All Forum Posts by: Nicholas L.

@Jonathan McDermott

https://www.millennial-revolution.com/start-here/

@Tiffany Watkins I hear you. I'm impatient too but trying to work on it. =)  Any less risky strategies or options you're considering?

@Tiffany Watkins no, not as a first deal. You could be in a really tough spot trying to pay of the HML if any of your assumptions don't hold.

@Victoria Hill save up as much money as you can.

@Tamarah Berry I totally understand your situation, I just think hard money should not be used when you are starting out (again, if they would even loan in your situation.)  There is nothing wrong with renting, saving up, and continuing to learn.  There will always be good deals - you will not miss out on anything by being patient.

@Linzey Ledesma you can reach out to lenders whenever you want.  It's free to have them run numbers for you and send you a pre-approval letter, but they will pull your credit.

You need to have funds beyond just the down payment - including reserves for the property.

If you haven't yet, I'd read Brandon Turner's "Book on Managing Rental Properties."  And find threads on BP about tenant screening.

@Katherine Ayvar seems like house hacking is the way to go here.

@Katherine Ayvar you mention a mortgage, cash and hard money in your post; are you leaning toward one or the other? I would not use hard money on your very first purchase, it's very expensive and they may only loan to an LLC and not you as an individual. Do you have enough cash for living expenses and reserves?

@Tamarah Berry I would not try to make your very first purchase with hard money.  Hard money is very expensive.

@Greg Koszkul great question.  I think it's actually less about finding the "right" calculator and more about knowing your market.  For example, your best repair estimates would be actual quotes from actual contractors. The best rental estimates will come from actual comps from real live real estate agents.  Etc.  The online calculators should really be used as quick screening tools to rule properties out.  Then, once you've ruled a few properties in, you really need to do much more due diligence.  I put a property under contract last month knowing I would need to do a detailed inspection to get a better repair estimate.  It turned out to be too high to make the deal work, so I canceled the contract.  I was out the $400 for the inspection - but that's money well spent to avoid a bad deal.  Hope this helps.