All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

If you haven't discovered it already, BP has a GREAT podcast. I've been binge-listening to as many episodes as I can (over 200 previous episodes). Tons of inspiration and ideas, including recommendations for even more great books from each of the guests and many of the guests (all super successful) even offer to take questions and give advice to BP members!

I started working with them just over a year ago. We've purchased four properties with them so far in three different markets. :-)

I do not have *extensive* knowledge of landlord laws in the states where I own rental properties, I just know that the states I am in have more landlord-friendly laws and I make sure to have reputable property management companies that I trust to know and follow the laws.

Some investors might say that's a mistake, but that's how I have done things so far!

I am not any sort of property tax expert but what has happened to a couple of my investment turn-key buy-and-holds so far is that the tax rate I initially got was based on the reduced price that the flipper paid for it and then, at some point, the county caught up with us and re-evaluated the property at the price I paid for it after the improvements which, of course, increased the taxes, and thus, my monthly payment. This also happened with our primary home--it took two years for the new garage we built to catch up with us.

I don't see any way around this sort of thing except to plan that it IS going to happen when you are looking at cash-flow--I like to build in a cushion well-above what my minimum cash-flow tolerance is for just this sort of thing. A more proactive strategy might be to check with the county prior to signing the purchase agreement to ask them about any possible increase that they see coming down the pike.

Hi Shelly,

Since you're interested in long-term buy-and-hold, it might be worth checking out realwealthnetwork.com. They've got at least two Chicago affiliates and their network is free to join and there's lots of free education on the site, plus they have two different free podcasts and free counselors who are seasoned investors. That's how we got started investing...

Hi Kwame,

Education is the most important thing when getting started! I recommend starting out by reading Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiosaki--as most real estate investors do--and listening to as many episodes of the BP podcast as you can (there are over 200 previous episodes in the feed!) You will get lots of ideas about how other investors have gotten started and every person that they interview gives suggestions for their favorite real estate book and their favorite business book. On those podcasts you will also hear a lot about the tools and resources that BP has to offer.

Bigger Pockets also offers lots of free webinars on many different real estate investing topics.

Good luck on your journey!

Hi Amber,

My husband and I started out investing with a similar situation--though I am not in school, I am a stay-at-home mom with, obviously, no income. We own our home and had a similar amount of equity in it. You don't specify what type of investing you are considering--BRRR, flip, buy-and-hold, so I'm not sure which direction you are considering, but we started out with turn-key buy and hold through a large--and free--investors' network.

Backing up, though, I educated myself like crazy for about 6 months before I dipped my toe in. The first thing I did was read every Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad) book I could get my hands on, plus all the books by his Rich Dad Advisors. Then I discovered real estate podcasts. My favorites are:

*Get Rich Education with Keith Weinhold (I listened to every single one of these starting with episode 1)

*The Real Wealth Show with Kathy Fettke

*Real Estate News for Investors with Kathy Fettke

*The Real Estate Guys Radio Show

*Bigger Pockets (I actually didn't discover this one until after I'd signed the contract for our 4th property!)

We have purchased all of our investment properties (4 so far since August of last year) with conventional loans in my husband's name because: A) He is the one with income and I have debt that we didn't want considered, and B) If we put both names on the mortgage then it counts against BOTH of us and we could otherwise EACH get 10 conventional loans (assuming that someday I have an income that would qualify me for a conventional mortgage). We initially title all the properties in BOTH of our names.

LATER we formed the LLCs that we have/will move the properties into (we have an umbrella policy to cover them before we move them). We take the cash-flow out (after paying all the bills and factoring in 5% each for vacancy and maintenance) as quarterly "capital distributions" to "pay ourselves back" which, in our case, means we just reinvest that into the next property since we're trying to grow our portfolio as quickly as possible.

Hope that give you some ideas to get started!

Good luck on your journey!

If you're a reader, I highly recommend reading Garrett Sutton's book, "Start Your Own Corporation" to get started on learning about asset protection (the pros and cons of LLCs). Garrett is a Rich Dad Advisor and, though the title sounds a little daunting, it's actually a really easy--and interesting--read that IMO was well worth the time!

I have heard a number of podcasts on this very topic. The general consensus seems to be that you do NOT need to get a real estate license to do most kinds of real estate investing. If it suddenly becomes critical along the way based on the niche that you end up in, you will absolutely know it.

If you are interested in multi-family and haven't already done so, you may want to check out Ken McElroy's book, "The ABCs of Real Estate Investing" and his "Advanced Guide to Real Estate Investing"--these are often touted as the "bibles" for multi-family investing.

And, of course, the BP podcast is always FULL of ideas and inspiration, if you haven't checked that out yet.

Good luck on your journey!

I read like crazy when I was just getting started. Read Rich Dad Poor Dad first and then plowed through almost all of his other books plus the books written by Kiyosaki's Rich Dad Advisors.

Then I discovered podcasts, which have also been invaluable. If you haven't already started listening to the BP podcast, I highly recommend listening to as many of the previous episodes as you can to get ideas and inspiration for starting out--a number of their interviewees talk about how they hustled on the side to get some money coming in.

Also, BP has a book about how to invest with no/low money down that you can find under the "Education" tab up above.

Good luck!