All Forum Posts by: Erin Johnson

@Alexandria Divine, yes! We still meet however we have shifted to a virtual zoom call instead of in-person these days. Our next one is Nov 11th @ 11:30.  Shoot me an email (in my profile) and I'll get you an invite.  Can't wait to hear more about you and your journey in RE investing!

I'm also going to suggest focusing on getting out of debt.  Dave Ramsey's total money makeover is a phenomenal place to start.  Changed my life.  By having your financial house in order prior to investing will help keep "Murphy's Law" at bay.  Similar principles to Dave are briefly covered in "The Simple Path to Wealth", "The Richest Man in Babylon", "Start Late, Finish Rich" and "The Automatic Millionaire".  It also helps you develop your "No Muscle" and practice delayed gratification.  Taking control of you money and making it work for you is the foundation needed to catapult you into real estate investing.

As far as becoming a Realtor in MN, you can do the required 90 hrs online.  As an agent you live off of commissions and not an hourly set W2 wage.  Statistically, the most successful agents are those who can do so full time.  Having a solid emergency fund and 6mo+ saved up without any debt (minus mortgage) will allow you to build your business while starting out.

Good luck in your journey, get Gazelle Intense and go get yourself some rice and beans ;)

I need all the creative ideas for seller financing.  I have leads for purchasing multiple properties from one seller who is looking to get out of the rental investing realm.  They would like to draw out the sales over the next few years to avoid/spread out some of the capital gains tax. Ideally they would like to remove themselves from the rent collection, phone calls, tenant screening/replacing and maintenance.  

Currently I could buy the first unit conventionally through the bank with a 20-25% down.  I would not have the funds to do similar financing for the remaining properties.  I mentioned seller financing where I would pay the seller monthly installments (removing the hassle/work of land lording) and possibly having a balloon payment at the end of a set term.

What other approaches have you found successful in a similar scenario.  

All the best, 

The 126k to purchase is the closing costs, down payment and rehab estimate.

You have no money left in the deal because the Refi minus the remaining mortgage is approx 131k, then subtract the money spent on rehab, down payment, loan fees and closing costs, you break even.  All money you put in has been pulled out via the refi.  You would pay your expenses from the income the property generates.

I am not seeing the holding figure on the report to be able to help with that one.  My guess is when I estimate the hard money loan for 12mo on a mortgage calculator, the total interest over a year is approx $7,400. 

Hope that helps clarify some of your numbers!

Good luck

These webinar topics look amazing! I don't know if I'll be able to swing the scheduled time, will a replay option be available @Liz Faircloth?

Thank you @Rishit Shah for your insight on the reads.  I like how you were able to pull valuable information from books that may not seem applicable to some and highlighted the underlying nuggets of information the books provide to investors as a whole. 

I haven't made it through all four of the books you have listed but will rearrange my reading order accordingly.  Thanks for the recommendations.

@Ararat Vardanyan Good Luck! Hope that gives you the leg up you're looking for!

@Jessamyn Smith you're welcome! We've all had to flex those creative muscles to navigate these days.  Good luck and happy number crunching!

Deciding which properties to direct mail would depend on how big of a pool you are targeting.  If you send out 100 without pre-analyzing you are spending $55.  You would hopefully then analyze a few to a handful of potential deals.  If you decided to pre-analyze you would have to experience of analyzing 100 deals and maybe mail out say 10 letters at $5.50 expense, but you may not get a bite on any of those 10.  So a question to you would be do you have the time and want the practice of analyzing deals or do you want to spend the money to send out more lines and hope to catch a few to analyze at that time? 

As far as using a Realtor, I am biased as I am an agent and feel we provide a wealth of knowledge and are particularly valuable to most home buyers and newer investors.  Once you get a few transactions closed maybe you would feel confident moving forward without one.  You can use a real estate attorney but they don't have the same fiduciary duties to you that a realtor would.

Have you reached out to an agent in your area? Maybe they could work with you in creating a direct mailing list where they could reduce their commission for your purchase with the benefit of potential listings that don't meet your criteria for a good deal?

Just some thoughts to chew on!

ACTION! Connect with other investors in your area and talk to them, learn from them.  Find ways you can add value to their business and the experience will give you your missing education.  Eventually you need to learn from doing.  Don't let analysis paralysis and "preparation" prevent you from starting in the first place. Be brave and step out of your comfort zone.  This is where we acquire the most growth! 

Decide. Commit. Succeed.