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Hi again all,
I have a question. A lot of the books I've been reading say "never buy real estate in your own name!! Start a business!" Most talk about LLCs and the like. Well it makes sense to me since I'm all about protecting my name and personal accounts, but is it realistic, especially from the start? Can you even start a business without any real estate under your belt? can things be transferred into a business name later? And what about starting out with "subject to" deals until you get a little experience? I dunno, it's just a little confusing to me. Anyone have any input/advise/words of wisdom?

B

The more I research the more I get overwhelmed by the amount of options there are out ther, so I've come up with a question for you guys: How many of you just dove in and started investing vs how many of you started out acting as scout or dealer for someone else? Why/Why not? What do you recomend for us newbies?

P.S.

I was wrong about the 5% thing, apparently the lender who told me I might be able to do that was making things up, when I called back I found out that it's still ten percent or no deal.

I didn't say I don't want to put 5-10% down, I said I wouldn't want to do it out of pocket because I havent got10% to put down. If I can get an interest only mortgage I'd be ok payments wise, but I can't seem to get any mortgage on a second house without putting 10% down (that 10%I still don't have) I can do five, but that doesn't help. Do you have any recommendations for a subprime lender?

You know, this low or no downpayment stuff isn't as easy as the infomercials think. Luckily I'm stubborn. None of the lenders I've been talking to will do a 90/10 deal (or 80/20, I figured since I'm asking, might as well think big and try to avoid PMI). Since this isn't my first home it seems that no one is willing to do a 100% financing deal, I've tried structuring it as both investment and second home, trying to see what kind of options I have. So far the best deal I've gotten is 30yr fixed with the first 15 interest only, and that's also with a 10% downpayment. On the up side I can get the seller to defer the downpayment, so I'm not too worried about it, I just need to get the monthly payments as low as possible or the seller won't be able to do the deal.

well, that's an idea, but you're assuming I have that much free credit. I'm one of those who was raised that credit cards are a bad thing. I only have one credit card right now and while the limit is decently high, it won't cover a downpayment. Plus, since I bought my last house, my debt to income ratio is such that I haven't been able to get another credit card yet.

I posted a message similar to this in the creative financing section, but have a little to add. I'm wanting to buy a house in CA, the seller is willing to give it to me for way below market value and stay on as a renter. I'm having issues with financing though. I'm trying to find the lowest possible monthly payments to help accomodate the possible renter, but here are the snags I'm running into with lenders: 1) if I buy the place as an investment, they require 10% down (which I don't have) 2)because of my particular circumstances, I can apply for the property as a second home, which only requires 5% down (that, I might be able to swing), but either a) the payments will be higher than what I'm looking for, b)my debt to income ratio is too high. I know there's got to be a way to make this work, but I have no experience outside of buying my first home in a trancelike state (smile and nod, sign here)I could use some options. I've got very little money to play with, but I could be in for significantly more if I can find a way to finance this deal. Help!!

I have what I think will be a good deal in the making, but am having trouble finding a lender. Here's the deal. CA single family home appraised at around $300,000 seller willing to take $170,000 for it (just wants to pay off the bank) and willing to stay on as renter. Here's the problem: in order to make this work I would preferably have to bring the payments down to $1,000/mo or less, but the lowest I've been offered so far would be $1200/mo and the lenders want at least a 10% downpayment (which I don't have, wouldn't be willing to pay out of pocket anyway) I know this must be doable, but apparently creativity isn't my forte. I'm open to any and all ideas!!

oh, why didn't ya just say so? :goofy:

can anyone give me some input on flipping properties? Initially it sounded like something I would be interested in trying, but the more I read the more it sounded like there would be a lot of strings, rules, and taxes involved. It sounds to me as though there isn't much proffit involved unless I find properties a good chunk below market value and can turn around and sell them for significantly more.