All Forum Posts by: Michael Powell

Audiobooks are my favorite.  Anything by Thomas Stanley: Millionaire Next Door, Millionaire Mind, Stop Acting Rich.  Also, the Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Keller is a nice one.  Brandon Turner's audiobook on Rental Property Investing is also excellent.

@Joshua Peacock  Welcome to BP!  I think this is a great place to be to grow your personal network and to get educated.  I listed to the Book on Rental Property Investing by Brandon Turner on audible and it helped light the fire for me to get involved again in the real estate market.  It seems you've got the right mindset going in and congrats on your new job.  

MP

"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can" - Arthur Ashe

For residential single family homes, the area that you know the values best is likely the one you're in right now.  Ideally look for a nice rental house in an owner occupied neighborhood.  Make sure you understand the math behind the investment.  I started out with networking at the local real estate club and networking with realtors who understood investors needs.  Go out and look at 100 hundred houses if you have to, make offers on those that make sense, and you'll eventually walk away with a prize.  

@Brian Adams I read about your story from working long hours as a CPA to having that 'aha moment' where you said to yourself, my clients are doing this, why not me?  And then it seems the rest is history.  It was truly inspiring.  Congratulations on all the success from your action plan.

When I read about deals like yours like closing on a 240 unit apartment, it gives me the enthusiasm to pursue my first multifamily and continue to move up.   As I told @Gino Barbaro in his thread about busting through your limitations, it's invigorating to see these success stories happening.  And on your terms.  

Alright, back to business...

Thank you @Gino Barbaro for the words of advice.  Good thing is that many things can be delegated and it'll make it possible.  You've created some great discussions here on bigger pockets and look forward to reading more.

@Cassie Sherie I absolutely agree.  Business is a team sport and I want to recruit the best to work with :)  Thank you for the encouragement.

I think what holds me back on multi-family is fear of the unknown, maybe fear that this investment is going to take up all my time (I've enjoyed watching my ten month old daughter grow up since day 1 since I work from home), but I know it's an irrational fear and I just need to go out and do it!  

False evidence appearing real - that's all there is to it!  

It's very hard to get a business loan without at least 6 months of business financial statements.  When I started my small business in 2007, several banks turned me down and one "business friendly" bank refused to even let me open a bank account until I had been in business for 6 months.

If your borrowing personally, I found that penfed credit union offers some very competitive rates.  All you have to do is open an account with $5 online at penfed.org and you can access all their loans/line of credit products.

Also, peer to peer lending sites like lending club and prosper can be in the 7%-8% interest (fixed loan) range with excellent credit.

Lending Club offers a business line of credit up to 300k.  

Also, the way I found my deal was by joining Toastmasters at a local real estate club.  You get to know the folks in there very well if you keep going the meetings.  Usually there are lots of realtors that go.  Just continue to network and you can make things happen even starting from 5k.

When I started, I had about $5000 to invest as well.  I found an owner finance property, and the owner only wanted a 5% down payment.  The house was 114k so I partnered up with a friend who contributed another 5k and that was my first deal!