All Forum Posts by: Mark W.

Awesome, I'm excited to see how the inside turned out.

Wow, That dirty old man house was a project. Looks pretty great though. I couldn't find any pictures of the inside, did I miss them?

Anyway keep up the good work. Looks like you have it figured out.

Cool, I'll check it out. Do you do the work yourself or do you hire contractors?

I was searching NC and came across this. Very nice work Bryan. Doesn't even look like the same place.

Mark

To be honest, Rich Dad was what really fired me up about REI. I had been thinking about REI for a while but that book followed by others, really pushed me to believe that can do it. I know there is a lot of fluff in those books, but I think there is a lot of good info too. If nothing else it helps provide some good motivation.

I have actually been thinking of doing this. I have an old 401k from a job I had 3 years ago. The 401k is in a medium risk category and after 3 years it is worth $100 less than when I left that job. So help me understand, I will pay a 10% penalty off the top, then I will pay tax on the remaining balance? Will the remaining balance be added as ordinary income or does it get hit at its own tax rate? I am self employed so I tend to do very well on taxes. Last year I was at 15% due to all of my deductions.

Thanks

Mike Hasemann I will have to check into that. I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday who works with a local bank in town. He is going to put me in touch with his contact there. I will agree Mike, there is good money to be made in REI. I have always enjoyed RE and construction so rehabbing seems like a perfect fit. But it wasn't until recently I started to have enough savings to start looking at picking up my first property though. Congrats on #17, that is where I hope to be in the next 5 years. Keep up the good work!

Ken Latchers Very true about being up to code. That is something I will have to explore as I nail down an area. Needing to have a licensed contractor to do everything would have a big impact on the budget.

Yeah the self employed thing is going to be an issue from the several banks I have already talked to. I do have one year already with good income from my business so (fingers crossed) come next spring I may be able to get a loan. Not holding my breath though. Like you suggested, I may need to start reading up on Owner financed deals. Thanks for the suggestions.

Mark

Hi Jon, Thanks for the reply. I thought a HELOC may be difficult. My issue with the bank is I started my own company last year and they won't even look at me for a mortgage until I have been self employed for 2 years. So this leaves me looking for other options. I plan to start rehabbing the "new" property with my own cash to hopefully get a renter in it as soon as I can. I am trying to figure out what my options will be to progress to the next unit. I am not sure what is realistic, but I like to at least have a plan for the next couple of years that will give me some focus.

I will agree, there is a ton of great info on here. I have been spending hours reading. Great site with an amazing amount of knowledge that gets shared.

As for the mentor, He is a good friend of mine that deals mostly in commercial real estate. No charge :). He is good at helping with the big picture and business side but not so much with dealings in my particular area and with the SFH.

I just hardwood installed in my house and it was $1.50ft to sand and finish ~1,300sqft. The great thing about wood. If its 3/4" hardwood and the guy sanding knows what he is doing you can get 3-5 sand and refinishes out of it. And a few years down the road if the floor is looking a little worn you can usually just buff it and bring it back to life for pretty cheap.