All Forum Posts by: Mike Lisenby

I am in the same boat and am interested in STR's in the east valley area of Phoenix for my first investment property. I have a partner that will be going in on the investments with me and we are currently working on a game plan/goals. What kind of % down would new investors be looking at when trying to obtain a STR in the SE Gilbert/Chandler area? Hard money vs traditional lending? Creative financing? Thanks!

I have my personal home that I live in and have no plans on doing the owner occupied route at this point. Where are you finding these deals for the 3-4 unit multi's? Is there a special listed aside from typical MLS listings and real estate sites (zillow, trulia, Redfin, etc?). Do you guys manage the properties yourself or use a management company? My goal (at least at this point) is to slowly acquire several paid off rentals, and then down the road consolidate into a larger multi family at Some point (8+ unit). As juvenile as it sounds but I kind of like the monopoly idea of get 4-5 houses then upgrade to a larger multi fam. Is the strategy for conventional financing basically 1. Put your down payment together 2. Get pre- approved with lender 3. Find property that matches what your looking for, and make an offer? Any good lenders in the Monroe/Snohomish area that deal with investment properties?

What's going on everybody, Was hoping to throw out my situation to you guys for advice. I've got a full time job (police officer) and have no plans on leaving anytime soon (29 yo) but I want to get into the buy and hold rental market in the greater seattle area. My question going forward is how did you guys acquire your first property? Did you save up until you had the 20-25% down and then get a conventional loan?, did you borrow from family? Hard money lender? I have just recently paid off all my debts (car, student loans, CC, etc) and am trying to figure out my game plan of entering the real estate game and if its advisable to simply sock away money for the next 2 years or so until I get to that 20-25% which would prob be in the area of 40-50k in my area for a decent 3b SFH, thoughts???? Thanks, Mike

Welcome to BP! I'm up in Sno-county and just getting started myself, great group of people with TONS on knowledge/experience on here!

-Mike

?How often do you guys meet? I'm definitely just starting out but would love to grab a coffee/beer and pick your brains. How did you guys land your first property? Single fam home/condo/multi fam/duplex/etc? Did you get 20% down first or more? 15 year mortgage vs 30? Thoughts on out of state properties? (In-laws are in AZ and good home prices are still what decent condos are going for in WA, <100k) so really looking at that being a potential first goal. The other is dealing with my primary residence, purchased summer '08, owe $289k and latest zillow is $265k estimate, it's definitely moving in the right direction but will be awhile until I'm in equity in it. I have a fixed FHA @ 3.75% but have to pay close to $300 just in PMI. I can put away typically $1000/month +/- occasional overtime cash ear marked for investing (after other retirement funds have already been accounted for) starting January. Thought about funding a fairly conservative mutual fund to stick the money in until I'm in a good position to sign some house papers. A bit winded, but thoughts?

@Jenkins Ramon: thanks Brotha!

@Kirill Chervets, ya I went there, class of '03. Grilla bites does have good food for sure, Fred's is pretty good as well.

Originally posted by Minh L.:

Mike,

You're a good candidate for buy-and-hold. Debt can be your best allied if used correctly. There's a time to be debt free, and there's a time to go all in and borrow as much cheap money as you can. You're at the age where your career is barely taking off. Load up on several rentals now and try to maximize your borrowing limits. Once you reached to your desired 5th property, then you snowball all of your monthly positive cashflow into paying off one rental property at a time. After you paid off your 5th property, send 1/2 of the monthly net positive cashflow to me. :)

Good luck with building your real estate empire.

-hahaha I'll keep you posted on the positive cash flow!

Originally posted by Brandon Turner:

Hey @Mike Lisenby welcome to the site! Looks like we are at a very similar position in life (I'm 28, married, great job, ... but about a million in debt, but that's mostly mortgages :)) I'm also in Washington State, down near Olympia.

If you haven't yet - definitely check out The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Investing as well as a post I wrote last year, called How to Make a Million Dollars in Real Estate - you might enjoy that!

As for debt vs. financing - it's a tough, and personal call. Obviously, using debt you'll be able to grow faster. However, the more debt, the more risk. Usually there seems to be a happy medium.

Finally, be sure to upload a photo to your profile, and be sure to set up Keyword Alerts for "Seattle" so you'll be notified when local conversations take place.

Seeya around the site!

-So cool to see others from my area! Thanks for the advice!

Originally posted by Zach Schwarzmiller:

Mike in Snohomish!! I live/own triplexes down near the library on Maple (in Snohomish)! Buying the green house across the street from it currently. Not sure to rent out house and basement separate or tear down and build 4-6 units and/or a small commercial space - running the proforma's currently to figure it all out.

You should check out our local meetup: http://www.meetup.com/SnoCo-Connected-Real-Estate-Investors/events/138912582/

I'm 26 and engaged with my eyeballs up to debt, but all good debt :) (in my opinion). If you'd like to grab a beer or coffee sometime that would be awesome your the first one I have come across on here who actually lives in Snohomish.

Right on! I'm pretty excited to get into it and would be awesome to meet up one of these days.