All Forum Posts by: John McConnell

 I have learned not only some great info but also met many people who already have a finger on the pulse of the local markets. REIAs are the best thing since sliced bread. I've heard some are not so good and have sales pitchy themes.... The alternative is to establish your own and make it all about what you need answers to at first as well as figuring out the best ways to help others in the process. There is no law of nature that says any of this has to be done a certain way. As long as gravity isn't the hindering factor then you should be good. Maybe check on meetup for alternative clubs as well. You would be surprised. Good luck!

You can move that Ira into an Ira that can be used specifically for investing in property if I'm not mistaken. I'm pretty sure I have heard it on the podcast a coupe times... I want to say Ira and 401 accounts can be moved somehow into an investment instrument that can be used to purchase real estate. Don't know how the tax shifts but I think they said it makes more sense than trying to liquidate and then use the money. Maybe search on here for that. Good luck! 

dumb newbie questions still....

So I'm looking at a 4plex for house hacking I plan on paying my portion of the rent into it as well as deducting 8-10% for management even though I'm going to own/occupy. I think also 10% would be a safe guess for vacancy. Current tenants 1 lease expires in a couple month the other 2 next year. Going to try to do a va loan no money down 100% finance (very first house ever purchased). The place had been done/kept nice. It almost looks like it has been recently refreshed. Price is 225k. Rents gross monthly 2675. All utilities paid by tenants. Taxes are 4396 ( I know ). So if I swag the numbers I come up with 786.60 (which is not enough for mortgage). That would be gross rent - 50% - vacancy (10%) - management (10%) - taxes. I know I'm missing insurance which I'm guessing would be 1500-2000. So am I over estimating this or does this swag look like it makes sense. If it does make sense then this is a horrible deal. If I'm over estimating then it might be a decent deal. But I think overestimation is better. The question is how much over estimation. Thank you in advance for any suggestions or criticisms. 

Still crunching numbers as well. Trying to figure out a great 1st investment (and very first house ever). Don't want to screw it up. I'm going to check out @kevin seidlecki for the blog and see what's up.  Think you might be missing some calculations though like capex and vacancy. Do you already have money set aside for these? Are all the other rentals 3/1 or are they 3/2? Makes a difference as well for rent prices. Not trying to sharpshooter just asking. Thanks for the post @sheldene m.

@Zack Karp great info.seems to be counter intuitive even based off info on the podcast. But it sound like a lot of great advice. So going forward a lot of us would probably like the idea of getting away from our w2 jobs. From a pure investment lending perspective if the work environment is not really a burden would you recommend staying with a w2 as long as possible just to allow for a broader borrowing platform? I aspire to be a buy and hold investor over the long term, small multi family. I was planning on retiring in about 5-6 years, buying properties along the path until retirement and then seeing where to go from there. But I wonder if I can just stay at my job it will allow me to potentially seek out other Geographic markets and still provide the need for conventional lending as a strategy. Your thoughts? Thanks for the great post. Subbed for future reference. I think the blog idea is a good fit for this type of info.

Place looks amazing!  I like how you have restructured here and there minimally but the overall effect came out really nice!  Opened the space and let more light in.  Love it!  GLWS!

mark. More for the budgeting. Thank you!

Some good info. Still building my checklist but this is for sure a possibility of finding a turnkey property. Are all of these overarching expenses are considered CAPEX (roofing, furnace, water heater, carpet/paint, window replacement)? What would be the determining factors of what exactly is CAPEX? When an inspection is done prior to buying can some of the big stuff be rolled into a 203K loan (if it looks like you will need CAPEX things done within the first year or so)?

i just found it one day and thought i would share with the group. Im still at step one of my journey and learning like a 1st grader to the alphabet. Always looking for new tools to put in the shed. Probably will not use it too much since it is based on the west coast but who knows what the future will bring. I think that was the main reason i found it to begin with because i was looking for ways to find comps and figure out valuations. Thanks for all of tour input thus far!

http://www.greatreodeals.com/