All Forum Posts by: Paul Smythe

Bravo!

Advice should be based on what will give this person the best path forward, not what anyone's personal opinion/philosophy is about the usefulness of college. It's easy to tell someone to drop out of school when typing on a keyboard and not actually having to face the consequences of that decision.

For every Bill Gates there's probably ten thousand dropouts in their parent's basement talking about how podcasting and their apparel line (i.e. t-shirt company) is going to make them rich.

@Bruce Woodruff do you have any evidence to back that up, or did it just work for you so it must be true universally?

@Bruce Woodruff that's dangerous advice to give to a college student. What type investment would you even try to recommend they get into with $75k that will cover both living expenses and wealth-building?

A college degree isn't perfect, but it helps establish a baseline and improves financial stability (assuming they're not taking on massive debt in the form of student loans).

A safe $75k real estate investment is typically going to generate minimal cashflow that will be peanuts compared to monthly living expenses.

Stay in school. I wanted to do the same thing in college and am thankful I had a support system that was smarter than I was telling me to stay.

~$75k is peanuts for building a (financial independence) real estate portfolio and probably only covers 1-2 years of living expenses without the real estate.

You're on the right track when it comes to looking to invest in real estate, but I would not risk the safety net that is a college degree.

You've come to the right place if you want to complain about appraisals, I'll say that.

Reality is, an appraiser's main goal is to assign an objective fair market value to a property. An investor's goal is to get the highest possible value to benefit the investor. Naturally, they'll be at odds.

Most appraisers are fine at their job. The appraisal concept is flawed I think because it's hard to account for value growth if you're only looking at past values.

Well sure, if you know the property is going to double in value over the next five years then negative cashflow is fine. If you don't have a crystal ball, though, you're just speculating at that point.

Way too much risk on most negative cashflow deals in my opinion. Your only successful exit strategy is the market improving to allow you to rent/sell for a higher price. If the market is stagnant or declining, you're in a pickle.

The title is dramatic, but I do wonder if your typical mom-and-pop that's just starting out is going to be able to build a legitimate (cashflowing) rental portfolio in the current market with large institutional buyers snapping up everything in sight with cash at higher prices than ever.

The 1% rule is all but gone where I'm looking. The only real way to find deals is off-market leads, but there's a lot of competition there too, especially if you're not carrying out a massive marketing campaign.

$150k for a house is cheap but $1500/month in rent is on the expensive side (in my market).

I'm curious where we go from here. It's hard to compete with cash buyers with lower return requirements. If you've been in the game for a bit, I'm sure this is great because your portfolio is looking very healthy. Not so much if you're starting out.

Agreed, I wouldn't panic yet, but I would absolutely make sure you get the deposit up-front next time. I'm betting a signed lease gives them certain tenant rights immediately, regardless of status of deposits and payments.

Looking to get advice from more seasoned investors and legal professionals. Looking at a couple lots in South Carolina with tax deeds (purchased a decade ago at tax sale). Seller would be offering quitclaim deed and I believe we've found an attorney who is willing to offer title insurance.

Thoughts? Is quitclaim + title insurance enough? I would plan to do a quiet title action after closing, but wasn't sure if that is overkill or not. Plan would be to build on the lots (with financing), so I want to make sure I do it right.

Money, time, simplicity

You won't always be able to stand out when the market is competitive, but all three help your case when a Seller is reviewing.