All Forum Posts by: Josh LeMasters

@Becky Parker - Welcome to the forums. I'm new and also from Missouri. What kind of investing do you think you are interested in? If you aren't already investing when do you expect to make your first investment?

@Kevin Pickett & @Gordon Cuffe - a friend of mine is a turn key operator in St. Louis. It sounds like he might be a good connection for both of you. I would be happy to give you a proper introduction if you are still looking for leads or property management in Missouri.

@Tony C. - I'm a new CPA, and in Joplin MO, so I'm not sure I would be much help to you. With that being said, I'm looking for an experienced CPA or reputable firm to get some real estate accounting experience with. Let us know who you end up going with and why. 

@Mark A barton

Welcome to BP! I'm new and in Missouri as well. I googled Park Hills, because I've never visited the city. You have some massive chat piles! There is a massive clean up project going on at the moment around Joplin. The chat piles of my youth have been reclaimed, and in their place are nice little subdivisions. Has there been any talk about clean up projects around Park Hills?

@Mark A barton

@Kathy Henley - Is this your first property in St. Louis? I currently live in Joplin, and have considered expanding to St. Louis through a turn key operation. How did you find your duplex? 

Hi Kevin,

Welcome to BP. I'm in Joplin, MO and I have some connections in St. Louis. What sort of properties do you own/are you looking for in St. Louis? 

Josh

@Nick Sparrow - Welcome! I've been around for about a year, but just made my intro post yesterday. I have some family in SLC and love the area. I was fortunate enough to do my first solo Paraglide in SLC around Christmas time. I googled Vernal because I had never heard of it and I found this funny quote from a scout who Brigham Young sent to explore the area, "in 1861 and received word back the area was good for nothing but nomad purposes, hunting grounds for Indians and "to hold the world together."

Keep listening to the podcasts. I have listened to nearly every one over the last year, and have learned a ton. I've noticed I have to take some of the older ones with a grain of salt because of the changing market conditions, but I would recommend starting at the very beginning, or at least checking out older episodes as you wait for the latest one to come out. It's fun to hear the show change over time as Josh and Brandon settle into a groove and figure things out. 

I'm not sure how much you have tied up in your IRA, but you might also consider a self directed IRA. This is something I just recently learned about, and all though I'm soon to be a CPA, I'm not an expert on personal financial products. Just do a search in the forums, and you should have plenty to read.

I recently bought my first rental property last month after thinking about it and studying real estate for year. Everything you learn will be helpful to you, but actually purchasing your first property makes every little detail come into focus. I would say, don't pull the trigger too quick, but don't be afraid to pull the trigger when the right thing comes along. 

@Nick J. - I grew up in Carthage, so I know exactly what your talking about. The old school elevator was always one of my favorite things about the Court House, not to mention it looks like a castle when you don't know any better. Please look me up when you come into town next. I would love to get together and learn about what's going on in Arizona, and share what little I know about this market.  

@Vince Mayer - The tornado was incredibly destructive. I think the estimates were that it wiped out 1/3rd of the housing stock in the city. Most of that was old single family homes built 50+ years ago. A lot of developers have come back in the wake of the destruction and built small multi-families and we have several new apartment complexes in town. The new high school and Mercy hospital are up and running, and I would say we are back to a new normal other than a few neighbor hoods that remain empty lots. There are definitely a lot of scars that remain in the landscape if you know what you are looking for. It will be interesting to see how the town continues to blossom as we hopefully carry the "rebuild" momentum into a new phase of growth. 

@Darius Moody - Yeah, that's correct. That is probably the easiest way to think about it. The seller basically acts as the bank. The title company completed loan paper work and closing documents which included a deed of trust and a promissory note. Neither of us had lawyers involved, but this was a very straight forward deal between two familiar parties. Based on the complexity of the deal and your circumstances I would encourage you to at least mention your plans to your attorney before going through with it. 

I wouldn't carry the comparison to a bank too far though. Some of the biggest benefits of seller financing are that the seller DOESN'T act like a bank. The process is a lot less formal, and the title company said we would have had ten times more paperwork if there had been a bank involved. Everything depends on the seller you obtain the financing from, but in this case a bank would have had a lot of requirements that my seller wasn't necessarily worried about. 

For instance, the down payment. I only put 5% down on this property. A bank would have likely required at least 20% down for an investment property and plenty (I've heard as much as 6 months) of reserve cash in the bank to make sure I could deal with vacancy. Next we have PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance), or FHA mortgage insurance. If I would have purchased this property through a FHA loan via owner occupancy and then rented it out later I would have a PMI payment of about $15/mo. Not much, but it adds up and is based on the total of the loan. Read more here: Bank Rate.com 

Other possible benefits of seller financing include, possibly no credit check, low or no origination fee, flexible interest rates and terms, no inspection requirements, no appraisal fees, and I'm sure there is more but these are a few that come to mind. 

I think the guys at bigger pockets are huge proponents of seller financing, and I have heard a lot of people mention it on the podcast, so I would encourage you to learn more about this important investing tool. 

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone. I've noticed people using @personsname in posts and I think this is a nice feature. Are all members able to do this? Can you please explain how to do this or send me a link to instructions? Thanks!