All Forum Posts by: Joshua Feit

@Tareq Khreim -- welcome! Excited for you as you begin your new venture.

Since you probably are working a traditional job at the moment, and likely have a commute, be sure to get started on the BP Podcast. It's an amazing resource of information-rich interviews with seasoned investors. And hey, you can listen while you commute

Also, I find it helpful to post my prospective deals in the deal analysis forum. It is amazing to have experienced investors chime in on my analyses.

Wishing you all the best as you launch into this new field. Cheers!

Josh here from Atlanta. Cheers on the good deal!

And yes, we all want to know how you managed to put 5% down without closing costs. Do share!

I wish you all the best with your new venture.

@Mills Snell -- Josh here from Atlanta. I'm pretty new to real estate investing. Someone much wiser and more experienced than me recently steered me away from a similar situation. He helped me understand that tenant relationships are complicated enough, without the added intricacies of friendship history. The nuances of friends-as-tenants will make it difficult to enforce your business policies, even if everything is clearly contracted.

One trick was knowing what to say -- how do you even reject a friend's request to rent without messing up the friendship? I found myself wishing my friend never asked in the first place!

This mentor suggested using the line, "I value our friendship way too much, and I can't run the risk of business getting in its way." It's not perfect, but I like the approach of placing the value of the friendship above the business agreement.

@Eddie Marcano -- Josh here from Atlanta. I am a newer investor, so take my advice lightly!

I am investing in neighborhoods where similar longer-term developments are taking place. It would be a huge upside if these properties end up appreciating as I hope they will

That said, I am trying to be as disciplined as I can, making sure that I am realistic (even a bit pessimistic) about the possibility of appreciation. Instead, I make sure the deal is going to work for my goals and business plan from day one.

Healthy appreciation would be so, so sweet! But without a crystal ball, the only way I know how to invest (especially as a beginner) is to make sure the numbers work for me straight away.

Hello @Tristan Hill, and welcome to the BP community! Josh here from Atlanta. I am in my first year of buy/hold investing, and I have seven doors in the metro region.

Three pieces of advice for you as you begin your journey:

1) Get into the BP Podcast. The interviews are amazing, and you can listen while you commute. You will learn so much through this resource!

2) Find your local REIA and attend the meetings. You will learn a lot from the presenters, and you will get to know many experienced investors who know the nuances of your market.

3) As you find a potential deal, you can post a quick analysis on the forum, and experienced investors will give you feedback about the property. I have found this so helpful, especially in the early days.

I wish you all the best in your new venture. Cheers!

Josh here, a newer investor from Atlanta. I feel that Dave Ramsey's approach is over-simplified. In my opinion, all debt is not created equal, and Ramsey's teachings seem to gloss over the importance of understanding assets and liabilities.

I think Ramsey is trying to help those addicted to credit card spending, fancy vacations, posh car purchases, etc. He wants to show there is a better way, and I think there is merit to his teaching.

That said, once consumer debt is eradicated, disciplined budgets are honored, and savings are being generated, I believe acquiring assets by taking on strategic, calculated debt can be an excellent strategy for building wealth.

@Stewart Morrison -- Josh here, a fellow Atlantan in my first year of buy/hold investing. Great question. I find the ads with the CAPS often have numbers that just don't work for me. There are always exceptions, but generally, the louder ads seem not to be a fit for my investing.

I try to stick to this paradigm when searching for ads:

1) Understand my goals first. Answer this: what do I need my next acquisition to do for me?

2) Know my neighborhoods. Drive and walk the areas in which I hope to invest. Talk with neighbors, keep my eyeballs open for FSBO signs.

3) Follow ALL for sale properties in this area (favorite them using Redfin). Even if I have no intent to buy any of these listings, it is great to see the listings go pending and sold in real time, and it is fascinating to track the listing vs. sold prices and how long the listings were on the market.

4) As you develop a solid knowledge base, search for ads (MLS / Craigslist) in the area, and run the numbers yourself. Never trust the numbers in the ads. Even if it seems at a glance that a property is not for you, calculating the numbers is a good discipline that will make you faster at evaluating future properties.

I wish you all the best with your ventures. Cheers!

Hello @Blake Williams -- Josh here, and I am in my first year as a buy/hold investor. As you can imagine, I don't have a lot of experience, and like you, looking at properties can be a daunting task.

Instead of going at it alone, try this strategy:

Find a contractor you like (perhaps a friend, or someone recommended to you) and pay them to come along for the showing. I have a contractor that works on my houses. I pay him $60 to spend an hour with me in the property, and that night, he sends me a written evaluation, along with an estimate to make the repairs. This strategy has helped me take all of the guesswork out of evaluating property repairs. Give it a try, and let us know how this first deal turns out.

I wish you all the best with your new venture. Cheers!

Josh here. I am a newer investor in my first year of buy/hold ventures. So take my advice lightly!

On a certain episode of the BP Podcast (can't remember which one...), the interviewee stated that rural markets generally experience slow, steady value growth, as opposed to cities, where the valuation can have greater fluctuations.

I am invested in the city of Atlanta, but ever since listening to that episode, I have been considering acquisitions that are further out from the urban core for this very reason.

I wish you all the best with your new ventures. Cheers!

Josh here! I'm a newer investor in my first year of buy/hold real estate. I will never forget the feelings of worry, angst, and sleeplessness that would not leave me alone as I headed toward the closing table for the first time. With just that one property under my belt, the second acquisition felt so much more businesslike, more calculated -- and I was calm the whole way through.

I will also never forget the feelings I had after closing that first deal. The world kept spinning, I didn't lose my shirt, and I drove on home with the strange, anti-climactic feeling of 'did that really just happen?'

Yes it did, and I'm so glad I fought through the emotional waves, making the scary unknown into a new, exciting venture.