All Forum Posts by: William Murrell

Read any of Frank Gallinelli's books and you'll have a very solid understanding of the financial mechanics of real estate investing. And that is one of the best things you can do for yourself because you can't go far without a solid mastery of the financial end. Read "How I Turned 1,000 into Five Million in Real Estate in My Spare Time" to get an idea of how to "pyramid" and go from SFH to Multi Family. "The ABC's of Real Estate Investing" by McElroy is also very good. Also, DEFINITELY listen to the podcasts. There's so much information and entertainment there. Good luck!

+1 to getting stable employment and good credit.  If those are in order, I'd recommend you talk with a lender to see what you could qualify for.  That part is free and will give you a good starting point.  Maybe they say you can buy a house, maybe they'll tell you to pay stuff down because you don't qualify for anything yet.  Either way, at least you'll know for sure.  

If they say you qualify, then set a budget including paying for the house and paying down the debt simultaneously and then go buy a house.  You can get some interesting financing options for primary residence, live in it for a while and move out and rent it.  Rinse and repeat.  Also, now is a great time to buy while interest rates are low.  Good luck!

That's an impressive list of properties in a short period of time.  How many were buy and hold and how many were flips?  And how were you funding these deals?

I think that "Help" could work quite nicely if it was part of the rest of your marketing message.  As in, "Facing foreclosure?  We can Help! 1-555-555-Help"

Welcome to the site and the world of Real Estate!  Make sure you listen to the podcasts too; they are an absolute goldmine.  Good luck!

You should be more concerned with cashflow than with what proportion the taxes represent of your expenses.  Most people on BP aim for $100-200 per door on a rental, and some aim for the 2% rule (something I've never seen in my area, but a good goal to shoot for).  Either way, the cashflow is more important.

Well, as long as it's cashflow positive and doesn't put you under undue strain, I'd keep it.

Glad to hear it!  Thanks for the update.

Also, what lender is going to call a performing loan?  There are definitely ways to make it work, and as long as you're making the payments the bank will stay happy.  They could always try to call the loan but they run the risk of you saying you can't pay it in which case they would foreclose.  In that case, they're just creating another problem for themselves.  There are a couple of BP podcasts that discuss this in greater depth, though I can't recall which ones specifically.  Good luck.

One of the first things you might miss with your strategy might be not accurately anticipating the rehab costs.  I recommend poking around on the site for a while, or better yet, check out J Scott's book "The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs."  I just finished it this weekend and  highly recommend it.  It has a lot of good info in terms of how much you'll need to budget for different aspects when it comes to repairing a house.  Your costs will be less than some of the ones he quotes, but if you at least tally up all the work and go in assuming that some parts will have to be performed by another contractor then at least you won't be surprised.  Your idea is a great one, just make sure you're realistic on what it will take to fix whatever you buy!