All Forum Posts by: Lacey N.

Hi Frank! Thanks for the input! If we rented out our current condo, we *may* make a profit of $50/ month, after accounting for HOA dues (there aren't any current comps in the area, so I'm using a rent rate I recall seeing about a year ago).

For the new home, are you talking about doing a house hack?  That is something we've also thought of, but the issue is, duplexes/ triplexes, etc. are selling for sometimes as much as $150k over asking right now in Seattle/ Bellevue, making it difficult to have the rent from the other unit pay our mortgage.

If you mean just a regular condo/ SFH, the same is true, they are largely selling for $100-150k over asking, and possibly a bit inflated at this time in our market. Though I've read a lot of articles trying to explain how this market is different from the bubble back in '07 in that the property values are real, and not over inflated. I'm not sure I completely buy into that. I think there are certain pockets that are over inflated.

Our primary goal is to begin building an investment portfolio that generates positive cash flow for us, and allows us to continue growing that portfolio.  Right now I feel like we're stuck in an endless cycle, and I don't see us getting out if we remain status quo until we retire at 65.  :-/

Hi Everyone,

While not new to real estate, I am relatively new to real estate specifically as an investment.  My question(s) are around how to start (or is it even possible) investing in real estate with small amounts of cash (talking about $10k or less).  Some of the thoughts and options that have run through my head -

• Other investors have mentioned the possibility of working with a hard money lender.  This scares me somewhat because I'm new.  At a high interest rate that I'm paying the lender, it sounds like a good way to lose everything while getting hung up on newbie stuff with the property.  I have a full time job that funds the savings I use to invest, so I can't be at the property 24x7 (or even half that), working on it, if its a flip or fix up.
• Would investing with a partner be a good idea?  My husband thinks this is risky - different people have different goals, different ideas, etc.  You're no longer in control of your investment.  If this is a good route, are there tips/ ideas in how to identify a good partner, where to find them, what details to work out before hand?
• Invest in a cheaper part of town (or a different state) - I've definitely thought about this and read the various posts about it, but cheaper part of town, I weigh the heightened risk of getting lower quality tenants, slower appreciation in value of the property or DEpreciation of property value when a market crash hits.  Different state, I anticipate having a lot more costs since I would have to pay people to help with everything from property management to minor fixes, etc.
• Invest first in the stock market since you can invest smaller chunks of money.  My husband has talked about doing short or long on stocks.  I don't know enough about this, and it sounds like a gamble to me.
• Use equity in my existing home to invest in a rental property (but this sounds like a scheme where I would take a HELOC for a down payment on an investment, to be able to take out MORE debt, meaning I have to rent or sell the investment property for even MORE money to cover increased debt costs).

So, are any of these options better than the others?  Is there something I haven't thought of or am I thinking about something incorrectly or not all the way through?  Open to any thoughts/ advice, etc.  Thank you!

@Dean U. Thank you!  curious to know - are you primarily investing in real estate in HI?  I've found that market for investing to be a little difficult.  Maybe I'm not looking in the right areas or at the right investments?

@Greg 

@Greg Harriman thank you for the warm welcome!  That's the way we've done it to date, but we'd like to find a way (if there is one that fits our risk profile), to continue to invest in real estate in this intermediate time while we fund the construction of our future primary residence.

I think end goals for us is just to be able to find a way to grow our investment portfolio large enough to be able to fund maybe 50% of our lifestyle and/ or early retirement.  I guess, to be honest, we do not have that gameplan to get to that end goal that I've just defined.  We're still working on that, a bit of figuring it out as we go :)

Hi Everyone! I love real estate, and at a recent real estate meetup here in Bellevue, I was motivated to look further into multi-family residences, something my husband and I looked into about a year ago, but thought the Seattle marketplace (and Hawaii) was ridiculous, and that we'd lose our shirts on the investment.  After the meetup and reading through a lot of the forum posts, I'm thinking its more about making smart selections and decisions.

My husband and I currently own 4 different properties - a condo, a SFH (which is under construction to be our primary residence), and two student housing townhouses. We've owned, rented, and sold 3 other properties, so I'm not completely new to the game, but I still feel like I have *so* much to learn! I was born and raised in HI, but currently live in Seattle (Bellevue).

We're always looking for good investment deals, to make good connections with others who are like-minded, and to learn about the strategies others use to build their real estate portfolio (I find it hard to believe that EVERYONE here is somehow coming up with the 25% down on each property they buy, which is what I'm used to the traditional banks we've talked to when we looked into financing options asking for).  I'm looking forward to engaging further through this site.

Aloha!