All Forum Posts by: Michael Lehman

@Chris Mason, thanks for the clarification, and the helpful links to source material.

Much appreciated!

Thanks for the reply @Eric G.!

I wasn't aware of the two year seasoning requirement to claim the income from a rental against your next mortgage, that's good information to have.  Definitely something to discuss with the bank prior to either purchase.

My girlfriend and I are currently renters and would like to transition to home-ownership within the next year or so.  We are also, however, interested in starting our investment portfolio ASAP.  As our current lease still has a decent length on it, we are considering buying the investment first.

My question is this: if we purchase a rental property via an LLC that we co-own, is there any downside once we go to purchase our primary residence? I believe we would continue to qualify for FHA financing, but I'm not sure if there are any other first-time-homeowner aids that we would be missing or forfeiting by buying an investment first. Can any realtors or mortgage brokers chime in with your advice?

Hey all!  

So my girlfriend and I are starting to think about passive income generation and we would like to work for ourselves for a large portion of our lives.  We've arrived at real estate as one of the better vehicles to achieve this goal, and are mainly interested in a buy & hold strategy.

With that said, she is currently looking for her first job out of college, and we were thinking that a few years of experience working for someone else could give us some REALLY valuable experience in our own personal investing.

Does anyone have suggestions for where we should focus our attention to get the most bang for her time?  We've thought about an assistant to a realtor, but were also considering looking for property management companies that would have openings.  I'll likely move around the country a fair bit for my career, so we were thinking that getting a Real Estate license may be a little too much investment since we won't be in the same state for more than a few years at a time.  Bonus points for a job suggestion that would possibly have benefits (not really sure what there would be out there to fit this bill), and super bonus points for anything specific to the Washington, D.C. metro area :)

Interesting to see that the Marysville market is blowing up like that.  Do you think that housing will expand outward with new development as a result, or are prices still not high enough to warrant new-builds?  I know that Midwest cities often tend to grow outward much faster than they grow in density.

Thanks for the replies guys!  House hacking is actually something that sounds very attractive to me, though it would have to be a very specific multiplex as the girlfriend and I would be living there and I would want her to feel comfortable and at home.  It actually seems like an especially good strategy in the DC area since rents/mortgages are far higher than most of the country (and thus eliminating our housing costs would be an outsized impact on the budget compared to elsewhere).

@Carson Sweezy, I have not yet, though I am interested in going to one soon (if you have one that you attend and would PM me the details, I would be most grateful!)

Hi everyone!  Longtime podcast listener, first time poster.  

I'm a recent graduate of Ohio State University (go Bucks!), and now work full time for Ford Motor Company in our Washington D.C. regional office. While I'm located in northern Virginia (Woodbridge, specifically), I'm a little worried that I won't be able to find anything that I can afford to invest in locally so I'm expanding my search to include a few hour radius (Richmond, Baltimore, Charlottesville, etc.). I'm mainly interested in buy/hold rentals for cash flow over the long term, as I'm not able to currently devote job-like attention to real estate. Over the course of the next few years I'm looking to pick up a few small multi-family or SFH properties to add passive income while building an equity position that I can leverage into a bigger investment down the road.

Additionally, I'm considering distance investing back into my hometown of Toledo, OH due to prices and the level I think I could cash flow out at, with the same goals and interests as above.

I'm really excited to get to know the community and the business! If you know of any local REIA meetings, I'd be interested to learn about when and where. Additionally, if you're from the greater Toledo area, I'd love to connect!