All Forum Posts by: Jeremy S.

Congrats! I hope it all works out for you. Good luck on the next deal!

That is awesome! Congrats!

@Robert King

I just checked your profile after I replied and see that you are military. Thank you for your service! You should check out http://www.reluctantlandlord.net/ or search for Elizabeth Colegrove on the forums here. She invests in buy and hold properties using VA loans or least got started that way. Her husband is in the Navy. However, she also worked or still does to help continue to invest in properties. If someone can tag her please do so because it will not let me. I listened to her Bigger Pockets podcast a couple days ago. I see her helping others out a lot on the forums. Once again good luck.

I just graduated with two Bachelor degrees. I have A LOT of student debt, that being said, I make a lot of money and how my job is set up I can save money to use towards REI. Will I be using my degrees in 5 years? Probably. 10 years? Who knows. I know many investors on here are going to tell you having a good W-2 job will allow you get financing a lot easier when just starting out investing. Banks like to see that you are established and have steady income coming in. Some people will tell you that you can do it without a steady job or a degree it may just be harder to start out. I view my degrees as a means to an end and a back fall if times ever get tough if I try to open my own business or go full-time into real estate (I am just getting started, don't think I'm trying to act like I know it all). If you are positive you want to go into real estate align yourself with mentors and maybe pursue your real estate license or a related field that you can learn about REI. My only advice is don't go to college just to go to college like a lot of people do in our generation. Go for a field you LOVE or at least one you like, but that is highly desired and pays well. That way you can use the income to pursue other goals. Good luck to you. If your anything like me you will change your mind 100 times, but if you want to be "successful" you will ultimately find your own path to whatever you define success as.

@Michael Rogers

Congrats on being able to work part-time and being able to swing having your wife stay at home with the kids. I think having the freedom to make those choices is many investors end goals or at least one of them. That is an awesome achievement.

@J Scott
Multiple people have told me their first property was the hardest to buy. Congrats on all your success. I have heard your name multiple times on the BP podcasts, but I haven't listened one of yours yet. I have been randomly jumping around on the feed. I'll make sure to do so tomorrow!

I am just getting started in real estate investing and plan to house hack my first investment property within the next year. Listening to the BP podcast everyday and reading the forums gets me super excited about REI. I bet the first deal stands out in an investor's mind, but what is one achievement, directly or indirectly, related to REI that you feel is your greatest achievement or the one you are most proud of. From your first deal, to your 500th, to quitting your job, etc. I am interested to find out what different investors see as their greatest acheivement is.

I hope I am not breaking any rules by posting this. I remember seeing a rule about chasing mentors. I am in the stage of building capital and knowledge before I go after my first deal. I live and want to invest in the Pittsburgh area, however I am working in the Chicago area for at least the next month or three. It could be until Christmas, I am honestly not sure how long I will be here.

I want to trade some labor painting/ landscaping/ whatever needs done for an investor in return to gain some knowledge on why they bought the property and dive into the numbers behind the deal. I would prefer to work with someone who does buy and hold deals because that is what I want to do, but I am open to whatever. I would like to work side by side with an investor who is still in the stage that they complete a lot of the smaller stuff that needs done. Basically I don't want to be just thrown into a unit and told hey give me a call when you are done painting and I will show you the numbers behind the deal. I rather work WITH someone not FOR.

That being said, I get off at 5pm most days so it would have to be after that during the weekdays. I am free pretty much every Saturday and Sunday, but sometimes will have to work an 8 hour day o a Saturday which I get off at 2:30PM those days.

Many people are going to think I am an idiot for posting this, but I have no friends in the area and most of my free time is either spent reading about REI, going to the gym (an excessive amount), or sleeping in on the weekends since I don't do anything so it is just wasted time.

I really enjoy doing this kind of work and actually miss it since I am now a supervisor and do not do labor anymore. There is instant gratification in working on a house that I do not get at work. Please connect with me or let me know of a person in Chicago that would be interested in something like this. One last thing- I live in Romeoville and work in Lockport so please if you are deep in the city or on the other side of the city I cannot make it down there. Traffic is too bad and I work 12 hour shifts so I do not want to spend over an hour trying to get down towards the city! If it is on the weekend I can probably swing it! Thanks in advance!

@William Wong

 @Helen Kirk

I have not invested in real estate to students however I just graduated college and have some experience from a tenant view point on this subject. I went to school north of Pittsburgh PA for some background on area.
For the first year it was mandatory to live on campus in really nice dorms, but they were small and cost around 6k-7k a year which is crazy when you only live there for less than 8 months. Most people move off campus as soon as they can. For three years I lived in a 4 bedroom house with 3 other guys. We were all on separate leases which helped, in my opinion, both us as tenants and the landlord. We had two roommates drop from the lease (after signing) in the very beginning. What was going to happen is me and my other roommate still only paid our rent ($450 per person) and those two people were still responsible for their rent unless they found people to replace them and take their lease. We had to approve of whoever took over of course though. We could of screwed those two people by not finding anyone and just living in that 4 bedroom house while they had to pay rent, but we found other people to live there to help them out. The renters also paid for water and electric. The landlord paid cable and internet. They made an absolute killing off of that house. They were bringing in $1,800 a month and I would be surprised if they paid anymore than 30K for the house within the last ten years.
Larger apartment buildings were also popular for students to live at in my college town and all of those companies used separate leases for each individual person. It makes it easier on everyone when a bad apple in the group wants out of the lease because it will not affect the other tenants and usually the apartment building had a list of one or two people who were looking to move in with one or two other people. It was often times hard to always have 4 people to go in on a lease.

There are pros and cons with renting to students from my experience:

Pros: 1. Students can use there federal loans, grants, or private loans as a proof of income and means to pay rent. This is commonplace. I did it for some of my rent and never was late. 2. When you rent to students especially renting houses they do not expect a very nice place (in general). There were multiple things wrong with our house, but we were young and had parties so we didn't care. Parties being mentioned we took care of the house and got back 100% of our security deposits after 3 years of living there. Bottom line many students aren't expecting a perfect place. All of us guys were pretty handy so when something small went wrong we would let them know, but we would just fix it. I do not know if you will find that to be true with a group of girls you may get many more calls if multiple things fail on your duplex. 3. Someone mentioned that they only live there 8 or 9 months out of the year. That is true, just make year long leases. It is an easy fix. Many times like my situation, I was paying rent, but no one was living there over summer so there is less wear and tear in that situation. Landlords will often get permission to do fixes during this time too since no one is in there, but rent is still coming in.


Cons: 1. DRAMA. There is constant BS a lot of times with students. A lot of people will want out of leases from fights or dropping out, etc. 2. Parties. There will be parties. How my landlord curved it at my place is they had security pass our house on the weekend since they had a huge apartment complex next door. I know this probably isn't feasible for you, but get creative and just enforce your lease. 3. Higher turnover than normal renters unless you have a competitive market for houses like my town did.


I feel that renting to students can be very profitable, but there is definitely a lot of risk. There was a handful of landlords that made an absolute killing in my college town. They were very successful. If the duplexes they had were in regular small town America they would get a fraction of rents compared to what they were getting. I just listened to a BP podcast that addressed this. I think it was 86. Give it a listen and good luck! Let me know if you have any other questions about my experience!

Thanks for the replies! I figured a lot of people experience the same thing as I do with family/ friends.

I am surprised that no one has any opinion on this or at least voicing it! I am sincerely interested in REI investor's experience with other's opinions of what they were doing during the beginning of their career and throughout their career.