All Forum Posts by: Kenneth Huddleston

I personally think you should keep paying it off as you are, but I can relate with wanting to get out of the student loans. Honestly i would suggest grounded manufactured homes, grounded meaning with land. You can find them for sale for next to nothing on any realty site, so the rent won't be much higher if you find a good deal. Also, they will rent out for more when and if you choose to rent it out after moving.

I've mentioned this in other threads. What i would suggest when dealing with college students is 2 things to insure that you are as safe as can be is 1) Make sure you have a strict lease. As long as you don't prove to be a complete jerk and the property is nice i don't think they will give you any crap about a stricter lease. 2)Look for kids who have parents in the upper-middle class and who will cosign on the lease. By doing so it adds a pressure to the students to keep the property safe, and if they don't you can leave it up to good old mom and dad.

Keep in mind making an offer is not actually a commitment. Make as many offers and contact as many owners as you can, you can always tell them you bought a property and are no longer interested. As for dealing in your market, my suggestions would be either to invest in another market or to start studying the principles of wholesaling. Even if you don't intend to become a wholesaler, wholesaling principles are built around finding profitable deals that no one else has found, so learning these principles could be ideal for your situation.

My suggestion would be to do the opposite and get a home in Syracuse where you go to school. I realize that in the state of NY this may be a tall order, but since you will be there for the majority of the year and only leave to visit you home town occasionally, there should be no issues with the terms. Also, i believe the exact terms are you have to make it your primary residence for a year or so, and then you can move out at your leisure.

Also, i would suggest getting perhaps as many hours as you can this summer to save up money. The bank is more likely to look past your age if you have a larger down-payment.

Guys, would you stop recommending his family co-sign for him? Its a good strategy but he said in his above post he does not want to get his family involved. What i would suggest is FHA, figuring out what you need to do to get approved for a bank loan, owner financing, or maybe hard money, though this wouldn't be ideal for a landlord situation.

I think the way you should go about it is to team up with other rehabbers in the area for your first few deals. Assuming you have capital to put in, it shouldn't be hard. What you do is find a few investors, a deal, and you get a percentage of the profits equal to your contribution. So if all in all 250k was invested in the property and you payed 50k of it, you would get 20% of the profits. This way there is less risk while you are learning as you are working with experienced investors as well as you just have less skin in the game and as such less to lose. Then as you start to build connections and capital transition into rentals.

Remember, if you are going to rent to college students you need to be careful. Being 16 myself i am not going to say all us teenagers are idiots, but they are definitely out there. I have heard some serious horror stories of college rentals. What i would suggest to avoid this is, obviously, a stern lease, and also look for kids whose parents have good credit and ask them to cosign on the property. It adds additional pressure to the kids to treat their property well and if they don't we can leave it up to mom and dad to sort it out.

I agree. With everything you've posted its obvious you are squandering the potential profitability of the property because you want to take care of your mother-in-law. While this is not a bad thing, you always need to establish the lines between business and family. Think about it this way, you could focus on charity and helping your family now when you are just a newbie, or you could focus on your investing and help them a lot more when you have the money a full fledged investor does. I tend to hold to the warren buffet philosophy of charity, which is i will invest now to give away later, thus increasing the amount i can give away.

As for do real estate agents not like investors? No way in hell. Maybe if they're morons. A rehabber or landlord provides a realtor with multiple deals a year, which can pay a hefty sum. Even wholesalers, who do not purchase the property, will usually advertise the services of their realtor to numerous rehabbers and landlords which are clients they will want. Besides, I wouldn't say for certain, but I am pretty sure that a buyers agent can go along with the contract, and even if they don't the rehabber could very well decide to use them for the sake of closing quickly. Just keep trying and you should get a response.