All Forum Posts by: Emma Ross

I am a real estate investor and I am looking for a high-quality and extensive Real Estate Academy that would be an online portal for learning the business. This might be a one-time purchase to gain access to learning tools, or a subscription.  This probably means an online portal where I could teach myself the business via educational videos, work sheets, lessons, quizzes, forms, etc.

I'm not looking for a guru, seminar, or boot camp experience.  

Full disclosure, I also work for an education company in digital ad sales, and we are beginning to build our digital academy in the adtech space.  I am planning on purchasing access to some online academies in other industries as part of my research, just to see how they are structured, how built out they are, assess the flow, etc.  I thought the real estate space would have a company already providing this service since so many of us are self-teaching, but if you know of any robust digital learning tools in any industry I am interested.  

And hopefully this thread could be helpful for people looking for a similar thing, but for the actual purpose of teaching themselves real estate.  Thx

@Vanessa Franco Hi! I just acted like it was going to be my primary residence.  It's not 100% kosher, but it was an option my completely professional mortgage broker suggested, and it seems like people do it all the time.  I rent an apartment within an hour's drive the of the condo (in an expensive area of Los Angeles), so it didn't raise any red flags on paper. And as long as you pay all your bills, the bank doesn't really care.  

My understanding is you can take out a new primary residence mortgage once a year.  Since I've now owned my property for a full year, I could do the same deal again, with the same type of loan.  

@Daymian Mejia @Fred K.  So far so good!  Even though I put the unit up for rent in January (not the best time of year), I was able to rent to a Section 8 tenant with young kids in the school system.  I hope this means they will stay for a long time, reducing my turnover costs, and improving the profitability of the investment. 

Don't think I would purchase this exact property again now that I'm older and wiser, but am pleased to have one property under my belt.  

@Basit Siddiqi Thanks for the follow-up!  You've been extremely helpful. 

And I see you are a CPA for investors, so there is a very good chance you will be hearing from me down the line ;)

Thanks for the reply!  Just to clarify, are you saying that we would own the property at a 75/25 ration (our financial contribution), and then I would take 20% of the cash flow off the top, splitting the rest between the two of us at the same ratio as our financial investment (75/25)?   

Hi!  I live in Los Angeles, and recently completed renting my first property locally.  I want to keep this ball rolling, but I don't live in a cash flowing market.  I decided to partner with a good friend in New York to invest out of state.  He will be putting up about 75% of the money, and I will come in with the knowledge.  I expect to do the majority of the leg work and be the day-to-day point person.   I would LOVE to know how you have structured similar partnerships.

I want a structure that incentivizes me to hustle and for all the time I will spend getting things going, while also acknowledging his disproportionate financial investment.  It is also important that the terms are clear (because vague contracts ruin friendships).  

Any suggestions?

Hi!  (first time posting)

I live in Los Angeles and recently completed renovating and renting my first rental property in Santa Clarita, CA.  I am already itching for my next one but am thinking of looking out of state (because Los Angeles is nuts).  I have been thinking about Fort Wayne because my NYC-based investment partner has family there.  

Can anyone point out some Class A  or B neighborhoods.....and also where the Class D ones are?

Also, I know a lot of you are local, but do you use property managers?  I am in search of a good one.  

Thank you!

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $305,000

Cash invested: $42,000

3 Bedroom/2 Bath condo in a great school district.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Los Angeles County is a hard market, and this was the best cash flow I could find in my budget. I chose to purchase a three bedroom in a good school district in the hopes of renting to a family and having more tenant stability. This would reduce my vacancy rate and make the numbers work.

How did you finance this deal?

5% down with a 30 year fixed rate mortgage

Lessons learned? Challenges?

If you are purchasing an upper condo, be sure to know what the flooring regulations are. I discovered I had to keep the unit carpeted after I was pretty far down the road with the purchase, and I made it work, but I would have had better ROI if I had been able to install laminate or tile during my renovation.