All Forum Posts by: Jake Thompson

In @Anson Young's new book, Finding and Funding Deals, he talks about using listsource. I personally don't have experience with direct mail yet, however. Best of luck with your marketing!

Have you talked to your dad about his opinion? It sounds like he's a very experienced investor and could provide a lot of insight. I personally would recommend a 2-4 unit property that you and your partner househack. Since you have a substantial amount of money I would suggest getting a fixer upper, and combine the househack strategy with the BRRRR strategy. If you can put yourself in a situation that allows you to cash out refi 6,12,18 months down the road, you could get your money back, and be living for free (or close to it).

You could definitely go to another market that provides more cash flow, but there are a few things to look out for. First, you will need to build up a trusted network to manage the property while you are away. BiggerPockets is a great place for that. The other thing that people often forget is that in a larger city like San Diego you have a lot of rental demand and resources at your disposal. In a small town you may have a higher vacancy rate due to less demand, you may not get the kind of rental appreciation you can in a larger town (although you NEVER want to bet on appreciation). Additionally, you may have a hard time finding vendors in a smaller town. On one of the recent podcasts, @Brandon Turner was discussing how hard it can be to find good vendors (A plumber in his particular case). All of these things are just important to consider. You can certainly invest in an area with better cash flow, you just need to do your homework.

Personally, my wife and I are househacking a duplex in La Mesa right now. We have been considering investing in an area with better cash flow and then moving out of the duplex and renting our primary residence. There are some really nice million dollar plus homes that we can rent for cheaper than buying. That's a little ways down the road for us however.

I also agree with @Jon Holdman, the rent needs to be received, not postmarked by the necessary date.

@Account Closed Very true. Some options, such as direct bank to bank transfers typically don't have fees. Some have the option to structure a 100/0 split or 50/50 split and are very reasonable. Here is a link to a BP article on ways to pay rent online.

The first step is to try not to get emotionally involved (I know, easier said than done). If you can keep emotions out of it and treat this as a business transaction, your stress levels will be much lower. I'm speaking from personal experience in getting way too emotional with my own units.

I would encourage the tenants to pay online, as that is typically more efficient than hand delivering or mailing a check. If the bank takes 5,10, 100 days to send the payment, then they need to submit the payment early enough that it still gets there by the deadline. You can look into other ways to accept online payments and talk to the tenants about using a different service that is more efficient.

Talk to the tenant and calmly and professionally tell them the expectations: That the rent will be in your hands by whatever date, regardless of their delivery method. If it's past the grace period they must pay a late fee. If the rent has not been paid by whatever date then they will be issued a notice to pay or quit. If they don't pay within the allowed time frame they will be evicted. You will need to look up your state/county's laws regarding eviction and rents to figure out how much time they are allowed and what type of notices you need to give. Just make sure to calmly spell out the terms and the penalty of failing to meet those terms. You aren't being mean, you're running a business. Just like the bank isn't being mean by requiring you to pay your mortgage on time.

@Peter Crabtree Have the tenant cancel the money order and hand deliver a new one. I would try to look into setting up some form of online payments or a way to discourage tenants mailing their checks. It sounds like in this case it really did get lost in the mail, since he has the receipt and has been prompt every other month. But who knows for sure. Ask him if he'd like to choose a different payment method in the future.

@Account Closed. These will give you a GREAT foundation for what you need to know. I would try to narrow down and either focus on flipping or buy and hold to start though, not both. If you want to go into real estate full time right after high school you could focus on building a business around flipping, and then once you are experienced with that you can use the capital to start buying rentals. You should be laser focused in order to achieve success though, and trying to do too many things can hinder you. Hope this helps and good luck!

I would caution you against leaving your job right away. It definitely can be done, and if you absolutely hate your job you need to find a way to get out as soon as possible. However, the failure rate for agents is pretty high from what I understand. It requires a lot of hustle for sure. There are also other ways to get involved in real estate that include property management, working for a lender, wholesaling, birdogging, etc. If you haven't already, check out the book 'Set For Life' by BIggerpockets' own @Scott Trench. He sets out a great path for picking up your first rental by saving and househacking. As others have pointed out as well, the w-2 job will be very helpful in qualifying for a bank loan. You can try to combine the househacking strategy with the BRRRR strategy as well to pull your money back out. Rinse and repeat every year or 2 and you will be financially free before not very long at all! Ask your lender about the fha 203(k) loan.

Good luck and congrats on making the decision to start investing in real estate! 

Just as others have said, do it online. I'm in the middle of doing mine at onlineed.com. It's $200 and I'm just trying to fly through it as quickly as possible. Once I get my license the real learning will begin, according to the owner of my PM company I will be working at. He tells me the courses are to pass the test, the experience is where you will learn.

@Pedro that sounds awesome! Did you take the classes here in San Diego?