All Forum Posts by: Karen Musselman

@Jd Martin Well, that's disheartening, especially when we keep hearing that REI can be done with no cash, no credit and using OPM. We're not selling our house, and I'm not giving up either.

@Heather Harrison You just described ME as far as where to start, what to start, etc. I've been wanting to do "something" in REI for 25+ years now, starting with buying the old Dave Del Dotto system back in '89, working with an investor in 1999 who eventually went bankrupt, and for the last year or so doing legwork (driving for dollars, researching properties, etc.) for another local investor.

I always get held up with the money part of it.  Our credit is shot; hubs and I are both on permanent SSD so funds are limited, to say the least.  We just made the last payment on our old "buy here-pay here" car and its book value isn't even $800.

We've been to a few REI meetings here but I always left with a sense of 'Okay, now what?'

We thought about wholesaling, but there don't seem to be enough good deals in our area to do that-to get the property cheap enough.  Also, at our ages (I'm 58; he's 50), I believe we'd be much better off with buy/hold to build a solid portfolio in rentals that we can leave for our kids.

But where to get financing when you have less than bad credit?

REI is something my younger brother and I talked about A LOT going back to 1989, and often discussed different ways to just get started. Unfortunately, he just died on New Year's Day and that was a WAKE UP call for me. I almost feel like now I MUST get moving on this in his honor; like he's saying to me - life is short and it can end suddenly. DO IT NOW.

There's also always the nagging concept of "skin in the game."  How does one put skin the game when you've got no skin besides computer skills and driving for dollars?  We're both on disability for good reasons, and when I lost my last two jobs due to disabilities, we used up what little savings we had to hold onto our own house while waiting for my checks to come in.

Okay, enough rambling.  I'm back on BiggerPockets now trying to figure it all out.

Thanks for listening. :-)

That works sometimes, but not all the time.  This happened right up the road from me in a rural area.  We stopped to look at it two years ago, talked to the neighbor; he knew nothing.  A year after we looked at it and tried to find the owner, it was sold at a tax sale.  Now I'm glad WE didn't get it!  The property is still sitting there looking abandoned; something's tied up in court with it now and the investor who got it at the sale.

http://www.readingeagle.com/news/article/forgotten-man-body-of-homeowner-found-in-his-house-years-after-death

Hubs and I looked at a property two years ago, right up the road from us; tried contacting the owner to no avail.  Thank God we couldn't get into the house - earlier this year another investor bought the property at a tax sale.  Turns out, the place wasn't abandoned, but the owner was.  The investor found the owner's body inside.  :-(

If we'd tried to get into the house two years earlier, we would have found him.  The coroner said he'd passed away about three years earlier.

I just started going through the pre-foreclosure listings for my county.  I'm thinking the marketing might work the same way as properties with delinquent taxes.  The homeowners may come up with what's needed to stop the foreclosure this time, but may want to unload their house anyway in the very near future.

I'm now looking for someone in my area who's experienced in dealing with pre-foreclosures who can mentor/partner with us through the first couple of deals.

An associate of mine who's been wholesaling for 10+ years has done extremely well in his area with direct mail postcards, so that's something else you can try.

Great answers Karen and Cheryl - thank you!

We use an accountant for filing our taxes and he's fantastic.  So whenever we get this business rolling, he'll help us determine how to set up the business financially to protect us and our assets.  I get concerned that SSD isn't going to be around for much longer and I am allowed to earn up to $1200/mo before they take anything away.

I already went through one trial work period but since I averaged less than the allowable amount and worked from home, nothing was changed.

As for "boots on the ground," whenever I can go out, we go driving for dollars together and I research the properties at home.  When I'm not able to go out, which is more often than not during the winter and summer, hubby goes out and gets photos for me.

I'm back in touch with an investor in my county again and she's going to help us when we find properties that look like a good deal. Again, I find the addresses and she has access to the MLS via family members who are agents.

We'll get there!  

Oh, and to Randy: as for SSD and a business, your best bet is to get an accountant who is familiar with home-based businesses and SSD.

We have all of the papers ready to set up our business, but I want to see our accountant ahead of time to go over them to make sure it's done the right way for what we're doing. And LLC may seem right, but again, with the SSD and not wanting to lose any of that, especially the medical insurance, we might need to form the business in a different way.

I needed this chuckle today, thanks!  We haven't done D4D in a while, but #2 and #6-9 are SO TRUE!

Hi Randi!

I wish someone would have answered this question.  My husband and I are both on SSD so this is something I'm concerned about also.

My other question is how to start investing when I rarely leave my house!  There are (a lot of) days when I'm barely able to get around my own house, let alone go out and see other properties.  And if we go to see any property that has steps - forget it.

I'll repost your question as a new post and maybe someone will have some answers.

Take care - from up here in Berks Co PA!

 Welcome!  :-)

 You're very welcome!