All Forum Posts by: Michael Lucero

hey i absolutely loved you post because it seems your eyes and mind have been opened to a growth, opportunistic psychology, its incredibly powerful. One thing you have to realize in life is most people live their life based on fear and they wont understand where you are coming from, risking what you have to gain something better; a great return in the bank, happiness, and lifestyle. Its quite sad society is like this, but know that it provides opportunity for those willing to think outside the box and take risks.

This is deeply ingrained into them by their parents and society, you are constantly told to be status quo, dont rock the boat, be a wage slave, because its safe and secure and therefore by default if you dont do this exact path, its the opposite, its unsafe, not 100% known so its not secure and is something to fear. Thats effin garbage. They think if they take a risk they may fail, fear that if they fail they somehow wont be able to pay for bills, fear what others will think of them, etc. We can talk forever on the reasoning or cause of this but one problem is that people never truly think for themselves and never try to self actualize, until its WAY too late. If u look at maslows heirarchy of needs(its very simple google image it if u dont know what it is, its a pyramid) most people never reach the top two levels of personal success and self actualization, rather they are stuck somewhere near the bottom (basic biological needs) to the middle and when they are stuck in those levels their psychology literally cant comprehend what you are doing because its not within the realm of their reality.  Its a major problem with society but eh, what can you do; corporations make so much money from keeping people in the lower levels, its hard to stop it. 

There is nothing wrong with fear, its just that you need to fear the right thing. You need to fear mediocrity, you need to fear regret, you need to fear what/how YOU will judge yourself of you dont take a chance!

Over how many years is the student debt to be paid off? Instead of refinancing with a bank, i would think of other options first. One would be to look into unsecured personal loans which are amazing. You take out a loan at a low rate and pay off the higher rate student loans. As a pharmacist i imagine u have a decently good salary and will be approved for some amount. Its absurdly easy to apply, all u need is to fill out an online application no other documentation is required, then they wire u the money in a few days and they dont ask for collateral against the loan (hence its unsecured lol). You just need good income and a good credit score. I just did it for a car i financed. I personally recommend Lightstream, its so good it seems, too good to be true. They have loans i think from 2-7 years at varying interest rates as low as 2.19%. Pm me if u have questions on lightstream.

Another option is to find someone who has cash and wants a aafe neary guaranteed rate of return. Maybe a relative wants to earn 2.5-5% interest and on their money and will give you the cash.

 Thanks Mindy, definitely will talk to the neighbors!

Thanks for the info. I don't think I need an inspector, I've fixed up places before, I was just curious to hear other people's stories and any one-off tips. I have some resources with my dad building a few houses from the ground up and 2 of my uncles being GC's, I can have one of them come with. Thanks!

I wouldnt call a money market an investment and compare it to the returns of an actual investment like real estate. Its more of a checking account at a financial/brokerage institution.

Also, I'd be interested to hear how you can you be certain your tax rate will never go down when it's not entirely in your control. Tax rates can and do go up or down drastically based on legislation, which is a reflection of economic/budget trends, the president, needs of government, etc. This also assumes you are never out of a job/business which ignores the fact that sickness, injury,  or life circumstance happen. 

You will be hard pressed to find someone willing to show you the ropes without providing value in return. Most people wont consider what you listed as value provided such as filings, research, etc., you either provide money or something new they dont know about. You have to understand that successful people will mostly already have systems in place to not need you or they think overseeing/training you will not be worth it, why disrupt their success to help you? Not to say its impossible but can be hard to find.  u may be able to find someone who will hire you and u can learn from them that way. Best way is to go to local rei groups, call rei investors from their advertisements or talk in person at their place of business if you can work for them. You can even offer to work for free, but these requests get a lot fuether when asked in person. 

If you want to have rentals and actually  make decent money, its quite hard to do it in socal. Socal has the appreciation factor but its not a guarantee and its more speculation and leaves your success in the hands of something out of your control, i wouldnt consider that a business. And to the hands on comment, do you want to be an investor or a landlord, sometimes you cant have both.

Ya, your analysis is probably right lol, it doesn't make sense to try and rent in these areas to cash flow for a young person looking to actually get a good return. A very quick and rough estimate is monthly rent should be close or above 1% of the house value to cash flow sufficiently, hard to find in socal. 

Those who buy in the expensive areas have a different motive, sometimes pension funds, wealthy foreigners/citizens, etc who are trying to diversify their assets outside of the stock market and want to preserve capital instead of hit a high return. It's almost impossible to buy locally if your profit motive is monthly cash flow. You could play the appreciation game but that's speculative, albeit a bit more likely in california, still speculation. 

I would be mindful of what from Dave Ramsay you follow. I thought his attitude towards debt was that all debt is bad, only buy house with cash etc., as opposed to teaching people the difference between good and bad debt. This was a few years ago so I'm not sure if the message is the same. His stuff seems less for the investor/businessman, and more so for the person who is in a bad situation or doesn't know much about personal finance.

I've identified a few houses to bid on during an upcoming auction, however, I wanted to hear some tips on how to inspect the house before the auction. Obviously you shouldn't break into the house and even stepping on the property can be considered trespassing, but are there any tips or recommendations on what to look for in the house or how to do a site visit. I plan to do the obvious, which is look for water damage, major cracks suggesting internal or foundation problems, termites, etc. but would love to hear what others have to say. Anyone have experience in hiring inviting a local inspector for lunch and cruising past the property?