All Forum Posts by: Chris Jordon

Hey BP,

After much fear and hesitation I'm finally taking the big step and purchasing my first investment property! I've decided to go small multi-family (2 to 4 unit) and I've began looking at properties in Nashville, TN and surrounding areas in both Rutherford and Davidson County. While utilizing sites like Trulia and Zillow, I haven't stumbled across many properties worth getting too excited about but I did happen to find one that I liked. After doing some research in my local tax assessor's records, I was surprised to see you can access a great deal of information from their database. A couple of those bits were the city's appraisal and assessed values which leads me to my first question. How thorough and therefore accurate are the appraisal values conducted by the city? Secondly, understanding that cash flow typically plays a significant role in multi-family and commercial property, how does one go about determining if a property's asking price is fair/reasonable? Thanks in advance for any members who take the time to read and shed some insight!

@Matt Devincenzo @Mike D'Arrigo Thanks for taking the time to chime in! Matt thanks for bringing to my attention the information about it being "owner occupant" and having to stay for a minimal of a year. Would you advise to pursue this route to grasp a better viewpoint of the entire process for the first property or should I explore other loan options so that I'm not as tied up?

@Andy Collins @Andy Chu @Wayne Brooks Thank you all for taking the time to share some knowledge. Unfortunately, I figured that was going to be the verdict. While getting started I would prefer to take advantage of the benefits that the FHA loans provide so I guess the LLC will have to wait.

Congrats @DuRon Netsell on getting that first flip under your belt! It really looks great man. I'm looking to purchase my first property this summer once I have some more time available.Wish you much success! Also, as @Joshua Dorkin mentioned I'd love to hear more about the numbers.

Hey Bigger Pockets:

I'm considering forming an LLC to protect my business partner and I as we inch closer to beginning our REI journey. We are looking to start with purchasing buy and hold property and hopefully using a 203k loan to finance repair cost for the first property or two. The question I have is, by us forming an LLC will that exclude us from some of the lower interest rate loans such as FHA: 203k and Home Path?

Welcome Stephen!

We are in similar shoes as we both share a vision of being self-employed while still having the ability to achieve wealth via REI. You have definitely stumbled across an amazing tool to get you started on your way! Bigger Pockets literally has TONS of information located on various parts of the site and really great people who are more than eager to help. My first few days I felt a bit overwhelmed because there was so much information to choose from but my advice would be to just dive in and start clicking. If you haven't checked out the bigger pockets book, The Ultimate Beginners Guide to Real Estate Investing I would definitely recommend adding it to the reading list. It's full of great info that will aid you in creating a solid foundation of REI knowledge. Best of luck to you man!

@Bryan L. I know they have what's known as a "mini mester". To my understanding it's what or very similar to what you describe. They're actually pretty common around most campuses nowadays due to the high volume of non-traditional students. Are you considering blowing the dust off the ol' textbooks?

@Bryan L. After the last couple seasons they've had I respect you for actually admitting that!

@Mike D'Arrigo

@Mike D'Arrigo Thanks a lot for the welcome. I will most definitely be in touch!

@Bryan L. Hey, with age comes wisdom so I'm envious. Oh, you're an Alumni of War Eagles. I think due to my Roll Tide ties I could get in trouble for this conversation. We could have brought back the hardware against FSU, just saying, ha!

Bryan: I attend UAH (University of Alabama-Huntsville). I've also spent years in various parts of TN (Nashville, Tullahoma, Knoxville) so judging by your Cookeville location we've been neighbors a couple of times.

Chris: Great name man ha! Next time your around the way and have some free time shoot me an email. Would love to get a chance to pick your brain!