All Forum Posts by: Ken Hicks

:welcome: This site is full of information, and great people. Now would be a great time to set a game plan for REI.

Every one has Depression. A friend of mine that makes $300,000 a year, works at home (no overhead), has awesome cars, trucks, bikes, 4,500sqft home with 3 bay garage, always vacationing, partying and he was always depressed. I honestly wanted to just punch him in the mouth for acting like that. He was taken pills seeing DRs nothing helped. He met a girl and now he is broke......... Just kidding. He met a girl and now he is the happiest I have ever seen him. He acted like that for a year or better. Thank god that is over. I hope that girl does not leave him.

That is how life is.

I am 27 and I am not happy in the direction my life is going, and believe me I'm in a good situation financially it could be way worse. What I'm doing about it is making goals. It is up to me to change it. Your never happy the way things are going no matter what. You may say "yeah it's going good"but you want more and more. You can blame everyone, but it's the guy in the mirror thats to blame. Honestly I don't tell anyone what I'm doing. I buy properties and know one knows. If I had to do it all over again I would be a marine. I work with X Marines all the time. They have a positive attitude like you wouldn't believe. I get calls at 9PM telling me to be at this site at 5am. I am mad, I complain a lot. I get to work and my buddy the X Marine didn't like it either but guess what. He had this attitude to just go to the site and do it. He was mad but he didn't complain. I wish I was more like him. I surround myself with people that are like him. I'm an electrician. I work in 100+ and single digit temperatures. Do I like it? Yes. Do I want to do this when I'm 40 Heck NO. Just figure out what you want to do and don't look back.

Nothing in this Biz is easy. rentals, wholesalers, rehabbing, ect. Wholesalers do a lot of leg work. either way you need to buy properties at wholesale. Not sure what your position is but I would live in a home well you can remodel it. This is hard. I wouldn't bail on wholesaling just yet. You never know when some one will give you a call to take this home off their hands. You might not have time to rehab it but maybe you do know of other guys that are rehabbing now. sign the contract then assign it to other investors. Your team is the most important thing. If your on a buyers list for a wholesaler be warned that most of the time when that deal gets to your desk it already went past a few other guys. Wholesalers have a list of guys that will buy properties with real cash, and if it's a deal they bought it yesterday. If they dont' want it then the so called deal get passed to you. Hope this helps some. Just don't give up and do your homework.

Great advice. If you can't find deals right now, don't get discouraged. These deals will not fall out of the sky and land on your lap. Deals are made not found. You have to put some effort into it. I don't buy real estate to get rich fast. It is more set up for retirement. Don't give up. If you get at least 1 house the right way, in 20 years it will be worth it.

Congrats. Dang holding cost and realtor fees took just as much as the rehab. 38k hmmmmmmm I'll still drink to that :beer: :beer: :goofy:

TC is right. I would interview a few PMs in that area. get a good feel for how they do business. My PM does a walk through before I buy a property to make sure it is in an area and a condition that she wants. If she doesn't want it then I don't.

Run down areas are harder to get good tenants with a PM. Most don't have the credit, and can't pass the back ground checks. College rentals might be a different story.

What ever return you want on your money is up to you. The amount you can finance the property for is up to the bank. You make your money when you buy. Usually 80% of appraised value.

Please make sure you analyzes the deal before you purchase. Often guys will think they can cut corners to make the numbers work. I done this when I bought my first duplex. I skipped the bathroom. It did not rent out for 2 months I redone the bathroom and within a week it was rented. I lost about $1200 for rent. the bath room cost around $1500 to redo. I agree with Mike about living near your tenants. I don't even like it when the tenants talk to me on the phone. They just want things. I had one call me about kids that egged him. I was like "well use the hose and get rid of it". How ever if you are just getting started this would be a great way to get the ball rolling. You might even get a better interest rate if you live in the house (duplex) My buddy did this when he bought his first house (duplex). The tenant paid the mortgage, Insurance, and taxes for the whole house. now my buddy saved from day one and is building his new home. He was thinking of selling this house which he paid 40k for now it goes for 90k not sure what the cash flow would be. He also remodeled the side he lived on. His plan was once the tenant moved out he would move into the other side to remodel it. Last I hear the lady plans on living there forever. She is older. He never got a chance to remodel the other side yet.

I think the only thing a pre approval letter is good for is so the Realtor you are working with doesn't think your wasting his/her time. If you go to a bank with a solid good deal You shouldn't have a problem getting a loan.

"I buy properties regularly"

I wish I would have put that on my business card instead of Real Estate Investor. Every time I hand some one a card it's like they think I'm rich or something. I need to start an LLC up or something I hate it when people start asking questions. I would like to take my name out of the loop. I hear that is not good practice. I just don't like people knowing what I'm doing :beer:

I agree with all cash. I have been getting calls from Dallas area investors telling me about great deals. they are not deals they are just passing their problems to the next guy.