All Forum Posts by: Jordan Fulmer

There's definitely a mix. There are plenty of "gurus" out there that will charge a hefty fee and then give you vague and generic advice over the entire coaching term. It's honestly sad.

But then there are coaching programs that are totally worth it. If you have one that has been verified by people you know, then it can definitely springboard your investing career. It will certainly give you the push to get started and not be stagnant because they're all pretty pricey.

Creative financing can definitely be a good option. We ran into the same issue you're talking about. We bought our first rental and put down about 25%. While the cash flow on it was decent, it would take a while to save up for another down payment. We bought our next handful of properties using creative financing, which allowed us to buy a lot more than going the traditional route. There's always the BRRRR method as well, but most of the properties we purchased didn't really fall under that category.

I wouldn't go out of state until I had some experience under my belt. You need to get used to walking through and evaluating properties before even thinking about buying them without seeing them. At least that's my opinion. We've bought several properties, but everything is usually so involved I couldn't imagine being remote without having an awesome team.

I agree with figuring out which real estate investing strategies you want to focus on. Many people just start marketing looking for "deals" but don't know what to do once they start getting leads. If you know what you're looking for, you'll be better at evaluating deals.

Networking is important as well. Not only for talking with people that can help you with your investing strategy, but also people with different strategies that you can pass off deals to. For example, you may have a deal that doesn't work for you as a wholesaler, but someone else that does creative financing may be able to make it work. As you talk more with people, these relationships will begin forming.

That sounds really high. Do you have a breakdown of the costs? I'd be curious to know what line items are the heavy hitters.

Rocket Lawyer is a decent option. They make it pretty easy for you.

Hey Keith, our first deal wasn't anything spectacular. We bought it from a friend of my wife's aunt, a flipper, who had recently renovated the house. It's a decent little rental that produces some cash flow, but we simply got traditional financing for it, requiring at least 20% down. We weren't satisfied with just one, but the problem was that we couldn't make that large of a down payment again for another year or so. So it was really our second deal that was the big one for us. We actually located it through direct mail. We were able to work out a creative finance deal with the seller, where we created a wraparound mortgage with her. The nice part here is that we only had to put down 10K vs. around 35K for this house. That type of deal allows us to buy many more properties since there is so much less money out of pocket. :)

Not to say it can't be done, but it may be a hard sell if it is listed with an agent unless they have an open mind. If it's a FSBO, that's a different story. But either way, my approach would probably be a wraparound mortgage where you create a new loan with the seller that "wraps around" their existing loan. The principal amount and payment of the new loan would need to be greater than or equal to the existing loan.

Has it already gone to auction? 

If not, buying it shouldn't be a problem. Just make sure your title company is aware of it and that they get the upcoming auction canceled. 

From my understanding, Lis Pendens is part of the foreclosure process in a state that does judicial foreclosures, and it is akin to a Notice of Default in non-judicial states.

I'd go with KILZ Original. Although we've never used it for this application, we've used it a ton for getting rid of pet and smoke odors. Like it's been mentioned here, make sure to use it everywhere - walls, subfloor, ceilings, everything.

Unfortunately, the repainting the owner did will not cut it since latex paint is pretty lousy at trapping in smells. The KILZ Original is oil-based, so it does a much better job at locking it in.

Property management typically charges 10% of the monthly rent. 

We usually set aside 15% for vacancy and maintenance in a reserve account that fills up until needed. You won't use it every month, but when a sizeable repair comes up, you'll be glad it's there.