All Forum Posts by: Mark Cruse

I think most of those are included within the high influx of newbies that roll through who are not serious. They come in with fancy spread sheets, break downs, proformas or cool looking power points with pictures and graphs. They respond to a few questions then never heard from them again. Overall its part of the get rich quick generations. Sounds cool and trendy to say and believe you will fire your boss in a few months from REI. Others are getting sucked in from gurus promising this after a 20k bootcamp. Then they finally get hit with reality and understand it's not easy, so they move on to the next thing like selling cruises or bitcon.

Not enough details so most of the answers will be general. However, one concern with newbies is attempting to self-manage in high crime areas. High crime is sort of relative and varies from person to person. However, if it's truly one of those communities that has very high crime and difficult to attract any descent tenants, it can lead to disaster. If you don't understand the dynamics of these communities, it can sink you. Most in BP, from many responses I see do not have to ability to navigate this. If you don't fully understand screening or the culture, dealing with the wrong people will lead to mass turnover. Constantly evicting people is expensive for a variety of reason and sinks profit. In addition, the wrong people will destroy things and there could be high theft. Over and over, you can be constantly evicting and replacing appliances and doing major repairs. Now, if you are familiar with this type of investing it can be very lucrative and literally lead to vast wealth. 

You also have to take into considerations things like appreciation levels and the current condition. Suppose you have several high end, major repairs in the near future? That, combined with hidden repairs combined with self-managing a low income could all construe to thousands in losses. 

Good Luck. 

You should provide more details! 

Not sure why suggesting a person utilize an off-market strategy is bad. Why does the person have to know how to do it? I understand the concept of it, but I have received plenty of decent off market deals from legitimate wholesalers. Things have tightened up everywhere so it's not as it was in the day, but without question, many people became wealthy on both sides with an off-market approach. The problem comes in just like with anything else; any and everyone tries the same thing. Many untrained or incompetent people jump in. Now, a wholesaler can present a wack deal and the newbie investor not knowing any better buys them. This is driving up prices for everything. However, if you understand the numbers and what you are looking at, you can still run across stuff smashing the MLS stuff. Just depends on your experience level and the network you have. Same thing happened with short term rentals and everything else. People all jump in and saturate the market. Is what it is.

In most cases, unless you are dealing with family or something like that, no serious investor lender is going to put up their funds when you have nothing in yourself. In addition, you have no experience. No private lender I know would come close to that. Flipping is hard and has a high failure rate even with experienced people. How it typically works, you would have to come up with 20 percent. Experienced lenders understand the numbers and would only rock with a nice spread, giving them room to recoup their funds. They take possession of the property in foreclosure. Your 20 percent is gone and has opened up more of the equity for them in an exit strategy. However, most lenders have no desire to deal with that which is why they work with experienced and proven investors they are confident will drive the project to its finish. 

I she is not satisfied with 100k at 26 I sincerely doubt she will like real estate. 

Great problem to have. Id refinance, pull that equity and get something else. Probably would be something very distressed in a decent area so I could add value. But for real, its so many angles here. So many have presented great options. Nothing more to add from me outside of saying job well done. 

My team is great. The only thing Im not so sure about is the communal large bottles of shampoo and conditioner left in the shower. They also leave a communal bottle of hand soap. Do people like the individual hotel like bottles and soap? Should I put in a soap dispenser in the shower? Not sure if Im over thinking it and people dont care or maybe one I day get a bad hit. I have never had a bad review on that and not sure anyone else they take care of have. 

I never thought about adding spices. thanks

I used to accept cash back in they day from the hood. I know, not the greatest idea. Now, I do zelle or they directly drop it in Navy Federal. 

Basic economics. In most cases that's where the money is. In Baltimore you have incredible cash flow and very low entry points. Close to DC. In DC you can amass astronomical appreciation. Also, in some of these areas you have the most educated, sophisticated big money people in close proximity. My property in St Mary's County or West Va not so much. In essence, because of large populations to include many less fortunate, those tough laws are enacted as a shield against grimmy landlords in the first place. That's just how it goes. 

So may newbies come in with their spreadsheets, calculations and declarations about firing their boss in 3 years. Rarely does that ever happen. From what I see, if people ever do that its way down the line. There are so many dynamics and moving parts to this that must go right just to be half *** successful. If you dont like the idea of house hacking Id say maybe start with a duplex or something and maybe work up to a small multi unit. Its easy to map these things out on paper but hard to execute because its a hard business. If the average person could give up their W2 in 3 years most would do it. Start small, learn to manage and operate, then you can see where you are eventually in the viability of firing your boss. If that is your primary focus it could convolute thinking and force unnecessary errors, in an already error prone business with a very high failure rate. I want you to win. Best of luck. REI is usually a long game in regards to building wealth. A great high functioning portfolio along with a decent W2 goes a very long way to achieving your goals.