All Forum Posts by: Jason Schmidt

Now that i know what bone to throw, I will. I don't know what I don't know - does that make sense? I am in the Houston area if that helps.

I have been lurking for a few years here, and have posted a question from time to time, but am closer to being serious about this whole thing. Here is my situation: I have a 40 hour / wk work schedule that is not demanding. I probably "work" 25-30 of those hours each week, and gross 130-150k. After my passive income, I have to come up with probably $700 a month for my family to meet bills (house is paid off). We have 40k cash right now and basically I want to get into real estate - I want to have more passive income! If you were in my shoes, what would you do? Rentals, flipping, commercial etc? Would love to hear your thoughts!

I have my own business, but would like to work on diversifying a bit so I can have more passive income. We have no bills (aside from $3k a month for electricity, food, insurance, etc.) I think if I work hard over the next year or so, we can save up $100k to invest. Would it be possible to get into commercial real estate with that kind of cash in hand to generate some good passive income that we can live off of?

wow ... just wow. I was expecting about $500 cash flow after it is paid off. Paying in 75k on a house and only getting $4500 on return per year doesn't sound like that swell of an idea, nor does losing $75 a month! /frustrated

$75,000 house with 6.5% interest, 5% down. Assuming I can get $750 a month rent, what can I expect to:

1) receive in profit each month?
2) receive in profit each month after it is paid off?

I would have a property management company do the maintenence and such, and would be doing an insurance thing in case the a/c or something goes out so I wouldn't have to deal with it.

Further, are there any costs associated with buying a rental that wouldn't go toward the price of the house? IE closing costs and such ... would i be paying hundreds of dollars just to buy the dang thing?

I am super excited about my folks moving back to our area. It seems as though there are several houses here at less than $75k that I can get them into. I would like some help though in trying to figure out how to do this. I have read books on real estate investing, but have probably lost a lot of my memory on it. I want some good equity built up in it before buying also, of course. What should I do? I hope to find and buy one in about 2 months.

In the next 5-10 years, I would like to have about 5 to 10 rental properties, and put myself in a position with enough passive income to live on, while not having to play handyman - I suck at that kind of thing, and woudln't enjoy it either way.

What are your thoughts? As you can see, I need help!

i want to sleep soundly! :)

absolutely ... the problem is that it still opens you up to a massive liability if something goes south. The idea for me is to build security, and not lose my hair while doing it.

just remember you need to be getting a significantly higher return on your investment money in cd's than what you are paying on interest. for example, i found that in order for investments to offset what i have to pay off, i need to look at something doing at least 9.5% to offset my 6.125% interest rate on my home. and i don't owe that much anymore!

i was actually just thinking about that - should i keep my money in the bank and pay off in one lump sum or pay as i go? As it turns out, if I pay as I go, I can save $2,500 in interest assuming it takes a year to pay off. Keep in mind that includes putting down a lump sum of $40k now and keeping 20k in reserve cash at all times.