All Forum Posts by: J. Martin

Hi Steve, and welcome to BP! I’m a ‘fix and hold’ investor from the Bay Area in CA, and loving it! But you’ll find a variety of every type of investor on the site, and everyone is amazingly helpful. Some pointers for you: The "Learn" link across the top navigation bar has lots of great info, and so do BP members! You can click on the ‘vote’ button if you like someone's post or is helpful, and there are ‘awards’ to earn on your profile. And you can tag people by typing @ before you type their name, then clicking their name at the bottom of the message box. Welcome to the site, and good luck in everything!

You only need 1 strong partner generally for the loan (especially if they are willing and able to qualify themselves.) The alternative is to use hard money, that mainly relies on the project. And not your individual credit.. So you can go either route..

Having overall financial savvy should help in your macro prospecting, although probably less on the costs of flipping an individual deal.. I do recommend doing the FHA into a 4plex to leverage your capital. Same as I did.. You'll probably be more limited by your experience, than your age necessarily..

IT ALL DEPENDS ON YOUR RISK TOLERANCE.

As many mentioned before, will you be able to sleep at night, or be constantly stressed out with a loan on your former free-and-clear property? On the other hand, it is a great way to tap wealth to buy another one. I recently wrote a blog about using cash or leverage and asks a lot of the questions/considerations that you might want to take a look at if you decide to do it. My biggest advice is RESERVES, RESERVES, RESERVES! Pentagon Federal Credit Union is doing HELOCs or HE loans at good rates in all 50 states, and you can join by donating $15 if you don't meet their criteria (I am not associated with them. Just heard good things.) Check out this blog post on using leverage:

http://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/4579/blog_posts/32645-if-ca-h-is-king-then-leverage-is-god---loans-cash-roe-roi-and-risk

Put an offer in at $55k and see if sticks..

Doesn't look bad, depending on what's going on in the area, and conditio/age of the buildings..

I started young, although not quite as young as you. It should not matter for a residential loan at a bank, and in fact, I believe they are not ALLOWED to discriminate against you due to age. It will probably be harder to convince new joint venture partners, but I think more due to the lack of experience than age necessarily..

Had the same issue at work.. Looked very young. So I grew a beard!

I agree with Ned. And that $2,500 may be a cheap investment when considering what could be lost if it's not done correctly..

Hammer everything out, then get the experienced lawyer to write it up..

I think it's a little easier to make mistakes or get in over your head on flips. These are oftentimes things that aren't obvious at the initial analysis.. like what's behind the walls.. and unexpected things that pop up. Be sure to leave yourself margin..

But there's lots of capital out there! You just need to find it.. You can try starting with family, friends, trusted colleagues, etc.

I'm running my 2013 numbers and 2014 projections, and looks similar alos. Thanks for sharing your longer-term average with us!

@Aaron Yates , good point about the investor homepath. I was buying an owner-occ.. Not sure about the credits on the investor loan..

I recommend use two lenders to give you GFE's (Good faith estimate). Even if you're going to go with the same one you originally wanted. I told my loan broker I needed to get another bid because I had a responsibility for my partnership, and he told me he understood and wouldn't do the deal unless he could give me the best.. He was able to match the slightly lower competitor costs in the GFE..

Let them know when they are preparing the GFE that you will be using it to compare so you can get the most competitive possible. And make sure you're comparing apples to apples on the points, etc..