All Forum Posts by: Josh Collins

@James Martin Thanks James.  I'll be sure to look Alex Craig up.  

@Matthew Taylor Thanks Matthew.  I'll wait to rate Elizabeth until after I try out Elwood's!  ;0) 

I'm hoping to make the meetup and run into a few local investors.  

@Elizabeth Wilson You're the best!  Thank you for the tip on the meetup.  I was going to see if I could find something to attend.  7:30 am is a great time for me too.  I can get there and back before the rest of my family gets going for the day.  

(I was going to ask for food recommendations but I thought that would have been tacky.  Thanks for keeping my conscience clean! ;0) )

I was wondering if anyone in the Memphis, TN area would have any info on turnkey properties in the area?  I'm going to be in the area for vacation next week and would like to get a feel for the area as well as get a bit of a virtual neighborhood tour from a turnkey property provider or other investors in the area.  

I'd be totally fine with driving myself around but I'd like some details on deals that investors or flippers have gotten in the past.  If you were willing to share purchase price, address, and current rents I'd love to explore.   I wouldn't contact renters or anything like that, I just want to do some drive-bys and get a feel for the area, the neighborhoods and overall the market in general.  

I've been exploring the idea of investing in turnkey real estate outside of my market but feel like I should have an idea about the area I'm buying into.  

Thank you in advance!

@Brian Ambuel Welcome.  I'm an east-sider who invests in real estate near the MN/WI border.  I consider it the new frontier!  I don't pretend to have it figured out but I have 4 years in the books of investing in the far east metro.  As others have suggested, there are plenty of bad deals out there.  Keep running numbers so you know what a good deal looks like and be ready to jump on it.  They're still out there....

I like the learn a trade option.  However, to make real money, you need to treat your first job like you are in training to start your own business.  Don't take the highest paying job, take the job that will give you the most potential and most training.  In most trades, you can work for 2 - 3 years and branch off and do your own thing.  In the end, you'll never get rich (okay, never say never) working for someone making $20-70/hour.  What you want to do is leverage employees and make $10/hour on each of them.  But I think you need to know the skill/trade really well first.  For 3 years, IMO you should say 'Yes' to any and all overtime or extra work to make extra money and get as much experience as possible.  

While learning a trade, I'd say figure out a way to house-hack a duplex or tri-plex with your wife to reduce your housing costs.  Then save up as much money as you can to buy another 3-4 plex using you and your wife's W-2 income and savings.  This will give you property management experience and some extra income to start your own business (the trade you learned, real estate, property management, or....?).   Hopefully at this point you'll be living mortgage payment free and can survive off of wife's income while you build a business.  Or keep working the trade job and take side jobs to sack away extra cash for the next 2-3-4 plex.  Seriously, within 4-5 years, you could really be set up pretty solid.  

I was approached by a realtor/broker/developer to do a larger storage project.  It was bigger than my previous project but he knew that it wasn't a huge stretch.   I hate to just echo what others have said, but a little more experience would go a long way.  I don't think you necessarily have to do this with a 20 unit building however.  I'd think that you could get similar experience by having 3 or so 3-4 unit buildings and managing a property manager who would be taking care of them for you.  This would allow you to get the "process" worked out a little better so you can help the investors see the transition from what you currently do to the new building.  

I also love what @Tim Swierczek suggested.  Try to get on a team who is actively buying and managing properties and help out.  Hell, if you brought $200k+ of you and your friends' money to a deal, I'm guessing they would see a lot of value in that.  I also doubt they'd have a problem with you helping to manage the property managers.  This might be your opportunity to cut your teeth, and get a return for you and your friends' money!  

@Brian Reynolds 

Great to have your first-hand information.  Sounds like the kind of place I would look for if I owned Amazon.  Not sure what all the incentives are yet so that could be a game changer of course.  

I'm going with the second tier markets as the front runners.  My picks are 1.) Raleigh, NC, 2.) Nashville, TN, and 3.) Pittsburgh, PA.  

I think Texas is a tough sell with Bezos' political orientation otherwise they might be my favorite (taxes, business friendly, zoning, mid-American).  I think Amazon would add extra weight to housing affordability therefore I like the mid-continent cities but there are very few that seem plausible and/or well connected enough to make it seem reasonable.  I have a hard time seeing Chicago-land getting picked.  I just think they're too unfriendly to business.  Tennessee and Pennsylvania also have very low tax rates which is favorable for new business and employees.  But I like Raleigh's location and to be honest, my eyes trained on that area before I even knew they were in the running.  Central to everywhere on the Atlantic Coast and most of mid-America too.  

By the way, it's really fun to hear ideas on all the cities.  Some people here make very good arguments for cities I would have just written off as a no.  

It should be fun to watch!

I'm definitely in the "it depends on your situation" boat, but I have an issue with people saying you need to take the money because it's a 133% return on your investment (ROI). It is for the first year, yes, but it isn't after that unless you can find an investment to invest in that has annual returns of 133% (unlikely). Here is a simplified version with 0% interest for simplicity.

Year 1 - $3000 contribution + $4000 match = $7000 (133% annual return)

Year 2 - $6000 contribution + $8000 match = $14,000 (66% annual return)

Year 3 - $9000 contribution + $12000 match = $21,000 (44% annual return)

Year 4 - same calc - 33% ROI

Year 5 - same calc - 26% ROI

I'm in virtually the same situation.  I know I want to "retire" before I'm 59 so that means I need some income between when I retire and when I can actually use the 401K money.  My plan is to save money via the 401K contribution and match for 5 years, then take it out early to pay off my house to get rid of that payment.  I know I'm will be giving up future WEALTH.  I will be trading it for present LIFE.  Everything has a give or take to a certain degree.  I also realize that I will pay a penalty and I will pay ordinary income tax on the money.  But it will allow me to reduce my living expenses in my then-retired life.  And maybe I won't need the money in the 401K, in which case I will just let it ride.  Just because you put it in, doesn't mean you can't take it out.  Sure there's a 10% penalty.  It's up to you to invest that money to get your 10% back.    

But my main point is that getting a 133% match is not the same as a 133% annual rate of return.