All Forum Posts by: Gabriel Lopez

also, I forgot to mention that I already have a job that pays relatively well (~$17/hr) which is how I've mamagef to put $5k into savings, I plan on keeping the job as long as possible but I'm getting ready to go into medical school so idk how much longer I can balance work and a fairly high level of schooling. 

JD,

I failed to mention in my original post that what I wanted to do was purchase a fourplex and live in one while renting out the other three. That way, it wouldn't be a fraudulent use of funds as it would be part of my living expenses. With that said, nothing has been done, and still trying to find out what I can and can't do.  Thanks for the answers guys, I really appreciate it. I'll look into finding a capital partner, but I really don't know how I would go about doing that.

Good morning everyone, Here is my situation,

TLDR: Should I use my heavily subsidized student loans, which may become grants if I complete a student program, as a means of getting started in real estate?

I'm currently 21 years old, and I have around $5,000 in the bank. I live in an area that is currently very low income, but is rapidly expanding. Our university just merged with a neighboring university and a medical school just opened. I am hoping to be accepted there either 2016 or 2017. First of all, I live in Texas where medical school tuition is very, very cheap. (For perspective The Baylor School of Medicine in Houston is ranked #18 nationally and the in-state tuition is only $15,000/year!) Furthermore, I live with my parents less than two minutes away from the university, I own my car and am on full academic scholarship, so I really don't have any financial burdens. In Texas, there is a program that stipulates: If you work as a doctor in a low-income area for four years (the length of my residency), then the government will pardon $150,000 in student loans. 

With this being the case, I will be going to school and be "making" ~$25,000/year once tuition and living expenses are covered, assuming I follow through with the medical program.

My question is;

Do you think it would be an awful idea to save 2 years of those student-loans-to-become-grants, and use them as an investment tool to get into real estate. I've spent a good part of the last year doing a ton of learning about real estate, and hope to spend the next two years furthering my knowledge. I've lived in this area my whole life, and it has been rapidly expanding as long as I can remember, so I want to get in the game ASAP, but at the same time don't want to make any stupid decisions. Sorry if this is a long post. Thanks for your time, and I hope to hear soon from someone! Thanks in advance.

Hi,

Does anyone here have any experience forming an LLC so that a group of people (2+) can share the profits/liabilities on purchasing real estate?? If so, what general advice would you have wanted from the get go?? (Assume no personality conflicts will arise. We're well aware of that possibility, but feel we've known each other long enough and are close enough that no character issues will interfere with our goals.). Thanks in advance.

All the best,

Gabriel Lopez

@Trevor Ewenundefined

Thanks, Trevor! I appreciate the advice.  I know that, relatively speaking, a $10,000 investment is nothing, but to us, it's essentially our life savings.  I've been researching more heavily than ever due to the impending transaction (We're about a year to a year-and-a-half away, hopefully!) and we're giving ourselves a lot of room for error (we think).  The property we're looking at is a very nice duplex (built in 2012, 5 minutes from University).  A 20% down payment on a $160,000 property would be $32,000, so we're giving ourselves about $8,000 leeway for legal fees, and plan on saving the remaining in case any unforeseen expenses pop up.  

Does anyone, that has experience forming an LLC and using that as a method of group investing in real estate, have any words of advice? We really want to be thorough in the creation of the legal documents to assure that no one gets "burned" during (what is to us) a large investment/risk.

Hi,

I'm a fairly new member to the site, and this is my first time posting, so apologies if this isn't the right section of the forum for this post.  This is basically my/our situation.

We are four college students who are completely debt free with the exception of utilities (phone bills, insurance, gas, food, etc.).  We all own our own cars and live with our parents because of the fact that our university is literally five minutes from our respective homes.  Rather than doing the "normal" thing that college grads do (like buying a car or getting into credit card debt) we have decided that we would like to pool our resources and invest in a multi-family real estate property so that we have a source of income.  We are located in an area of the country that has seen significant growth (30+% over the past ten years) and has a foreclosure rate of ~60% higher than average.  With that said, we feel that we have a great opportunity to invest in Real Estate BUT none of us have our "real jobs" yet.  

I personally am about to begin med-school, and my three friends are about a year-and-a-half from beginning their careers (~$40k - $60k/year before taxes).  What we wish to do is continue saving until we each have $10,000 each to put as a down payment on a multi family property (we're at approximately $5,000 each at the moment).  What we want to do is invest in a property, aid each other in the management, and split any profits/liabilities equally between the four of us.  For example, it would be much easier to pool resources and each make a $200/mo. payment, as opposed to attempting to pay $800/mo. as an individual, assuming we have to take on the entire mortgage/insurance/tax payments because of 100% vacancy.

Now before you say "Don't mix friends/family and finance." We know. However, we've known each other well enough, and are certain enough, that character issues won't be a problem. Arrogant, I know, but the question we have is how can we each contribute an equal amount of the down payment and receive equal amounts of profits/expenses? Is there a way to make a corporation or, for lack of a better term, small scale REIT? Sorry if this was long-winded, but I want to see if I can get any sort of help with my situation. Thanks in advance. Appreciate any help.