All Forum Posts by: Paul Aqua

@Sheila Campbell I'm not gonna bother telling you things that most of the others have said but what I will do is I'll share my experience of trying to purchase a property with no money down. I had virtually no money for a down payment however I did find someone through BP who claimed there was enough equity and they could bring funds to the table to close. Long story short the person vanished and the few thousand I did have I lost out as earnest money deposit. My recommendation to you is figure out what exactly is your goal. You can have a great investment portfolio by investing in REIT's and some start as low as a 10 dollar contribution. If you just want to own real estate for the sake of owning real estate my recommendation is too never purchase a property without a minimum of 3 months ideally 6 months of working capital. I've seen it time and time again where people rush into real estate ( myself included) and get burned due to not having money for things like a new water heater, roof, a tenant that will absolutely destroy your property etc. look at out of state investments if your local market is too hot ( I live in the SF Bay Area so I believe me I get it) do everything you can do to save 20% down on a property as well as finding a undervalued property in a great area or an area that will be up and coming in the future. Everyone's investment goals are different and what works for one person may not work for another. That being said I want to see you succeed.

@Shane Keilers LOL

@Tyler Erickson Hello! I fit that demographic ( I’m 23) and I don’t plan to buy a home for atleast the next 5 years or so. The reason being is I live in the Bay Area with roommates and my rent is cheap ( I pay 825 for a room as opposed to close to 3200 for a mortgage in a similar area. Even assuming I house hacked I still would be negative cash flowing roughly 800 dollars a month ). The main reason why I don’t want to buy a home is because I rather invest my money in more rental properties than in a house. There’s nothing wrong with homeownership but for my strategy for wealth building it just doesn’t make sense for me at this point in time.

@Blair Colsey cap rate generally is higher with a greater amount of risk. Your A neighborhood might have a 3-6 cap and your D/F neighborhood might be at a 15% cap rate but the D class neighborhood is inherently more riskier

I’ve been a property Manager for roughly 4 years, I started out with storage and transitioned into single family and multi family. That being said I’m starting to feel burned out from multi family and have been thinking about becoming a Transaction Coordinator at a brokerage. I would be making slightly more as a TC but it wouldn’t be life changing. Has anyone else suffered burnout as a property manager and if so what did you do?

As other people have stated I believe a majority of real estate investors do this because it's their passion. You can make this argument about literally anything.  Unlike a majority of of BP members my political affiliation isn't  super far right ( Proud Libertarian) but regardless if someone own 82k homes good for them. Think about all the repair and construction businesses that will have work because someone owns those homes. Think about all the TAXES that landlord will be paying for the property.  I understand where you are coming from but ultimately a majority of people don't aspire to be wealthy so this isnt taking away from 20K potential property owners. 

Just like anywhere it truly depends. I am aware Detroit has a bad rap for its history with poverty and high crime. However there are many parts of Detroit that are being revitalized and there are some heavy tax incentives for people to move to Detroit. I think I would be extremely careful if I was to invest 50K in Detroit but as real estate investors we need to be extremely diligent with every property we evaluate not just the ones in Detroit. 

Thank you everyone for your responses! 

Hello Everyone! So I currently use a SEP IRA to set aside money for retirement but I was wondering if that money is better used towards buying more rental properties. Especially since I plan on using rental properties as my retirement strategy should I focus more o acquiring more rentals or just build a big retirement nest egg?

Hello @Rob Gillespie thank you for your kind response. I've actually found that there is  numerous ways to make money and seeing as I have a history of property management ( I was an assistant Property manager for roughly 3 years)  I may try to go back in that field part time to pay bills. I believe that I will be wildly successful but once again I appreciate your kind words. While I left my current job I currently am working odd jobs to make ends meet but I am aware it will only be temporary.