All Forum Posts by: Emily Lopez

Do what you want. Live your life, not theirs.  When I bought my first property, my dad told me I was a fool, second property told me I was a fool again. By the third property apparently I had changed his mind and he lent me money to help with the repairs so I could make the investment. If you know what you are doing and have fully researched and educated yourself, don't let anyone deter you.  

If in doubt, don't. 

I know nothing about his seminars.  However, I have watched the show for half of an episode before changing the channel and couldn't stand it because of how degrading he was toward his contractors.  I wouldn't want anything to do with anyone who felt it was acceptable to treat other people this way.  The better you treat the people you are working with, the better job they will want to do on your project.  He or any program he creates does not seem like a solid mentor program.  

Fantastic job. Great transformation.

We purchased a property without 20% down through an FHA loan. We weren't looking to buy at the time but the returns were too good to pass up. Ours is set up so if we put at least 10% down, you still have PMI but it falls off at the 11 year mark. Not perfect but better than nothing and was worth it in this situation.

Looks great. Nice job.

I came across this older post when searching for before and afters (I wish there were more of those on here).  The original condition of this house is absolutely astounding.  Looks great now!

I started working for couple who owns a lot of rental property my senior year of high school.  I knew I wanted to invest in property then.  Obviously I didn't have the money so I started saving at that point.  I bought my first rental in graduate school at 23 (it was seller financed, although I could easily make the payments I doubt a bank would've ever approved me for a mortgage at that point as a bartender and Teachers assistant).  After college I moved back into that home, saved every spare dime, worked extra jobs, sold on ebay and bought my next home at 25.  At the end of 2015 (still 25) bought our next property which was two houses but three units.  

The first is the hardest. Once you start cash flowing, you can just save that to buy your next one.  It's never too late.  The couple I worked for started investing with siblings and their father after their dad had retired from being a miner for years.  Although old when he started, they built quite a portfolio of investments.  

Looks great.  I'm seconding @Nicole Clemensquestion. Do you do the work yourself or contract out? I always do everything myself but sometimes wonder if getting the job done quicker would be worth contracting at least some of the work out. 

For me it was simply what I could or couldn't afford.  I started with a single family town-home.  I wouldn't have been able to afford a multi-unit property.  I don't feel with comfortable with all the alternative financing people discuss and went with a mortgage on the home.  It was a great call and I was able to save the income from that property (while working full time also so that yielded additional savings and cushioning) to buy the next one and over a few years worked up to four homes, three of which are rentals (one a two unit).  

The other thing to consider is if you are just learning and dipping your feet in the water, you will make mistakes. Even after doing it for years you will still make mistakes.  If its a smaller investment, your mistake may be smaller and manageable.  I'd rather make a $10,000 mistake than a $80,000.  I could also bounce back from the former but probably not as easily from the latter.  

At the the end of the day, you will receive a lot of advice and you have to decide what works for your and your budget.  This was just the place I came from starting out.