All Forum Posts by: Richard Sherman

Cost of debt is not an indication of the performance of the property.  An example is what if I own the property free and clear, my cap rate would be much higher than someone with a loan if it was included in the cap rate, but that tells us nothing about the underlying property.  I am trying to make it understandable and not just a technical answer  :)

Never fall in love with a deal.  I would see about meet ups, local investor clubs etc.  Locking something in contract is never a bad idea assuming you think you DO want to buy it and think it is a good deal, you just need to be pretty sure you are going to be able to close or have outs and are not going to harm the seller (i.e. have a conscience about it.)  Raw land has been VERY good to me, but I buy agg land mostly.  That being said, it produces NO income usually, so holding it can get expensive.

How about buying a multi-unit, living in one and renting the others?  Flip is one-time income AND there is risk.  I would also imagine there are restrictions (clawbacks) on whatever the MD incentives are for First-time buyers, but check that out..always read the fine print.  Welcome!

BP forums!  Haha.  Section 8 Bible was interesting, though....rough I guess is the correct word and not worth the cost.  I would honestly spend some time on here searching rental issues etc and seeing how people reply to real-world examples and issues, FREE and possibly MUCH more relevant!

I would imagine you are referring to some of the midwestern markets (Memphis, Cinci etc?)

If there is that much meat on the bone, are you able to get it into contract and try to wholesale to another investor for a great deal (50k etc?)  are there Meet Ups in your area that you could go to or do you know potential buyers you could flip the contract too?

This will not work for W2, but anyone with a business that has high profit and few employees, a Cash Value Pension Plan (NOT A CASH VALUE LIFE INSURANCE!!!) has been HUGE for me...incredible the amount that can be put away in a sheltered plan (can be rolled to an IRA if/when the business closes.)

How passive is passive and how much do you want to travel.  Your income is your biggest weapon, you are doing great on your assets, if you are into FIRE I am guessing your saving 50%+ per year?

I would always assume that any other offer COULD be either lower or BS...I have had a call for "final and best" and actually lowered my offer and still got the property...now, it was because I found out something about it that I thought would cost more to fix, not because I was trying to mess around, but you get the idea...clearly the other offer was either BS or MUCH lower...an offer is NOT equal to a GOOD offer

Craigslist, make sure you let friends/family etc know (assuming you want people to like them...I would not tell my family for example, but that's due to them being....not good renters  :))  Hotpads, Zillow as well for sure.  Once you get going other tenants are your best source of leads (at least they have been for me.)  Congrats and good luck!  I love the house hack!