All Forum Posts by: Elizabeth Richter

@James L. Demaniow I vote to jump in! You won’t regret it. But if you don’t jump in now and choose to wait you might continue to find excuses not to.

@Paul Herman I’ve been looking into seller financing myself. It takes a little bit more work as the seller has to own the home outright if they were to finance the whole thing, and you have to find someone willing to do that. This is likely an off-market deal.

@Mason Jeffries I know that in my situation it’s that that doesn’t sound realistic to some people. It sounds like a scheme or a dream like winning the lottery.

I once said something to my husband along the lines of “…and then we can start buying rent houses and retire.” His response was that he has some friends that do that and they aren’t retired yet.

He’s not even against real estate investing, in fact we are planning to turn our current house into a rental in 4-5 years. He just doesn’t see it as a realistic way to financial independence.

For me it’s about convincing him that it’s doable and worth the time and money.

@Mary M. Why don’t you want contractors talking to your tenants?

@Kyle Gatesy congrats!

I think some people make a good point in saying that negotiating the PMC to a lower price was not a great way to provide incentive, however, many PMCs will offer a discount like another poster (2.75%) said for those multi units.

I don’t think you were wrong to negotiate. If they truly care about their clients they will care for your property to the best of their ability, especially since they agreed on your terms. If that turns out to not be the case, hopefully you did not sign a lifetime contract with them.

@Dwight Cook I think there are a lot of good ideas here. Definitely make a good first impression and, if you can, make improvements to their life before you do the “negative stuff.” Good news first.

That could be fixing any outstanding maintenance requests, making the place look nicer etc. Then, give the “bad” news. Which, the changes you are planning to make really don’t seem too shocking as it is, so hopefully they are reasonably people and respond well to reasonable changes.

@Adam Teshome I would say not conflict of interest. They have the in house team as a way to streamline their process. If they have their own maintenance team, they likely have too many clients to be calling 3rd parties for every turnover or maintenance request.

If there’s nothing in the contract/agreement about it, I would ask. Maybe you can arrange something to where you pick your own contractors/maintenance people and your PM company makes a note that for your properties, these specific contractors are to be used. But be aware that they may end up charging a “finders fee” or something along those lines to contact and manage those 3rd parties and it may not save much if any money.

@Paul Moore I have been doing some online research on lease options. I’m located in Texas though and have seen that they can be tricky. So I still see it as an option but I’m a little weary.

Really not a question but more of a looking for encouragement post.

I’ve been a long-time lurker of BP. Probably since I was around 21-22 and I’m now 25. It has just never been the “right” time to start. Right around the time I was about to start looking for something to house hack I met my husband and now it’s 2 1/2 years later we’re married with a 5 month old. House Hacking isn’t something we are willing to do.

I’ve been antsy about trying to get into real estate so that I can become financially independent and stop working these horrendous 24 hours shifts and on holidays at that.

We likely would not qualify for a conventional loan because husband's credit score needs some love, and my DTI alone would be too high (our personal home mortgage is under my name). Not to mention how long it would take to save up for a 20% down plus a buffer for potential repairs.

The idea of trying to do an off market deal for my first deal always scared me and I never even considered it, but I’ve decided that if I want to make this happen any time soon I’ll have to go out of my comfort zone.

I found out how to find all the absentee owners in my area and I plan to start doing direct mail to try and find an owner finance deal. From what I’ve seen most probably aren’t likely to let me do 0 down but that’s the goal 😉

I’ve been toying with the idea of doing some syndication and asking family/friends as well but asking people for their money when I have no experience ,just book knowledge from the good old internet, gives me anxiety.

Any tips for getting that owner finance deal or other outside the box thinking for zero down is appreciated. I’ve listened to countless BP podcast episodes so I’ve likely heard of most of the ways, but go ahead and throw em down there and it might make me think about them harder.

@Michelle Shriver yes, I plan on treating it like a business. Good to know that could be another advantage later on!