All Forum Posts by: Dave J.

I use mint. Mint is owned by Inuit, who purchased it to replace quicken. Quicken was very secure, and Mint is equally so. It's read-only, so you do risk a hacker getting information about your accounts, but not access to your accounts directly.

I would not hesitate to try it, Bryan. It gives you a reasonable breakdown on your spending habits, and a simple view of your stock investments. The only thing I don't like about it is the advertising spam. It's a well built product.

Can anyone give me a pointer on how to find a deal? I'm a bit of a noob here, but the rational me might assume that if a park is listed on public sites such as loopnet.com, that they might not be a deal at that point.

Should I look for parks that are bank owned? Any strategy info is appreciated.

Dave

Thanks for all of the great advice, guys and gals.

I'm hoping to suck up some of this collective knowledge and take action on it. There is too much to learn, and little time in our lives.

Dave

Thanks for the advice guys. Mitch, what type of deals are you seeing for apt buildings in the Tacoma area? Is that what you do?

Steve, how difficult is that area to get into (distressed notes, and hard money), and how safe is it? I know less about those than the little I know about purchasing homes and being a landlord. I would not mind managing prop managers, and being a ruthless bastard, but I doubt I could replace my current income if I jumped into RE Investing full time anytime soon.

I'm new, think I get the basic financial fundamentals of buy and hold, which I think is what I'm interested in.

Alternately, I'm open to anything that might work.

I live in Seattle. I'm 35 years old. I make about 130k salary. I currently rent a condo, and have about 300k in cash savings to get started with. I need a good strategy.

I think buy and hold is out of the question here. I could invest out of state, but am green to how much work that would be to get moving, and the steps I need to take. I could move anywhere, work, and get a simliar salary. Even places where it's cheaper to live like Vegas, or AZ. I don't want to manage properties, but I would be fine learning to manage property managers. I don't have a target retirement age. I'll probably work until I'm dead. I do want to create enough wealth to bring in about 50-100k yearly when I'm done with it all. I don't want to be rich. I just want to be able to pay the bills if I can't work, and help family.

So single, and multi-family does not look terribly difficult to get into and learn, but what about self storage? I have enough money to get a downpayment on a smaller lot, or maybe a small apt building in a lower cost of living area. I know there have been a lot of self storage lots going for cheap around the Boise Idaho area. Also low property taxes there.

If I don't drop my savings on a downpayment, am I best off leveraging as much as humanly possile on smaller purchases to get started?

Can any of you successful veterans give me a breakdown on what you would do if you were me? It would be much appreciated.

Thanks for the info Mike. You know better than I. I'm new to the area. I'm looking at the surrounding areas, like Shoreline, Lynwood, etc... Seems like rent is way too low for these dumps (1000-1300ish) that cost 200k. I'm new to the area, and by the look of things, won't be investing in WA.

Hi guys. I'm new, but have lurked for a while. I'm considering jumping into the game, but am still pondering strategies and goals, and need to get in and start working at it, or do something else.

It does not help that I'm living in the Seattle area, where rent is low and prices are high.

I work in the tech sector. I'm wondering if there is anyone else here on biggerpockets from the area, or any local RE Investing groups?