All Forum Posts by: Christa S Rickard

I'm glad to read this from someone with experience. I've been looking for my first investment property for about six months in Tampa and it's a challenge because everything is overpriced for my criteria. I have read a lot about the brrrr strategy on this forum since I joined over a year ago. I understand using debt to leverage growth, but at the same time I root for the tortoise when he races the hare. My compromise is to use the brrrr strategy but only leverage up to 60% of the property. I would rather take out a smaller amount of equity and grow my portfolio as opposed to leveraging up to 80% and having to deal with higher mortgages and a looming recession. 

Again, I have yet to actually buy my first investment property, but I'm relieved to see my planned approach used successfully by an experienced investor.

@Michael Lawrence Congrats on the find. Looking forward to hear how this progresses for you.

Hi @Adam Tafel. I'm in Tampa and would like to add a few comments about @Account Closed's suggestion of Moffitt Cancer Center. They are considered the best cancer center in the state, so a lot of people with cancer go there. They have a few smaller units around Tampa but their main location is right on USF campus. So buying near there means dealing with a bunch of college kids. It's also about a 20 min drive to downtown, which may be further away than you want. On the upside, USF is only a few minutes drive to Busch Gardens and Adventure Island (a water park). There is a MOSI nearby as well.
There are a bunch of restaurants along Fowler Ave near USF and a few along Fletcher (USF sits between Fowler and Fletcher). University Hospital is across the street from USF campus too.   

 Todd, 

I didn't say that Sense Financial was a bank. I said that Dmitriy recommended a bank. I chose Solera for the bank to house my solo 401k.

I did a bunch of research on this topic as I had never heard of a solo 401K until I came to BiggerPockets. I ended up choosing Sense Financial to help me set it up. Dimitri is on here quite frequently but you can also look up him or his company on Bigger Pockets or on the web. I believe he gives a discount for BiggerPockets Pro members. He explained how the process works, sent me all the documents that I needed to fill out, and commended a bank that will handle the bank account part. Dimitri also got the EIN number, filed all the paperwork to initially establish the account, and takes care of filing the annual IRS paperwork to maintain it. All I do is manage the money in the account, meaning use it to buy investments. That's something I personally like about using his company. And why I would strongly suggest that you find a company that does this as a business. There are too many legal requirements and documents that you have to deal with to use a solo 401k. I would much rather pay a fee for somebody who knows how to do it and takes care of that stuff for me so I stay compliant, instead of getting in trouble with the IRS and my investments and losing tons of money as a result.

Dimitri has been wonderful and I would highly recommend his company, Sense Financial. I've tried to at him in this post a couple times, for some reason my tablet will not pull up any names so I can create a link. But you can do a search on him and you should find him pretty easily. There are a few other companies who just do solo 401k set up and maintenance as well. I recommend that you find a company that just does that and let them handle all of the legality of paper work and filings so you can focus on investing.

I have yet to buy my first property, but I live in Tampa and I've been looking in the Tampa and Lakeland areas. What everyone is told you thus far is correct. You are not going to find a quad in the 200s. If they existed, I already would have bought them! I did look at some duplexes in Lakeland that were listed in the mid 100s, but they were all in really bad areas.

I just registered for the BP Conference in October. This is my first real estate investing conference. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. 

I think a few ladies posted earlier about possibly meeting up at the conference. If so, count me in!

@Jeff Jansen another deal already? That is awesome! Keep it up.

@Janice Williams. I'm the same - still looking for that first property. I also want to stay local for the first few just so I gain some experience with the process. After that, though, I also plan to expand into other markets.

Message me if you want to meet sometime and compare notes.

Hi @Marisa Alvarez, @Katrina Moseley, and @Janice Williams. It's great to find some local women investors. Do you all invest locally or in other markets?