All Forum Posts by: Christopher Copley

If you are looking to buy multiple properties under a LLC, you may want to look at a series LLC. However, having an LLC can have its own drawbacks from a financing perspective. Obviously, consult with a RE attorney before doing anything.

There's a few things you can to set yourself up well for the future:

1. Invest in REITs (or a REIT ETF). Use a brokerage that charges no commissions.

2. Get a secured credit card and use it at least once/month to start a credit history.

3. Get a small personal loan and see if the lending institution will allow you to secure through a savings account or CD (in the amount of the loan).

4. See if a parent or family member with good credit will add you as an authorized user. This may allow you to inherit their payment and credit utilization history. 

5. Work with others in your community who have flipped houses. Learn the skill set needed to identify what buyers want and how to do the work. This should also help you build local connections.

6. Learn about real estate capital markets, as they have a huge impact on flipping. In a poor economy, flippers can do substantially worse.

As others have said, you can set it in a high yield savings account. Depending on the amount and consistency of your income, you can also look at establishing a CD ladder. You'll lock money away for longer, but over time you'll earn more and can have CDs expiring at a set interval in case you need to fund some repairs or a new purchase.

The first thing is to get an honest assessment of where she stands in terms of her credit score, overall debt, and interest rates per card. Then, determine a budget with her and figure out what she can afford to pay toward that debt each month. After that, assuming you go the consolidated personal loan route, you can get quotes from a variety of lenders using a service like Lending Tree. 

You can also call the credit card companies and explain the situation to see if they can help her. There are also nonprofit credit card counseling companies out there who can help you.

If it's a psychological burden for you and/or you can use the money that was going toward your monthly payment to grow your net worth, then go for it.

100% max out the Roth IRA. After you have the Roth for five tax years (if you opened one in 2017, then 2019 would be your third year), then you have pull out all of your contributions, plus the first $10,000 in earnings, tax and penalty free for a down payment. Of course, if you go the VA loan route, this may change your thinking. The Roth is a great way to invest tax free and you can pull out your contributions at any time.

This is great. I imagine that putting historical and comparative data into a dashboard-like tool would generate a lot of interest here. My only suggestions would be to start with a "US Average" line and add data other key socioeconomic data (median salary, % with bachelor's degree, etc.).

Also, Toledo is on there twice.

When analyzing trends, specific markets, or individual deals, what non-financial data do you use (if any)? Are sites like the US Census Data or the Realtor.com public data useful? Do you follow news like CNBC's real estate page?

Thanks for the greetings and the suggestions. I'm still building my plan as I put together my funds and determine my risk tolerance, but I have considered both. I have a few other ideas, but I'm being methodical and patient for the right opportunities. 

Hi everyone. My name is Chris and I currently live in Manhattan. The market here is ridiculous at the moment, so I am exploring a few options, including house hacking in either Westchester or Nassau County and/or looking at out of state options. For the latter, my current plan is to focus on areas where there is a growing millennial population and a need for affordable housing. 

I currently work in financial derivative compliance and regulation, so hopefully my specialized knowledge will be of benefit to the community at large. I have undergrad degrees in History and Finance, so I have an unusual skill set. I'm starting law school this fall, with the aim of creating my own practice partly focused on real estate, and I am excited to help others and learn a few things myself. 

My experience with real estate is part personal investing in publicly traded REITs, part classes from my Finance degree, and part derivatives based from my current job. I'd like to expand into rentals and house hacking over the next year, but I am patient and will wait for the right opportunity.