All Forum Posts by: Jason H Orahoske

I'm someone who likes to play it safe, so I want to make sure I'm covered properly and at the best price.  This was prompted by my search for a lower rate on my auto-insurance (I have geico, so it's already pretty low) but I realized lower rates are not what I have insurance for.  I need to be ready for everything, and I have put this off long enough.  I'm not sure if this belongs in this forum or not, but I'm searching for a reputable insurance agent who I can work with throughout my entire journey to financial independence, and probably beyond that.  I'm not sure where to begin my search, so I will post here and see if anyone has any recommendations for me.  Thank you.

That's going to be the second thing I research and use this site for now that I've got some more knowledge on how to proceed with my crap credit.  I don't care how close I am to the person staying with me, good boundaries make good housemates and I'm the one who is at risk if bad things happen, not the ones paying me.

I've got 40K in equity according to zillow (Which I don't trust that much...) so maybe 20K if I get screwed, but I'd rather keep it for awhile until I know how life is going to go for me.  I don't consider the place an investment, it's my home and while I intend to rent rooms out (and can possibly profit from that if I'm lucky) I am happy to pay the whole mortgage and utilities myself and live alone.  I've got a daughter who loves it, and the street is very quiet and a great place to live.  For now, while I rebuild not only my finances but also my life, it's the perfect place for me, and anything comparable would cost far more to rent and I have no intention of renting when I work from home and love my location already.  As long as the market doesn't tank, I should be able to sell it and cash out for even more than it's worth now in 2-5 years (coincidentally, the same time that I'll be ready to get into this world) after I've enjoyed it some more.

As for house hacking a duplex, or preferably a 3-4 plex, that is something I will learn how to do for when I do sell this place later.  I'd do it now but I like this place and don't know how to find and take advantage of deals yet.  That will most likely be my first move down this road though.

As for the emergency savings... why the heck do you think this divorce even happened?  We had a revolving 0, giant goose egg, and we were both savers but had one of those nice A frame relationships where weird things happen as the top of the A crumbles... 

Thank you all, I'm not sure why anyone would think waiting is not what I wanted to hear.  I have no intention of jumping in head-first with no plan.  I just don't want to waste my time planning if I screwed myself too hard in the past and have to wait 7 years instead of 2.  It will take me 2 years to educate myself and form my strategy, as well as saving up my money for down payments.  I have no intention of diving in headfirst, I know it's not a race.  If I wanted to race, I'd buy crypto instead of real estate...

As for my car, I screwed up on that one and am paying the price.  I'll sell the thing as soon as it's not underwater anymore, right now I need it and look forward to either owning it or something cheaper in Cash.  It's a nice Chevy volt though, so at least I can drive for free and not pay for gas (for the first 30 miles anyways...(not new, I owe 12k thanks to garbage warranty and bad loan terms, and it's worth between 8 and 9k))

I am living with my failure on both of these, I look forward to reclaiming my car payment as savings, as well as renting out my rooms and building up a nice emergency fund.  I will just build up a cash E-fund and forget about pre-payments as they are not necessary if I'm not being irresponsible (which I'm free from thank goodness) and let time fix this, that is clearly the best option here.

And no, I absolutely would not lend my best friend money in my situation.  If I had it to give, I'd give it to them straight up and say have fun.  However, I don't lend money I'm not willing to lose immediately to friends regardless of how rich or well off they are.

These were definitely rolling lates, bouncing anywhere from 30-90 but never going past that.  I could only afford one payment per month for too long, so every payment was considered late until I started fixing it in January.  

I'm not ready to take advantage of any deals yet, and will be spending the next year learning how this works so that I can dive in head first once I get my emergency buffers built up again.  I refuse to build a house of cards, I will build the real estate side of my passive income portfolio one boring brick at a time.  

I'm glad that "Alt-A"/"sub-prime" is becoming a thing again, I will consider them if I find something that is far too good to pass up.  I 100% agree on killer price is better than killer deal, that's why I posted this.  I wanted to make sure I wasn't shut out because of this.  I'll take any rate as long as the math works in my favor in the end.  And refinance ASAP to make it work even better for me.

Thank you everyone, I'll begin learning and reading and prepping.  Columbus, Ohio is a good market for rentals and I plan on taking advantage for as long as I'm here.

Ok, thanks for clarifying.  No late payments at all on my credit report until at least February of 2019 (that was my last late).  I can handle that, I'll make extra payments to make sure I'm a couple months ahead just in case disaster strikes.  I currently have 2 credit cards that I pay in full every pay check and a car payment that I'm trying to refinance and pay off.  Would it benefit me at all to get any other accounts to show that I have many that I am paying on time?  It'd be nice if there were things I could do to get that credit score ready so that I am offered the best interest rates, I was wondering if that was something I could do to help boost it up.

I am in zero danger of losing the home I own, and am actively working to get ready to buy my first rental as soon as possible.  But... I have this nightmare to deal with.  I worked my butt off at a second job to drag my stupid mortgage back from 90 days late for months (divorce+job loss+housefire=TMI but now you know why) to one month ahead, but now I have 75% of my payments marked as late and don't know how the heck to fix it.  Will anyone even think about lending me money for more real estate in the near future, even if I have 20% down?  How long do I have to wait before I can begin this journey?  Heck, what if I just wanted to move or refinance my current place (which I do actually)?  This is stressing me out, my score is a 580 right now and I'm doing all I can to fix it, get my cash flow minimized, get a down payment funded, and start the search for the best deal I can possibly find.  What can I do?

Will taking out more credit cards and paying them all on time help?  Should I bother PNC every day to try and get some of those removed even though they are 100% valid?  Or should I just give up now and wait 7 years to even think about this instead of preparing every single day for the day I can dive head first into this world?  How badly have I screwed myself?

I'd hide this embarrassing fact about me, but that's not what this site is for.  I need to find some answers, so I might as well start with the mess I'm in and go from there.  I won't be in a position to even refinance my current home until sometime next year, and then I can begin the process of building the rental empire one brick at a time.  Could I potentially be getting into this a year and a half from now, or am I stuck waiting 7 like I have a foreclosure???