All Forum Posts by: Eric Martel

As other people mentioned compare your return on investment with your interest rate on your student loan and put your money towards the highest returns. What if a student loan forgiveness bill passes? 

Is the goal cashflow or appreciation? I suspect that they are looking for cash flow so you should look for cash flowing markets that have a great return. You can make anything cashflow if you put enough cash in it so you also need to look at your returns.  

@Philippe Schulligen I apologize. For the public caprate data you need to refer the CBRE report.

Hello @Steven Lee, I would start with redefining your goals. I know it sounds boring but without knowing your goals you cannot identify the right strategy. Then I would look at your resources: Money available, time available, skills, and other resources. If you are still working on a job to pay the bills then your #1 goal should be to achieve financial freedom by investing in passive income property. Once you get your time back you can do anything you want.

You can read my article here.

The easiest for most people is to buy Turnkey Single Family rentals that are cash flowing. I have many in Cleveland and Memphis. Great cashflow and decent appreciation. Purchase price around $80k renovated and rented at 850 and cash flowing about $250 a month.

I would not do a corporation unless you plan on paying yourself W-2 or have other  employees that you have to pay. I agree with @Arlan Potter you can own under your name, it will be easier for financing. Just make sure you have a good insurance policy. LLC is good when you have more units or if you have partners investing with you.

@Justin Gottuso That sounds about right since you have dependents. So you will be better to do a combination multi-family and single family otherwise you will hit the 10 mortgage limit if you do single family rentals only. You could do portfolio loan on SF rentals as well but I haven't found a good lender for that.

I agree with @Account Closed comment I know what I would do with it but if our goals are not the same it doesn't matter. In my opinion your #1 goal should be financial freedom. That means using passive income strategies. Turnkey Single Family rentals is the easiest to get into and these properties cashflow from day one. If you have interests, skills, resources in other areas such as commercial, storage, medical, senior homes, etc. That may be another good niche for you. Keep it simple and passive. Once you achieve financial freedom you will have more time to dedicate to your life and business.

@Account Closed Can you provide more details on your acquisition strategy? It sounds like you are getting these properties in pre-foreclosure or non-performing notes.

@Rodrigo Serzedello I get these numbers in Cleveland all the time and the appreciation per year is 4% and in the neighborhood where we are investing the appreciation was closer to 10%.  The one we sold on Oakwood for example: Price $80k, rent $925 LESS property management(10%), insurance, taxes - mortgage gives you a cashflow of $247. We sell 10 properties a month just like that.

@Dan H. Our strategies are different. My strategy is cashflow with return on equity over 12% while your strategy leans more towards appreciation. There is nothing wrong with that. There are a hundred ways to make good returns in real estate. The Case-Shiller home price index for December was 3.5% for Cleveland and 2.6% for LA and 2% for SF.

If you don't want to get another job again I strongly suggest that your first goal should be to invest in passive income properties that will generate enough income to pay for your living expenses (add 10% safety). I would go with a turnkey multi-family rental because "People will always need a place to live" as they say. You should finance it especially at this low interest rate. This investment will keep your hands free to do what you want to do next. Now that you have achieved financial freedom (if not contact me) what do you want to do next? What are your goals? You may want to ask yourself these questions:

1) What are your interests? Do you have a special interest medical, high tech, retail, industrial, etc. Maybe you want to invest in medical buildings, office buildings,... Maybe you like paper instead like Notes.

2) How much time do you want to spend managing this investment? Do you want NNN, value-add, turnkey, new development,...?

I hope this is helpful.