All Forum Posts by: Frank D'Amato

@Joel Owens

I do have about fifty k cash available. (I will,rather, after my main residence is fixed up and sold.) So you think either of these tax liens or rentals, are good for passive income in this range? If I had some more cash (maybe in the future) what options do you suggest looking into?

I an a newish investor and new to BP. My question:

In looking to build passive income. . . why would I choose a rental over a tax lien? I'm here in Kentucky, and the interest return rate is 12%. Which is what one can reasonably expect from a rental, a bit more or less, right? Yet, there's no upkeep, no finding renters, no roof flying off, etc. Plus you get the bonus of a possibility of getting the house if the tax lien isn't repaid. The upside I see to the rental is the appreciation of the house.

Of course, I've never bought a tax lien before, so I don't know what that's like. But from the outside, it seems easier.

Seems like an easy choice: tax lien...so what am I missing? What else do I need to consider?

Thanks!

Frank

Hello BP,

Thanks for being here. This is a great resource. Learning tons. I hope to meet lots of other investors and learn even more.

I've done two flips and have a SFR going for the last year. I'm thrilled about possibilities for the future, and am looking for a mentor and some guidance for a investing game plan.

Take care!

Hi--

I'm new here as well and also from the ville. I'd love to talk sometime and hear your experience in RE.

I'll be posting my own intro here in a bit!

Frank

Michael,

I use the promo offers on the credit cards. For example, my Discover card offered 'balance transfer' with a 0 % APR for fifteen months. (I put balance transfer in quote, because they will actually transfer the cash directly to your bank account.) All I had to pay was a three percent transaction fee. Sometimes they charge 4%, depends on the offer. I've been doing this without a problem for the last four years, though they may be changing the rules around this soon. Hard to tell.

Anyway, it's been great for flips, because the promo period is definitely less than the turnaround for a flip from start to finish. Between a few cards, I've been able to finance around 50k this way for my first projects. Hope that answers your question.

Michael,

Can't seem to access any properties. Perhaps they aren't listed yet? Or am I missing something? (I'm typing in different zip codes, or anything really, but it's not returning any properties. Perhaps I'm doing something wrong?)

My first post!

My experience:

Fix and flipped sfh in 2012. Made 27k, ~25% ROI.

Fix and Flip sfh in 2013. Made 7k. ~5% ROI.

Bought a rental sfh with two partners in 2013. Earning ~13% ROI/year.

current Situation:

I'm in the middle of fixing up a new house that I'll be moving into. Once I'm in, I'll be selling my current house.

Assets:

Once my current house is sold, I'll have about 40k in cash. In addition, I'll have 135k in my new house (ARV). I'll own it free and clear. Other funds: I have access to about 15k on an insurance policy (~7% interest) and room on cc's (around 30k--I have been financing my deals using 0% apr promo offers for years now, which seems to work well for flips.) One issue is that my regular job is only part time, and I earn about 12k per year, so conventional lending is difficult.

So what would you do from this point to build long term wealth? I'm still living kinda poorly, trying to keep all my money available for investing. I'm considering lots of options--buying a tri plex or four plex, or other means of stable income. I've been doing one project at a time, but I think I'm ready to start doing multiple deals. Do I have enough cash for that? Do I Moving towards foreclosures? One issue I have is that I've been buying and selling off the mls, and while that seems alright, it also takes months to land a workable deal in my market. (Louisville ky). So that stretches out the flip time. Tax liens? More rentals? SBA loan for more money?

I'm wide open to suggestions.

Frank