All Forum Posts by: Neil Henderson

Haven't coached with anyone but we've interviewed both Mike Sjogren and Zeona McIntyre on the subject and found them both to be very knowledgable.

Yes, I would say this qualifies as "Creative Financing". Good luck. Keep us all posted about your journey.

As @Alexander Felice says to me, "It's an aggressive product." 

I would venture a guess that there is a lender, or three, out there who will do delayed financing with a HELOC. I can't speak specifically about one but I'd bet they are out there.

Line the financing up before you go after a property and be specific with the lender about what you plan to do. You don't want to acquire a property, rehab it, rent it, and then have the bank refuse to refi, leaving you with a long term HELOC payment.

Good luck!

@Fernando Angelucci is pretty experienced in the Chicago market. He's transitioning more into self storage at this time but he might be able to provide some insight into your questions.

I'll echo what @Danny Randazzo said, look for opportunities to house hack. You could buy a small multifamily property, live in one side, and rent out the other. Or, you could buy a single family home and rent out the extra rooms to roommates. Spencer Cornelia has done a great with this by also furnishing the extra rooms. 

Hi @Shalene Brooks and welcome,

I'll echo what @John Corey above plus add the following:

Begin with the end in mind. 

I say this so much on BP I just might change it to be my name. 

What are you trying to achieve with real estate investing and what do you want your life to look like when you've reached that destination? 

Get really specific! Not just, "I want to have more free time and travel more." Really dig down and spell out a day in the life. "I want to wake up every day in the morning, somewhere warm and mild, near the ocean. After a cup of coffee on the porch I want to go for a run with my significant other, or practice yoga..." 

Really take the time to visualize it. This accomplishes two things. 

First, it provides you something truly motivating that you can latch onto to keep you going. 

Second, it gets you to start thinking about the specific real estate strategy that's going to get you to that destination. You're going to be eating at the real estate investing buffet here, sample all it has to offer, but take note of the things you like and that are good for you. Because, not every strategy is going to give you the kind of life you want, even if it pays well.

Next, I agree that reaching out to other veterans who are real estate investors as John suggested is a great place to start. @Alexander Felice is one I know, and I know he used a VA loan to purchase his first property that launched his investment career.

Good luck to you, and please feel free to reach out if you have any other questions.

It depends. What do you want your life to look like once you are up and running with your investments? Rather than trying to time the market or find the "perfect investment", focus on finding a niche that's going to provide enough cash flow to support the kind of life you want, in a manner that supports the kind of life you want.

Buy something that cash flows, with long term debt (10-30 year term, amortized over 25-30 years) that isn't over leveraged (LTV less than 75%) and have adequate cash reserves in case something goes wrong. 

Follow the above guidelines and let time do it's work and most real estate niches will do fine. 

Want to dig deeper? Look for niches that have long term demographic tail winds behind them; rentals in general, multifamily, self storage, assisted living, mobile home parks, etc. 

It depends on a lot of things. 

First, is the property near where you live? If not, you're looking at property management. If that's the case, very different day in the life. You'll mostly be managing the property manager (sometimes a job in itself) and managing the finances, insurance and taxes for the property. All this depends on how full service your manager is as well. 

That said, It can be tough finding property management with the experience and the desire to manage a small apartment community like that, and it can be tough to justify the expense that still makes it profitable. 

If you're self managing; imagine self managing a single family home but with X times the units. Rent collection, maintenance calls/scheduling, tenant complaints, periodic unit inspections, unit turnover management, prospective tenant showings of the unit, prospective tenant screening, etc. 

I think there's a real sweet spot there that lies between small multifamily (under 4 units) and the larger commercial properties (80+ units) AND a danger zone in there. Big enough to be a LOT of work but not big enough for professional management. 

@Matt W. has a lot of experience self managing mid-sized units like this. Not sure how often he's on here though. 

Hi Heather,

Welcome! 

Some thoughts:

1- Look for towns with colleges and major hospitals. Traveling professors, students, parents, nurses, patients, patient families all have a need for short term furnished rentals. Colorado Springs would seem to fit that bill.

2- I would avoid properties smaller than 2 bedrooms if you can. Tough to make the numbers work with a 1 bedroom. You'll be booked a lot, but you'll be fighting the lower end of the market to maintain your price. Toughest part about condos and townhomes are they are frequently in associations that are hostile to short term rentals. You never know when the board is going to change the rules on you. 

3- Outside my expertise

4- AirDNA is where I look. Look for comparable properties and get a feel for how often they are booked and what their average price is. Be conservative in what you think you can get!

Zeona McIntyre and Michael Sjogren are two people who would be good to reach out to. Especially Zeona as I know she's very familiar with the Colorado market.

Good luck!

Welcome Valente,

It's a broad question with a lot of different answers, but I'll do my best to help you find some.

Before even thinking about which real estate strategy to employ, I'd start with an honest personal financial assessment. Do you have any bad debt (credit cards, student loans, etc.)? If so, smart money says pay that off first. Do you have savings that could cover your expenses for a good bit in case of emergency? (3-6 months is probably minimum.)

If all of the above is ok, sit down with your wife and talk about how you want your life to look when you're well on your way with whatever real estate strategy it is that you think you'll be using. How active do you want to be? Are you going to do it full time or do you have a day job that will prevent you from doing it? Do you want to travel six months out of the year? 

Get specific about how want your life to look. There are many, many ways to achieve cash flow with real estate investing, not every one of them is going to give you the life you are looking for. The life of a house flipper is very different from a buy and hold, single family investor. The life of a note investor is very different from the life of a multifamily syndicator.

If you are young and don't have kids, house hacking a small multifamily is a brilliant way to get started. Even if you have kids, it just depends on your area and what you're comfortable with. 

Good luck to you! I look forward to following your journey.