.

My goals every year are all financial. Usually it's to build up various assets I have- stocks, IRA, deferred comp, purchase another rental property, etc. For 2019, I'm on the fence because I might take some money I have saved for another down payment on a rental and use it to support a business I'm trying to buy.

In any case, I keep track using a spreadsheet and along the year I dig deep and save what I can. Saving money by either eating peanut butter sandwiches during the day or go to bars that sell $1 beer instead of regularly-priced beer. That kind of stuff.

I have a rental in Regent Park (48205). I may be looking again soon...not sure yet.

 What she said. Hawaii is a paradise for people gaming the system.