All Forum Posts by: Michael B.

Ive been on bigger pockets for some time now, learning a lot about real estate. I want to get into buy and hold real estate to build a strong retirement for the future. My family is ready for a new home so naturally I thought about renting out our current home.

Will the bank want to see this house rented out for x amount of months before they approve me for a new loan so I can move?

Will they require me to have a certain amount of money set aside in the bank as a backup for this house?

Is there any other information you guys have that I might not know before moving forward with this?

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I havent been to any meetings but someone in another post told me about that group.

The people who pay themselves typically quit their day job and are using their rentals as their job.

The people who have a day job and rentals typically use any of the rental money purely as investment money and keep reinvesting any profits.

Im sure there is a grey area where some people take money even though they have a day job, but then you have to ask yourself what are your goals and what you really expect from your rentals.

"Accidentally" mow over the extension cord. Worse that can happen is court makes you buy him a new one, if it even goes that far.

@Duncan Taylor Thank you so much! This is the sort of strategy I prefer as opposed to carrying 10+ mortgages. To each their own though, i'm sure there's pros and cons to each. I also like the added benefit of having equity, rather than carrying a loan on everything.

So what are the terms of the private money then? Isnt private money more expensive and much shorter term? Im new to all this and trying to learn. From what ive read, most people want to keep long term loans on their properties. How long do you usually keep loans on a property before you pay it off?

Ah I understand, thank you for clarification!

Out of curiosity, what was the debt on? Credit card? Personal loan? etc Does it matter to the bank what the debt is on? I would think a car loan would be different debt than a credit card.. is it not?

Thank you for this post btw these are all things that will determine when I decide to buy my first property, and like you I wouldent have guessed $4300 debt to make or break you assuming all other factors are acceptable.

All good information. Thanks for the detailed post. Im working on paying off a 2nd mortgage on my personal home before diving into investment properties. Once that 2nd mortgage is paid off ill no longer be underwater.

Having said that, and dont take this the wrong way but how can you consider your debt to be "not that bad" if you have debt collectors calling trying to collect? How does it get much worse than that?

@Susan Gillespie

Thanks for the info on the MNREIA. I hadn't found that web site yet. Now I have another one to read!

@Brian K.

@Brian K.

Is it accurate to say that maybe Robert isn't investing in the right area if these are the best numbers he can come up with?

I'm curious because here in Rochester the numbers don't come out much better. I'm trying to get into buy and hold investing in the near future and im leaning toward investing in the Minneapolis St Paul area where the houses cost less and the rents are higher.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.