All Forum Posts by: Laura Smith

@Wendi Glover I too am looking for my first buy and hold property. It is hard to take the first step. I am pretty sure I've gone about this all out of order but I started by calling my bank and asking what my options were through them. My situation is a little different because I'm looking in a specific price range. I have my 1st tenant (I know it is a bad idea to rent to family, but my mom is my mom). My bank will finance me no problem. Unfortunately when I start looking in the price range I am in there are no properties that the bank will finance on, so now I'm back to step one looking for financing (alternative financing) again. The real estate agents I talk to tell me to get my financing figured out before I look at houses and the lenders I talk to tell me to find a property so they know what kind of financing I will need. So in short I have no answers for you except to not give up. I am confident that I will find the property and the financing to get me started and so will you. There are so many options. I'm finding it best to choose a direction and narrow it down so you can not only narrow your search but you can be more specific to lenders about what you are looking for. In my case I'm looking for a "fixer upper" to buy and hold. Plan is to get alternative financing to purchase and rehab then refinance into a conventional mortgage once the house is in financeable condition. Good Luck to you!

@Marshall Rosario All of the lenders and realtors I've talked to so far (which isn't a lot) have told me not to look at manufactured homes. I've mainly been talking to traditional mortgage lenders though. I'm not sure who to talk to about that kind of financing. I'm also a little leery of how easy it will be to sell when I don't need it any more. Honestly the only manufactured homes on property that I'd really be interested in would be ones on multiple acres so maybe someday I could have a house built there instead once the property is paid off.

@Marshall Rosario To be 100% honest with you I haven't really looked at manufactured homes even on their own land. I'm not familiar with them at all and I know the financing is harder because the homes themselves are hard to value. From my understanding with manufactured homes the value is in the land and hard to finance. I looked at 1 that I could pay cash for but it was in a 55+ park and I felt it was too risky because the park rent could/would go up. I'm not against manufactured homes on their own land. I just don't know how I would finance one or how to judge the value of it.

@Austin Youmans I like the idea of a good deal on a duplex, its the good deal part that is hard to find. I've been looking at the few that are available and the ones in my price range are in the not so nice neighborhoods. With a duplex it opens up my options a little, because I could put more down and put my mom in one and rent the other or I could put less down and owner occupy one and rent the other to mom. I don't really want to live that close to my mother, but its only temporary right? I'd also need to either rent out my house or sell it if I owner occupy a duplex. My biggest hurdle is financing what ever I decide to buy, which seems to be a common theme for investors. I don't have a lot of cash on hand, approx. $7000 in savings and growing. I do have access to a 401K loan of up to $44,000 but it needs to be paid back within 4 years, which makes the payments really steep and therefore hard to even beak even on a property for the 1st 4 years. I just started looking into a HELOC, because I thought I could use the equity in my current home to help kick start my purchasing power, but I don't even know how much they will lend me on that yet. There were also some 4-plexes that I looked at, but they get offers really fast and I don't have the down payment yet, but I'm definitely interested in multifamily properties.

Hello everyone! I just want to say "Hi" and tell you all a little bit about myself. I started researching real estate investing when my mother's rent started going up and I figured the only way to not end up supplementing her at some point was to purchase something in order to create "rent control" so to speak. I stumbled across bigger pockets along the way. Started listening to the podcasts from #1. I am currently on #25. I just finished reading Rich Dad Poor Dad and I'm starting on Think and Grow Rich. I am finding it very challenging to find properties under $100,000 (the price range I need to be in to keep the rent affordable for mom) that can be financed in my area so now I'm beginning to learn more about creative financing and rehab loans. I have also thought about multifamily options as well. There are just so many options and avenues to explore. I'm still struggling at this point to find my niche. I'm really excited to have found bigger pockets and all the wonderful information it has to offer. Plus after listening to so many podcasts I feel like I know Josh and Brandon.