All Forum Posts by: Mark L.

All, thanks for all of the advice! I'm sorry about not logging on for such a long time, I didn't even know I had any replies since my last login.

Eddie Ziv: I agree that having a cash cow property is much better than the bank for income, unless you need the liquidity for another opportunity or something. I do hope to strike a balance between real estate, and cash in the high yield MMSA.

Jim Winn: What a great idea about building your own house! Good job on that accomplishment. I think I would love to do that as I did enjoy renovating my first unit. I can see how you could get a serious equity line from the bank by building your own house. What you did is very inspiring to me. I've read a book on how to be your own contractor, and I was and still am interested in doing that. I would really like to hear about what you learned from it and what to look for in a lot.

Mach: Thanks for looking out, but I trust people, I really do. Just not with my wife, or my money. That's why I wanted to start this posting in the first place. I want to learn wise ways to invest my own money, I don't want someone else to invest my money. There's no hard work in that for me, and there's no replacement for hard work.

Michael Zuber: Thanks a lot for the advice. It never really clicked before that I could make that many offers (5 - 10 / week) on the hot deals that match my requirements. I've been sort of in the one offer / 3 months or so mode on THE best deal only mode. I can see how I could make a lower offer on more properties more frequently, and score a "best deal" property though. I too think that one at a time, and not dropping over $50K or so on the first deal is the way to go for stability and safety purposes.

When you say "researching markets" do you mean local markets, out of state markets, or out of country markets? I've been focusing on the Southern California area, and a little in the Vegas area. My Dad thinks I should stick with my city though. What do you think is best?

Mike OH: Thanks for the concern, but you don't have to worry, I've already wired my entire savings off to a guy in Botswana named Drake who is giving me my beautiful mail order bride! She looks amazingly like Taylor Swift from the pictures he emailed me! ( ; I sure can't wait till she gets here! Drake is FEDEXing her next Friday!!! ( ;

I'm just playing Mike, Drake is using UPS!!!

Seriously though, thank you for your advice, I know you have my best at heart and I really appreciate you looking out for me. I will be extremely careful with the very hard earned money that we have made. Just so you know where my head is...

Proverbs 14:15
The naive believes everything, but the sensible man considers his steps.

Proverbs 19:2
Also it is not good for a person to be without knowledge, and he who hurries his footsteps errs.

Proverbs 21:5
The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage, but everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty.

Proverbs 28:19-20
He who tills his land will have plenty of food, but he who follows empty pursuits will have poverty in plenty. A faithful man will abound with blessings, but he who makes haste to be rich will not go unpunished.

Rich Weese: I'm still here! Thx for the pointed questions to help tailor your response!
-My wife and I have jobs making a total of just over $6,000 / mo.
-We live off of about $3,500 / month (food, rent and childcare aren't cheap!) So we're saving about $2,000 / mo.
-We're in a low tax bracket, but CA taxes aren't cheap either.
-I want to be EXTREMELY active in my investing, I actually want to be hyperactive. I am a CA Realtor, a CA loan officer, and I love tiling, doing mud work, fences, landscaping, painting, fixtures, baseboards, fans, appliances, etc. I want to make my own cash offers on trashed units that can't sell to people with loans, fix them up myself, market them on the MLS myself, and originate loans to buyers if they need financing myself.

Hope that answers all of your questions Rich. And thanks for the pat on the back! It wasn't easy, that's for sure, but it sure was worth it! Living in a 5th wheel trailer for almost 2 years was not fun for me or the wife, but it was worth the sacrifice! Between that and the tenants paying us all of their military housing allowance we were able to pay that place right off!

Mach: Thanks for the lead. It's definitely something to look into if I find myself needing a good job. I too think that the tech and energy fields are going to absolutely blow up!

Thanks everyone for your replies and I will check back more often now!

