All Forum Posts by: Marcus Johnson

You'll never get rich off of rewards from credit cards. I don't play that game and we are doing quite well.

Mobile homes depreciate. Stay away.

I think that mentality can hurt your tenant selection. If you drive a piece of crap the prospective client might think you can't afford to maintain the property.

Just closed on my first duplex today in Minneapolis and I can tell you that persistence does pay off. There isn't a ton of inventory here in the cities right now so after the sellers agent telling me unless I pay full price then he was going with the owner occupy buyer. I wa at a party with some friend chatting up the lack of real estate and got this idea that I should revisit that last duplex. We'll it still hadn't closed, so after doing some conservative math I offered full and got back closing costs. My cash in cash return is around 10%. Plus it's in a desirable location. Do my advice is to never give up.

IMO it's based on whether your the type if person that Is a hands on, do it yourself type of guy or if you don't mind others managing the property for you. I personally like going to the property to check on issues first hand. Maybe at some point in my career I'll put more trust in others. B

Sorry I meant Cash Poor not credit worthy issues is a big reason why people use FHA instead of conventional. I prefer conventional because you have skin in the game.

Yes, as long as kids keep borrowing tons of money to go to college and choosing not to attend places they can afford, then us Landlords should have more applicants.

@Account Closed

Morally I disagree with people walking away from their loans if they have the means to pay, regardless of what the market is doing. I guess I'm old school and I believe in paying debts that I promised.

@Account Closed

"If the economy takes a dump (a la 2008), the borrower minimizes losses...it's a smart business move."

This qoute confuses me greatly because are you saying that if you don't put a lot of money into a property and the market goes to heck that your answer is you'd bail on it and take minimal losses? I guess I don't get that theory at all, because again to me that would mean you don't have a lot of disposable cash or investments to hold out until the market improves which it always does. I've never been one to agree with those who voluntarily break their promises to pay the bank back.

@Bill Gulley Which means you don't have any money if you have to go FHA, when conventional has less terms to meet and you'll owe less on your mortgage with a lower monthly payment.