All Forum Posts by: Jennifer Slaughter

@Daniel F. Harb, I agree, when you are just getting started it feels like you're drinking from a firehose.  What are the parts that are scary to you and where are you at in the process?

@TJ Walker, so many good questions! There are several resources but I like irr.com. On the "Research" tab you can run a report on most MSAs and you can see where the market cycle is at and compare areas side by side.

@Johnny Quilenderino, congrats and thanks for sharing! Where are you buying, do you have partners, etc. We want to hear more about your execution.

@Parker Steele, it sounds like you have a diverse background, is your education in Engineering or Marketing? 

Your post popped up in my keyword alerts because you mentioned Colorado State University, it's my Alma Mater and I also took some classes through the Global campus. The global campus is great because you can take the classes around your schedule but I agree with what some others have said, tapping your network, putting in the hours and working your way up will get you the best results.

No doubt, if you have military experience you can adapt and work the long hours. I would want to evaluate the total time and financial investment that it would take as you are getting experience and working your way up.  It really depends on what your end game goal is.  Whatever your goal is, you can get to it through various paths and some are more treacherous than others.  Is your ultimate goal to be a project engineer/GC or to be a full time investor?

Hi Jack Ropp , great question and I’m sure you will get a variety of opinions. Some people don’t see student loans as bad debt but as debt towards an investment in your education. Sometimes it’s viewed the way a mortgage is. Some people see it like it’s credit card debt. I can tell you what I did. My husband and I had some cash set aside so we aggressively paid down the principle on my debt and paid it off quickly, I’m glad we did. We debated whether or not we should—the interest rate was incredibly low and apples to apples, we could have gotten a greater return if we had continued to make student loan payments and invested in a cash flowing rental. However, I think the principle (no pun) of paying off debt really helps to set a foundation and a mindset for your investing career. You will have to make sacrifices and take aggressive actions to minimize risk as well as your debt to income ratio. I think that since your credit score is lower you should take the opportunity to pay down the principle on your debt and let your credit score come up. That way, when you are ready to invest you will have a higher credit score, a lower interest rate on your mortgage and a lower DTI. Best of luck, it’s great that you’re getting started so young.

@John Park, we always put deadlines on our offers. Depending on the market we give 1-3 days before the offer expires.  The exception to this is when the sellers agent has defined a review, such as "we will review offers on Tuesday at noon", even then we expire our offer 24 hours after review.

@Chris Luger, can you see who your competition is? How many other exec rentals are there in your area and what are they renting for? It might be a slow time of year for new leases but we rented an exec rental last year this time---cross country move, being under contract with a new home, etc. and I'm sure there are others going through transitions during this time of year.

@Tom Anderson, how terrible, I'm sorry to hear about this.  It sounds like you have gotten some good advice, I think the local PMs and insurance Co.'s would be good resources.  Hopefully Servepro is better than the others, best of luck.

@David K., that is awesome and you're welcome! I think you are asking good questions, keep plugging away.

@David K., in response to your question about choosing an investment without seeing the area or properties, check out this blog post for some resources that can help you evaluate a market

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/10284/67625-why-do-you-invest-in-that-market

I also agree with @Jay Hinrichs, those are worries you will likely have anytime you own real estate.