All Forum Posts by: Marcus Johnson

@Bill Mitchell I think your missing the point, my suggestion was for the individual to use his entrenpenuership skills to create a business idea that would generate capitol. It can be anything from selling baseball cards to buying and selling items on Ebay. Everyone has some skill set.

I started up my own Handyman business this summer making $30 to $40 an hour and would work from 8pm until 3am 3 nights a week. Most employment won't make that kind of money, I'd start something like that on your own.

About the only thing I use those sites for is to see some of the historical data for the property, but if your looking for current information, like appraisal value or sale price your not going to get it. If the house is currently on the market it will be reflective in price, but I looked at Zillow for the value on my home two years ago and then I had it appraised and it was 40k off. So use at your own risk IMO. Hire a professional if you want the facts.

IMO, if a financial deal will make you declare bankruptcy, then you aren't in a financial position to be buying real estate. I don't invest in things that have the possibility of making me go broke.

spoke with the inspector today and he stated it's just the branches hanging from the tree, so no problem here. My realtor and I put an addendum on the offer at 100k after looking at the report, so I'm pretty excited about it. Plus I've come in to more money, so I should be able to do 20% down and pay for the repairs in cash. Cash flow will be around $260 a month in the worst case scenario.

So, I've put an offer on a short sale here in Richfield, MN. I've had my own inspector come through and give me the run down on the property. His inspection had revealed problems that I'm willing to fix on my own. The seller has accepted my offer and have paid for a city inspection which I got back this past week. One of the items of concern was a tree that is to close to the gargage. It's suppose to be more then 18 inches from the roof. The tree is located mostly on the neighbors property. My realtor is saying that it's my responsibility. Does this tree need to be removed before I can rent the property?

Do you not have any investements in Roth IRA's? You can withdrawl the principal amount with no taxes. IMO, I wouldn't want to pay 25% in taxes on investments if I don't have to. How will you make that back on a home?

That would get you 20% down on a SFH in my area that would be a decent home that needs some tlc in a good neighborhood. Plus with 20% down you won't need to deal with the VA's and FHA loans which aren't the greatest due to all of the rules. I prefer conventional financing at a fixed rate. I currently have an offer of 105k on a rental that will be worth in the range of 140-150k when all is said and done. Plus my cash on cash will be in the ball park of 11.4% with all expenses included for the first year.

Personally, I'm not a huge risk taker, but have a high networth because of it. I don't recommend being 51k in student loan debt and 6k in cc's and plan to take on more risk by owning properties. People get burned this way, when they have no capitol. I always plan for the worst case scenario, when the housing market crashes the next time we'll see whose still standing.

So if you take the income of $38400 and subtract that from $17160 you'd have $36684 to pay off school loans depending upon how much they are and to put some of that towards a DP on a property. More info about student loans and how much you owe???