All Forum Posts by: Megan Aldridge

Location Options....the majority of responders are from Orlando/Ocoee/Windermere...so would the Panera at Florida Hospital South (near Princeton & I-4)  2415 N Orange Ave, Orlando, FL 32804.

They have a community room.  OR we can meet at my office conference room if we are under 20 people.  My office is in Maitland.  

Thoughts?

Thank you @Account Closed!

@Account Closed  Let's call it the 28th then...What time and where?  Orlando is a good plan, but any suggestions of a good venue?  Somewhere not to crazy noisy since we'll be trying to get to hear each other's stories....Starbucks? Panera?  Smoothie shop?  Thoughts?

28th is better for me

The 28th works better for my schedule if I got to pick!

So evenings for sure then. @Account Closed is exactly right about making sure we don't interfere with the REIAs and plenty of time to plan ahead so we can get a meaty turnout.  Sounds like we should do this!  I'm in Sanford, Dirk is in Oviedo, Stephen is in Orlando, Michael is from Bushnell and Mr. Chapman wants to come from Tampa...lol where do we start? 

I'm in EXACTLY the same situation right now in trying to decide if I pay one of our mortgages down or just use the cash to re-invest in a new property to generate more income.  Being personally very debt-aversive it's a hard decision to make for me, but if I put my emotions aside it makes better sense to leverage the cash at this point if I can find a property with a cap rate that beats the interest rate on my loan.  Since my loan rate is low like yours (<5%) I think I can do that pretty easily....so that's what I've decided.  I'm only a couple years into investing, but after binge-listening to BP podcasts for the last 18 months it's clear there is a fine line between being over leveraged and putting your money to work for you.   One think I like to look at also is how much cash I need to throw into a mortgage to get me to the 1/2 way point on the amortization schedule...once you cross the 1/2 way point then the monthly payment is paying down more principal than interest.  I hate paying interest, so if I can feasibly get to that point then I feel like I'm paying myself back more than the bank every month.  I'm sure our financial geniuses in the group would tell me I'm ridiculous, but these are the things I've been thinking about while I try to make the same decision.  I was raised by a CPA/CFP and "debt is bad" was beat into my subconscious from a very young age...so I have to lean on the numbers a lot.  Not sure if that helps at all lol.

We could also change up locations from meet-up to meet-up.  Central Florida can be a pain the neck to get from one end to the other, so we could rotate North/South/East/West so that no one is consistently driving to other side of the world overtime.  Thanks @Account Closed for offering to scout out.  We should pick a place not too noisy so we can reasonable get to know what everyone is up to and start building relationships.  What's the consensus about day vs. evening meet up time?

I was thinking we could start with a very informal, casual social/networking activity....like meet-up for drinks at a local coffee shop or something like that.  As interest/size grows we can tweak things....thoughts?

A real estate license is not required to purchase real estate (invest), however getting a real estate license has served me in the following ways:

1. Access to the MLS (huge!) to shop for deals

2. Convenience to show myself properties instead of having to schedule with an agent and coordinate schedules

3.  Earn commission on your own deals

4. Working as a Realtor while I grow my investing business has me learning on the fast track which I like. I had huge frustrations working with agents before I was one because they didn't "get" investing and didn't understand NOI, cap rates, etc.

The only downside are the fees that go with maintaining a license and such, but for me the benefits outweigh the downsides...especially the education and freedom.  Good luck!