All Forum Posts by: Franky Maslim

I'm "lazy." I like the idea of not having to work yet still have money coming in. Flipping is a full time job imo

The #1 thing you can do, and is the important, is to educate yourself. Be it REI or anything else, the key is to invest in yourself. Without it, anything you do (REI or otherwise) will be very risky and will very likely fail. As knowledge increases, the risk comes down, and vice versa. If you plan on jumping straight into REI, then start listening to podcasts, read books as much as you can starting today. Otherwise, if you plan on getting a different day job and invest on the side, then get educated in that field and be as fundamentally strong as you can so you can maximize your income to allow you to invest in real estate

In my opinion, and please correct me if I'm wrong, a bubble affects flippers much more than buy-and-hold investors. Even if there's a bubble and it bursts, the rent will not go down as much as the house price would for flippers. You can still hold and ride out the wave until prices come back up.

So if you balance equity and leverage right (not overleveraged), you should be fine.

Hi @Samantha Soto,

Have you read "The Millionaire Real Estate Investor" by Gary Keller? It's my favorite alongside Rich Dad Poor Dad.

My goal is to acquire 1 rental property in 2017. My daily "habit" is to listen to REI podcasts, YouTube videos, audiobooks, or read e-books. I have just bought a property right at the end of this year, completing the closing next week. So I'm very excited and looking forward to seeing those rent checks coming in :)

What kind of "ROI" will you get from that degree? Will you make enough to offset the time and money spent acquiring that degree?

I work in IT. I got my degree many years ago for a total of $25K - $27K for a Bachelor's, and the ROI is many many times of what I invested. So in my specific case, it's the best money I could have ever spent. It has allowed me to acquire assets: investing in family business and buying rental properties.

With the 30K, you may be able to get a rental property (I'm a new investor, not knowledgeable in other areas of REI) that can generate much more than the new degree will. And if done right, this initial 30K investment will compound into many others in the future.

2014 Honda Accord (brand new at the time). I didn't get the car until my old one was stolen - 2000 Honda Civic, from my car port. I think it's a balance between having an investor's mindset where you acquire assets instead of liabilities, and enjoying life at the same time. I look at "wanting new stuff" as a challenge where I need to acquire assets to be able to pay for the things I want (i.e.: new car or something else). So if the new car payment is around $400-$500 a month, I'd need to acquire some assets that can generate that much money every month, before I go out and buy it.

I don't think it'd be wise to live the rest of our lives penny-pinch, nickel and dime everything. It's nice to reward yourself every once in a while, especially after your hard work and success, to be able to pat yourself in the back and say, "Good job. It wasn't easy, but look at the reward."

The nice thing about this "challenge" is, once the payment is done and you keep the assets, the money keeps coming in, which means you've "permanently" raised your income and your expenses go down. As Grant Cardone says (paraphrased), "Focus on increasing your income, not saving pennies."

@Julie Marquez

I used to have the same disease, penny pinching everything from breakfast to dinner, Sunday to Sunday, until one day I woke up and realized it's no fun to live this way. While I'm not out there making it rain, blowing my paychecks on stuff, I am a lot more lenient today, eating out a lot more, going out more, while still keeping my goal/plan: saving to invest, not saving to save (like Grant Cardone says). I save over 50% of my paycheck for the down payment of the "next" property

I just bought my very first rental property (YAY!) and I am very much looking forward to seeing those rent checks coming in :)

@Kim Meredith Hampton, @Jeremy Blackburn - Thank you for your advice. From my very short research, it seems to be a pretty lucrative market. It's definitely something I'd like to look into in the future.

Thanks, @Kim Meredith Hampton.

With corporate housing, is there such a thing as a "retainer" where they sign your condo on a contract, say, for a few years, and no matter if there's a tenant or not, as long as your condo is under contract, then you'll get paid?

It is pretty common knowledge available out there. As you explore more and more on real estate investing, you'll find a lot of articles, books, and the likes, where you can find just about anything in REI (Real Estate Investing).

What I mentioned in my previous post is just a 50,000-ft view; a very generic strategy. As you dig deeper, you'll find a lot more details, a lot more different strategies, etc.

Also very important is to read people's experience (good and bad) and success stories. There you can find what they did, and what worked and didn't work. That'll help you avoid pitfalls in REI.