All Forum Posts by: Dana Walker

Not in my books! I don't think you can ever have too much Seed Capital! The more you can save prior to beginning your investment journey, the better position you will be in down the line.

@Noah Wood  regardless of your thoughts on investing in RE I do like the idea of a secured credit card for you because of your age.  I think the best benefit is that you cannot get sucked in and over spend which is what the CC companies love to do to young people. That's why you see the CC companies on every college campus signing kids up for cards with cool giveaways.

I was able to repair my credit in 4 months using a secured credit card. It said it would take a year to get my deposit back but they sent it to me in 4 months for on time payments.  It was a cash back card so I still use it lol but there is no longer a deposit on it. It is the best card I've ever had. I'm happy to let you know what it is in a private message. 

At your age you are certainly not behind in establishing credit, you just need to do it. Real Estate will always be there and could be a bumpy jumping off point for a young person. But, I love your enthusiasm and where your head is at for an 18 year old.

Welcome to you!

@Sebastian Wernicke and @Mike Flatow  .  I would hope that if the property was insurable, destroyed and Sebastian actually does own in post storm, then being able to sit on the property for awhile before attempting a fix would be the best scenario.  It would be nice to be able to afford to wait out the higher construction costs.

@Jared Townsend you are right but Harvey is over and I've seen nothing.  What usually seems to happen is that Insurance companies try every trick in the book to not pay, raise the premiums, and then get a bailout a couple years later that the public never really finds out about.   My thought is they should do a litter Public Relations and get out there in the media and social media where the home owners can see them.   I'm old enough to remember Andrew and Katrina.  Insurance companies really stuck it to their policy holders.  We'll have to wait and see on this but I see, hear or read nothing about them after Harvey.  Thanks for chiming in Jared.  I really want to hear from people on this.

I just have to get this off my chest.  Where are the Insurance Companies?  Last week in Texas and now in Florida means it is pretty much the Insurance Company Super Bowl.  This is their big moment but where are they?  I would assume that during every commercial break on TV there would be an ad from an Insurance company telling people to stay calm and they would be taken care of.  But, instead it is please for private citizens to donate to Harvey.  And next week it will be for private citizens to donate to Irma.  It seems like it is time to call out the insurance companies for being risk management profiteers.   I'd love to hear thoughts on this from the BP community.

@Sebastian Wernicke so I'm wondering if you even want the property.  I remember being so happy after one of those 3 hurricanes that hit florida in a row about 3 years ago that I was a renter.  I just found a new apt and I was done with "hurricane life" in a week.  I'm really wondering about the emotional state of homeowners in South Florida right now.

I've always wondered this and now seems like a good time to ask.  Lets say you buy a property right before a hurricane.  I realize that there is a cut off time for new purchases before a storm but if let's say you get in before that, close the deal, but the hurricane destroys the property before the deed and mortgage get recorded in the public records, then who is on the hood for the damage?

I know there are several views on this but building my credit with a secure credit card really helped me.  It took me a long to pull the trigger on it because I didn't want to deposit money and have it sit there.  But then I found a really fun card and I enjoyed building my credit.  There were a lot of perks to the card so I came out a head and built my credit score up to a respectable level in 4 months I believe.  I then got my credit limit increased because of on time payment and my score really jumped from there. I was credit worthy in about 6 months.  After the 6 month period my card issuer sent me back my deposit!  That was a full 6 months early and I was thrilled.  I did this all while pretty much learning about and deciding if I wanted to buy a house or investment property so if you are a beginner and have 6 to 12 months to earn credit, I think it is a smart move.  If anyone wants to know what card I got just message me. I don't want to do advertising for a credit card company lol. 

@Account Closed  I think this is a helpful forum and the replies are interesting.  Somewhere above you asked if anyone has used a Heloc or line of credit for their seed capital and I believe that is how I did my one and only deal.

I bought a condo back in 2006 and the rates on a line of credit were cheaper than a mortgage because the index they were based on hadn't moved in a couple of years.  I can't recall exactly how it was done but I used my personal credit score to get a line and bought the condo. 

I knew the payments would eventually jump but they literally hadn't in what seemed like forever so I was confident.  I was living in the condo but I knew it was going to be a quick sell.  I bought it because the deal was great. It was a condo conversion and I was living in the unit as an apartment. They offered something like 10% off the listing price for current residents so I bought with the intent to move out within the next year or two.  I held it for around 7 or 8 months and sold.   I feel fortunate that I did because the crash was soon after but that's how i did my one and only deal.  But one think I didn't realize while I was doing the deal but figured out right after was that the house was not attached to the loan.  My credit qualified me, not the Condo.

I liked the idea of using my personal credit to buy a home without attaching the home to the debt as collateral.  Had I defaulted on the loan only my personal credit would have been hurt but nobody could have taken the Condo as I understand it.

I'm not sure if something that still exists.  So that's my story. I'm not sure I'll get that lucky with deal #2 lol but I'm here to learn.