Mark

Thanks for the insight NC Mark! I will definitely learn as much as I possibly can and work my *** off too! It's interesting that you mentioned that the students migrated to the luxury centers. That's why I want to lock in deals that will profit even with dirt cheap rent. I really want to buy as low as possible, it seems that the cheaper I can get it here in Southern California, the better the return.

Btw, if anyone has any other info, please feel free to continue sharing.

Thanks,

Mark

Thank you guys very much! I really appreciate all of the advice. You guys definitely opened my eyes to a few things that I should do to succeed in this arena.

Brian Haskins: I will try to duplicate what I did before. It sure worked out well.

Brian Wall: I will look into the note buying video to expand my knowledge on what I can do with my savings. 10% in 90 days sounds amazing, especially if you don't even have to break a sweat!

Michael P: That idea about the portfolio is very good. I will also keep a reserve handy because you are right. Sometimes you just never know when you'll need it. Also, I'll continue reading these blogs and expanding my knowledge like you recommended. There sure is a lot to learn, I just need to devote more time to reading and responding to them.

Vikram C: I will be proactive in interviewing banks and checking their credit scores! ( ; I never really thought about checking into a bank's "score" before! Also, I will not forget to deduct 50% for expenses. Although from my first and only rental unit the total expenses were only about 20%. Property taxes in Guam are a joke, only had to pay $425 a year, the hoa's were cheap, the rent was high, and the only thing that needed fixing in 3 years was the dishwasher. I still will use the 50% rule because it's better to be safe than sorry.

Thanks again to everyone!

Mark

Vikram C, thank you very much for the suggestions. I know that Las Vegas and Phoenix do have some very good ROI values in real estate compared to coastal California. It does seem that the apartment deals in coastal CA aren't nearly as good of a deal as a bank owned single family unit. That being said, I would like to buy a lot of individual bank owned units and rent them out. Do you know of a way that I can leverage my money to buy say 30 $32,000 single family units each with 25% or so down?

Will, that's something I have not really thought a lot about yet...I've never flipped before, but I can definitely see how buying low with cash, then fixing and selling them myself for a few years could really build up the savings! Lets say it works out perfectly and the savings is doubled; I still wouldn't know what kind of safe and profitable commercial opportunities I should look for around 2012. Any suggestions? On a side note, how should I finance a commercial apartment building with my current savings? Lastly, is force appreciation the same as inflation?

Robert, before I wire the $ to your associate in Africa, I'm going to need your home address so I can mail you an "explosive" surprise! ( ; That was also an obvious joke and now we're even!

In the spirit of getting the most tailored responses out of my post I decided to put the amount down. It's ok though, because I'm very good friends with Mr Smith and Mr Wesson, I don't have ANY friends with bank accounts in Africa, and I live in coastal Southern California, where that amount of money is an average down payment on a beach condo.

... that being said, 15% a month doesn't sound too bad! So what's that African wire transfer #??? ( :

Vikram, I do have another source of income. I'm still in the Navy Reserves, and I'm using the Post 9/11 GI Bill that gives me $2K / month for just going to school. It's a great deal. Plus my wife is working full time. Basically, I can use all of the saved $ to venture out into my intended source of income which is rental units.

OK, long story short... I bought a unit with 20% down about 5 years ago, fixed it up very nice, rented it out, paid off the mortgage note, sold it, saved up more $, and now I have just under $250,000 in my high yield money market savings account. In the midst of council there is wisdom, so how should I invest this chunk of change? I live in So Cal, I'm ambitious, I want to buy as many units with as little $ down as possible, I know of and greatly respect the 2% rule, I'm still alive; age 25, I'd like to buy and hold individual units as a landlord, I like the idea of my own LLC, I'm married with a daughter, just got a CA Real Estate Sales License, just signed with a broker who does real estate and loans, I love quality time with my family, just got out of the Navy, and I'm ready to consider all advice! What should I do? How can I maximize the # of units I can buy? Thanks for your :help: and please assume I know nothing except 3rd grade English.