All Forum Posts by: Earl W.

A majority of my previous purchases so far have been on the MLS, which doesn't seem to have many good deals this year in the under $120,000 range. (Seller's Market)

I've made maybe 4-5 offers on off market houses. All of which have been declined without a counter offer. I waste a lot of time/resources looking for off market properties just to spend all this time running numbers to have an offer rejected.

You're probably right though, if I keep looking I'll eventually find the right one.

Not the only or last deal. I've found several off market houses and had offers declined when following the 70% rule.. then I changed my strategy and raised my offer thinking maybe if I can make 10% I would be happy. My offers still keep getting rejected. Now I'm thinking of going back to turnkey housing and just pay the premium.

I'm sure if I keep looking I'll find something better and get a nice discount, it's just a question of how long until something better comes up.

My HELOC is paid off and all that cheap money is just sitting in the bank ready to be used as my 20% down to buy some more houses.

At some point I'm thinking it's better to buy/rent a house with a low dscr than it is to do nothing. I'm thinking that 6% is better than no percent. I'm half tempted to make some decent deals with this HELOC money as the 20% down, then use the cash flow from all my properties to pay off the HELOC, then repeat the process. It's a process that has worked so far, but I made some pretty good deals the last time around.

I know I can do better in the bad neighborhoods, but I don't want the trouble that goes with it.

Thoughts? Do I hold out and let the money sit a little longer or make an OK deal?

hello everyone and thanks for the welcomes.

Jared,

I would be glad to give you information about my current properties, but to be honest Im not sure how they stack up compared to others in the area.  That's one of the reasons I'm here. Feel free to send me a message and I can give you my opinion, not sure how much help I will be.

Chase,

My plan from here is to purchase a few more rental properties then start to pay them down.  Once all the properties are paid off I plan to semi-retire and just use the cash flow as income.

I'm not doing this as a hobby or trying to become rich or own hundreds of properties, just looking for a way out of my current career and an end game to get to retirement.  We all know that a 401k with .50 on the dollar match up to 3% of your paycheck isn't going to get you to retirement.

I'm thinking 11-12 properties is where I will top out.

Eric and Meghan,

Thanks for the invites! It's hard finding time for stuff like this. Between having my son 1/2 of the time, working 45+ hours per week, doing all of my own repairs/updates, etc. I will keep an eye on the local calender of events and try to attend meetings that I can make.

Michael,

Thanks for the offer. It's something I may take you up on in the future. Maybe I'll see you at one of these events.

To everyone else,

Thanks again for the welcomes.

Hello everyone, My name is Earl. (Feel free to insert a dumb joke about the TV show here.  It'll be very original, I'm sure.)  I've been a Mechanic at a local dealership for 13 years.  After being in the business for 10+ years it hit me that EVERY mechanic that has retired around me has had knee/back problems and was forced into an unsustainable early retirement due to other health problems.  So I sold all of my toys and got into investing into real estate as a path to a sustainable retirement.  Since 2014 I have reinvested 100% of my cash flow and purchased a total of 8 rental properties. As an amateur I feel like they're good investments.  I joined this website to find out how my investments have performed relative to the standard rental investment, for the invaluable information available here and to increase the profits on my next rental purchase.