All Forum Posts by: Gary Heuston

NC also has some large Medical facilities and Schools, so the Winton-Salem area seems ripe for short term rentals around Baptist Hospital and Wake Forest University to name a few.  Houses around there aren't crazy expensive but short term rentals seem to get traffic.  Something to research.

check out Brandon Turner's book/audiobook "The Book on Investing in Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down" for some really good advice on this. Basically, you use other people's money in various ways including partnerships, loans, etc.  it's worth a read no matter what your strategy because in my opinion this is how you really get big in Real Estate.

So yes, you can replace your income with passive income, it just takes a bit longer when you have more income to replace.  If your willing to work for it, this is all possible.

If you average say $250/door/month in rental income after expenses, to replace your $20k/month you need to have 80 doors making this.  You're not starting out with no money and trying to make that work, so this makes it a bit easier of course.  At this point you should spend most of your time reading, learning, understanding everything you can about this business.

Start here:  https://www.biggerpockets.com/... and read everything you can.  Listen to the Biggerpockets podcasts, you can learn a lot about how other people have taken this journey.  Your goal here is to learn, learn, learn just like anything else in life!  Once you have a bit of knowledge under your belt, start looking at your local area and just watch the real estate market and see whats happening...see how houses are being sold, how quickly, what price ranges, what you are getting for that price range, etc.

The more time you can spend analyzing properties, reading, understanding the less time it will end up taking to move forward into your first deal.  Decide what your goal is to get out of your current situation (5 years?  10 years?  20 years?) and make a strategy based on that.  Write your goals down DAILY to keep them fresh in your mind, and always be working towards those goals.  Try to impregnate this mindset in your everyday life...the more obsessed you are the better you will do with this.

As for the comment about getting a divorce...have a serious sit down talk with your significant other and let them know exactly what you are thinking, what your goals are, why you are doing this, and that they may have to put up with you being a little more absent for a little while so you can be a lot more available later.  Any spouse in it for the long haul should understand and be willing to support this venture as long as you are willing to keep them in the loop of what you are doing...who knows, they may want to go in with you which would be awesome!  Open communication is the key to happy relationships...

here's my thoughts...

The market is very hot right now, so finding a deal in a major metropolitan area is going to be harder unless your willing to accept a distressed property and rehab it (which is really where investing bread and butter is anyway).  If your hoping to make a deal out of a 400k house your going to need to find a distressed seller who needs to get out fast and will take a hit on it, but again houses sell in hours now so that's going to be hard.

why not look at some of the bedroom communities around these areas, outside the main city limits where working class people are likely to live, you may have better luck.  With property management already figured into your deal, the amount of time you should spend managing this property should be minimal, freeing you up for your job or looking for more deals.

Throwing more money at a deal doesn't make it a better deal.  Run these properties through the BP calculators and pay attention to more then just cashflow, watch your Cash on Cash return, Individual Rate of Return, etc. and get an idea of what a deal really looks like.  The market is tough right now but with the right strategy you can still make it happen!  

Note: I'm new as well :)

This seems like a good scenario for a cash out refi on the duplex, pull the $184k and re-invest in new properties.  Personally I would rather put the risk on my rental property rather than my primary residence if I could help it.  If the duplex is making money comfortably and you don't see any red flags (neighborhood going downhill, area losing jobs or population, etc) I would keep it and grow your portfolio by whatever means makes sense.  $184k is enough to get you into at least an $800k property with all costs (don't forget about any rehab necessary), or several lower price properties. Your going to have to work to find a good deal in this market, but they are out there! 

Just be careful because getting a mortgage based on the idea this is a residence for you and then renting it out has legal implications that you don't really want to cross. You're better off just being honest up front.

trulia.com is another place you can get all this information, if your looking at single family residences.  Each property has a tab for what schools it's assigned to which you can then look up on greatschools, and there's a crime map tab.  You can search for rentals to get an idea of what rents look like in your area of choice.

I'm gonna cut and paste from another thread :)

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

in the middle of that link you will see "The Book on Investing in Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down". Start here, but read/listen to everything else on this list (personally I Audible everything), and everything else you can get hold of, and then everything on this site, the BiggerPockets podcast, and get involved in discussions here. If your interested in investing, the first step is to learn everything you can about it so that when the time comes you have a lot of options for whats called Creative Financing. Once you have figured out your strategy then start looking at opportunities for investments and running numbers.

Honestly most of what I learn is through Audiobooks or listening to the BP Podcast.  Audible is nice because I can listen pretty much anytime I want...while I'm driving, working around the house, sitting around doing nothing, etc.

It may sound cheesy but I like Grant Cardone books a lot - his energy  (he does his own reading) helps keep me motivated!   I'm gonna throw a few books in there as well:

- How to Invest in Real Estate, Josh Dorkin and Brandon Turner

- Be Obsessed or Be Average, Grant Cardone

- The Book on Investing in Real Estate with No and Low Money Down, Brandon Turner

- Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat - David Greene

- Trump: The Art of the Deal - take a guess :)

- The 10X Rule, Grant Cardone

- Set for Life, Scott Trench

Hi @Michael Carbonare,  do you have any more information on Cooperative Assignments?  This is something I hadn't heard of and there doesn't seem to be a lot of info out there about that one!