All Forum Posts by: Jody Sperling

Setting aside questions of environmental impact, using generic for fixtures, capital expenses, and fittings seem to be the best for renters. There is currently a program out for solar that makes panels cheaper than grid energy, in my market, so I did have one of my rentals equipped with solar, however, even that was a financial equation. The data seems to suggest my house will be worth more with the panels if I want to sell or refinance.

Only get the heat pump if you think it can increase the value of the house. Otherwise, take the less expensive, reliable route. Best of luck!

LANDLORDING ON AUTOPILOT by Mike Butler is, by far, the most influential real estate investing book I've read. It covers everything a new landlord needs to know, and so much you'd never consider until it happened to you, meaning you get a huge advantage of knowledge by reading it.

Plus, it's a great one in todays investor environment, because Mike built huge wealth sticking to single family homes. (Then again, if you devoted to multifamily, maybe this one wouldn't be ideal.)

Fix all the locks and entries first: including doors and windows. Buy an inexpensive video camera and use it during the evenings when not working on the property. Invest in a motion sensitive flood light.

If the neighborhood is too dangerous for these techniques to protect the home, you're going to have a big problem on your hands. Best of luck!

You can file a protest with the county board of equalization on the tax assessed value (it might have a different name in Illinois, but that's what it's called in Nebraska). The problem you'll likely face, though, is that by the time they check the property value, you'll already have begun improvements. If the deal is good enough, don't let a bad tax assessment stop you from taking the leap! Best of luck.

Don't just make an offer, get something under contract in the next 45 days. There's so much real estate to buy right now, and the first one changes your life. You might be fearful today, and even after you buy, you'll still be fearful, but every time you sign the title papers, a small part of cowardice leaves you forever. And even if you only ever get one investment property, it will put you ahead of 80% of American's in terms of retirement savings. But you won't stop at one. Some people never dive in, but no one stops at one. Best of luck!

It depends on what your goal is and how active you want to be with the money you save. If you have a strong work ethic, patience, and a desire to have true wealth, real estate investing will give you a much bigger ROI than a Roth IRA or any other stock market vehicle.

But if you just want to put money away and never think about it, a Roth is a fine place to store it. Putting it there as a holding vehicle for buying real estate will be more work than it's worth.

Perhaps look into a First Lien HELOC or a high cash value life insurance policy. Both of these are great, high-yield savings vehicles. Best of luck!

 I like the team over at Living Wealth. You can ask for Cy Kueffer. They base their policies on Nelson Nash's becoming your own banker. Tom Rutkowski is another guy I'd be interested to talk with. I believe he's commented in this thread. He designs policies a bit differently, using indexed life, if I recall, and I can't speak to that product as informedly.

There are a lot of business credit cards out there that are a great option to buy property. The issue you need to overcome is turning credit into cash as there still aren't any institutions that allow the purchase of property on a card itself.

The next major hurdle is ensuring you never buy at market value while using credit in this way. Business credit is ideal for flipping, whether to yourself as a rehabbed and refinanced rental, or to others for the immediate cash.

You don't want a situation where you can't refinance out all of the business credit, because once the interest starts flowing, it's crippling. Best of luck!

I am not an insurance salesperson. I've never been licensed in health and life, and none of the below is advice, but a slice of my experience. I  own and use whole life policies, and I couldn't be happier.

The fact that you listed infinite banking is game-changing. It can be so frustrating to try explaining why high cash value whole life insurance policies are so powerful. Initially, it puts a small drag on your cash reserves and cash flow, but when the system is at full efficiency, after the third year you have such a profound advantage over other investors. 

Any year could theoretically prove this wrong, but my policies have been averaging 6.5% growth after factoring in the dividend. 4% of that is guaranteed, so even if the insurer had a terrible year, I'm 100% certain I get my money. And loans are liquid and easy to get ahold of if you need them to pay for emergencies.

Remember how people were pissed at Elon Musk because he was living on loans from the growth of his stock in Tesla and therefore not paying any taxes? Well, you can do the same thing with your life insurance policy and you don't have to be a billionaire. Remember how Bill Gates lost half his earthly possessions when he divorced Belinda. Well, he'd've been shielded from that loss if it was held in a whole life policy. Remember how companies lose everything when they file bankruptcy? Well, if they have whole life policies, the money can't be surrendered or taken. (Check some of these claims as rules vary state to state, but it's sufficient to say, the protection offered by policies is another great reason to love them.)

Take the money. I regret not taking the money. My wife and I are conservative investors and after we finished a successful flip to ourselves, instead of getting as much cash out of it as we could, we were lured by the glamour  of higher cash flow on the rented unit.

Not long after, a great opportunity came up and we didn't have the cash to buy. Though we've been able to use private money a few times, the best deal got away because we couldn't move quickly enough.

Unless you know you're not going to be buying for a long while, take the money. And if you think you aren't going to be buying in a while, lend the money to someone who you trust who will be buying. You'll always make more money with money than the bank will save you by leaving it in equity.

Best of luck!