All Forum Posts by: Michael DeFilippo

@Brian Eastman thanks for that info. I'll have to do some more research on the subject, and maybe find better ways to fund a deal. Thanks again

I'm curious about this too, and browsing through the related forum posts to find some answers. I'm about to change jobs and my current 401k will become eligible to roll over to a ROBS or SDIRA. I hear the ROBS is bad for buy and hold because it creates a C-Corp and there's restrictions on "passive" income. I wouldn't consider it passive if I'm actively working at building the portfolio and managing my own properties (for now)... but that's beside the point.

To your point, self-dealing is one of my questions. I'm wondering if I can rent a property that my business owns. I don't see the difference if it's me or a stranger renting a property, as long as someone lives there and pays market rent. Would be a great spin on the house hack if it works.

Thanks guys. I guess I was thinking if I could get a tenant into my house and cover expenses I could build equity and refinance down the road, or get a home equity line of credit. I suppose as a beginner I need to learn to recognize when its time to hold and when its time to sell. The first priority is to get into the multi-family. Keeping my current home is secondary. 

Hello. This is my first post aside from introduction. I assume I'm not the first person to think of this, but don't see an exact match anywhere. That said, I apologize if this is a duplicate topic. Anyway, here's what I'm thinking:

I bought a house in NJ just over a year ago. It's 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath in a nice lake community. Shortly after moving in my son was born and daycare came into the picture. Anyone who has put their kid in daycare can tell you this is almost like taking on another mortgage payment. We can afford to live in our home, pay all the bills and eat... but its paycheck to paycheck at this point. I looked for ways to improve our situation and inevitably landed on real estate investing. 

I can ramble on about thought process and plot development but I'll get right down to it. I think the best move for me is to "house hack" a multi-family home, and rent out our house.

The monthly mortgage on my house with taxes, insurance, pmi, etc come out to $2000 per month. Based on comps for the area it looks like my house could potentially rent for between $2100-$2300 per month. 

The tricky part as I see it is how to get a mortgage on the multi-family (probably FHA) before I can show any rental income from my house... since I kind of need to live in it until I can move into the multi-family. It feels like a chicken or egg scenario... can't do one without having the other. We don't have lots of money or high income to entice a bank to lend us a mortgage on another house without selling the first...which is an option but not my favorite one.

Does anyone out there have experience breaking into buy and hold investing this way? 

Advice would be seriously appreciated. Thanks!

@Shawn Mcenteer glad to hear this idea has worked for others. At first I was thinking I shot myself in the foot by buying a single family and spending everything  I have... but if I sell i may actually walk away with a nice amount to put down on a multi family. Seems I may have accidentally done something smart :) 

@Mateusz Prawdzik Thanks for the advice. Setting goals and getting out and making them happen is something I'm excited to do. After years of spinning wheels in the corporate world it will be extremely liberating to be in control of my own destiny! 

Thanks Kevin. I'm originally from Flanders as well. I'm glad to see so many other people on the forum with the same idea of becoming an agent and investor... makes me think maybe I'm not crazy after all. 

 Thanks William, I sent a  request to connect. 

This is my first post on the BP forum. Before jumping right in, I thought I’d introduce myself.

I won't get into my whole life story, but will start with why I'm here:

My wife and I got married, lived in a moderate income 1 bedroom (shoebox sized) apartment until we learned the wonderful news that our first child would be coming later that year. We were already considering renting a bigger place at the end of our lease, but the baby pushed the decision to buy instead as it would at least build equity for only a few hundred dollars more per month than rent would be. I was on the look out for multi-family homes, but we found a single family house that we loved, offered, bought it, and still love it today. However this was an emotional decision, thinking about a nice to raise a family. What we don’t love is living paycheck to paycheck, and the breaking point was almost being late on a mortgage payment. What kind of future are we building for our son?

This is when I decided to get educated. As many on this forum likely have also done, I picked up “Rich Dad Poor Dad” and changed the way I think about money. I no longer think “I can’t afford it” but now am thinking “how can I afford it?”. I kept reading more books, and picked up Brandon Turner’s “The Book on Rental Property Investing” which pointed me to the Bigger Pockets community.

After doing lots of research I truly believe that I can get started making a huge difference in my family’s financial situation without having very much money of my own, which is the only way I’ll get off the ground any time soon as I have very little money after the purchase of my home.

I’m really loving everything about real estate, and the more I learn the more I want in! I have been considering a career change, and even have an idea of how to reasonably transition into real estate full time by becoming an agent and truly immersing myself in the market. More on that plan another time but in short, it includes either renting or selling our current house, buying and moving into a multi-family, and taking off enough financial pressure to allow a career change which will come with a MAJOR initial pay cut. The good news is my wife likes the plan!

Will it be easy? No, it won’t, and I feel that accepting that is the first step to success. My motivation is on fire and I’m finished with spinning my wheels. I look forward to sharing my experience and learning from/with this community on my journey to escape “the rat race”.

Thanks for reading.

-Mike D