All Forum Posts by: Joe E.

@Marlon Fong - Thanks for the helpful links! BP is now one of my homepages, & I will march through them. 

Hello BP members,

My name is Joe, and I'm new to real estate investing. I am a computer geek by training, but I am interested in generating passive income so that my family can have financial security and the opportunity to travel and have adventures (without the day job). 

My goal is to replace my family's income through real estate cash flow in 10-15 years. I am planning to purchase my first rental property, most likely a multi-family. I am slowly learning from the BP materials, running numbers to learn, and figuring out how to get my ducks in a row. This is a site is a great resource.

Joe

Hi there, I very recently joined & first posting here. As real estate investing is not my professional focus nor do I have background/experience around it, I've been thankful for finding sites like this!

I suspect like many newer folks here, I've marched through dozens of articles via this & other related sites (good grief there are plenty). Also, I spun up my own spreadsheet to help clarify the various calculations before using online calculators (I like to learn how things work). Plus, it lets all these newer concepts & formula marinate in my head as I figure out some key items ... mainly thinking through on what kind of real estate investor I want to be, what kind of portfolio I wish to build, and can I analyse deals properly. 

With that, here's my real estate investing scenario, and thanks in advance for the feedback and insight! 

Scenario: I own a 2 bd/1bath small condo in SE Michigan (Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area @ ~850 sq ft) which I lived in for ~ 15 years (nice small place along quiet, decent-sized lake), and moved recently out of state for a different job in same industry. So main decision point here: do I sell or rent this property? I have some thoughts on it, but wanted to see what more knowledgeable folks had to say on the matter.

Numbers: Here are my numbers on the property sale: 

Sale Summary: Agent's comps and market analysis seems good (I've lived in area for 15 years, so passed my gut check), so I could close this property out & should get a ~$10,000 check at closing.

As to renting, the current financial model from a re-fi some years ago provides a negative cash flow. In order to get positive cash flow, I'd have to stretch the rent amount just to break even.

Another financing option would be to re-fi the condo again, basically re-finance remaining $66,000 amount with 20% down @ 5% on a 30-yr fixed:

Rent Summary: I'd have to re-fi & put 20% down in order to have good CoC return (down payment + improvements + agent fee + closing costs), as well as a positive, somewhat plausible cash flow. Also, I'd be moving this property into a LLC.