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All Forum Posts by: Rochelle Duong

Rochelle Duong has started 6 posts and replied 31 times.

Post: Which investment strategy for my current situation??

Rochelle DuongPosted
  • Lakewood, CA
  • Posts 32
  • Votes 17
Originally posted by @Ian Tvardovskaya:

Congrats on the job! You mentioned you don't have a lot of cash at the moment but I'm curious why you don't use the equity in your current home if you own it? 

It sounds like you have a huge chunk of equity you could use for the down payment without dramatically changing your current lifestyle. A duplex or triplex might even be able to pay for itself and a mortgage on your current home.  

 Hey there Ian,

Thank you for taking time to respond! Well, I currently live with my father and brothers so I can't rent it out until after my dad passes away or my brothers move out. The home isn't under my name, but I am currently living there to save money to pay for my loans.

So you're suggesting I delve a little bit into house hacking? I know that I would qualify for an FHA loan since I'd be considered a first time home-buyer, but that's the extent of my knowledge about that area.

Post: Which investment strategy for my current situation??

Rochelle DuongPosted
  • Lakewood, CA
  • Posts 32
  • Votes 17
Originally posted by @Nicholas Kangos:

If you have not yet listened to the BP podcast I highly suggest you start there and I guarantee you will gain enough knowledge to be able to make a decision on what strategy best suits your current means and long term goals. Every strategy has to be tailored to your personal needs and capacity for risk.

Yes! thanks for responding back!
I have listened to it, and it did give good general tips for a real estate investor starting out, but I was looking for some thoughts on how some of those who have already walked that path decided on which investment strategy was best. If you have any experience, do share! I would love to hear how you started on your journey and why

Post: Which investment strategy for my current situation??

Rochelle DuongPosted
  • Lakewood, CA
  • Posts 32
  • Votes 17

Hello!

I'm currently a newbie to real estate investing world and am still considering various strategies that would be best for me. I am currently 27 years old, no spouse/kids, about $80K in student debt, and just started working as a health professional for about 40-55 hours/week. I currently am not paying any rent since my house is already paid off, but my main goals are to pay off that student debt faster and build wealth as soon as possible.

So in general, most of my income goes to paying off my loans, and the rest goes to personal expenses, and savings for investments. I wanted to hear some thoughts on what strategies would be the most forgiving for someone who doesn't have alot of money right now. 

I've considered wholesaling because I was enticed by the idea of making "quick cash," but as I did some quick reading on it, it does require ALOT of time bird dogging, marketing, and a legal process where I may or may not need a real estate license for (which I don't want to get). 

I've considered buying and holding, but living in california, the down payment for a home is expensive, so I was considering the housing market in other states.

House hacking is something I heard is also good for new investors, but still need to look into that more, since I don't know too much about it.

And fixing and flipping would be something I would do further down the road, but not now.

Someone also suggested buying land property as well, but its also another area that I am not too familiar with

Does anyone share a similar situation as me? Or what to consider when deciding on your investment strategy?

Post: Newbie Looking to Network (Lakewood)

Rochelle DuongPosted
  • Lakewood, CA
  • Posts 32
  • Votes 17
Originally posted by @Jo-Ann Lapin:

Welcome Rochelle. Happy to network and assist 

 Hello Jo-Ann!

Thank you for much for reaching out! How is the market in your area and where have you been purchasing property? Tips for a newbie with looking around the area?

Have you ran the numbers on each deal to account for the expenses? The BP rental property calculator should be helpful in determine the cash return on your investment.

If you didn't see this past week's webinar, Brandon walks you through on things to consider as well as how to input numbers into the online calculator on BP. The webinar was pretty helpful for me, and can be found here, It's called: "How to Analyze Properties for Maximum Cash Flow":

https://www.biggerpockets.com/proreplay

You can even print out the PDF reports of all the numbers since everything is broken down, show others, and receive input since each situation can vary for each property that you're looking at. 

Hope this helps a bit! I'm a newbie, but I'm looking to contribute in whatever way I can :)

Post: Newbie Looking to Network (Lakewood)

Rochelle DuongPosted
  • Lakewood, CA
  • Posts 32
  • Votes 17
Originally posted by @Bryan Pham:

Hi @Rochelle Duong, have you tried looking on meetup.com for local meet ups in your area? 

Hi @Bryan Pham:

Yes! I am attending my very first one next Saturday :)

Thank you for the suggestion

Post: Newbie Looking to Network (Lakewood)

Rochelle DuongPosted
  • Lakewood, CA
  • Posts 32
  • Votes 17
Originally posted by @Ivan Vargas:

Hey Rochelle!! Welcome to BP, I'm also new to the real estate investing world. 

You can set up key words here on BP to get notified when investors are setting up meetings in your area. That's what I did but all the meetings are in the South Bay Area and I live in the North part of the Bay Area. I'm thinking about just starting my own meet up in my area, because I'm eager to get started. 

It makes sense that your looking for extra cash to pay off debt, I'm on the other end of the spectrum looking to Buy & Hold real estate for cash flow. You can also set up key words relating to wholesaling so you can find information on your topic. 

I just got my real estate license like 2 months ago and I've been studying books and dissecting BP for information this whole year. I'm looking to buy my first rental property next year. 

As you can see, I'm not yet a professional investor but I do know a thing or two about the real estate world. If you have any questions, feel free to message me, I'll be glad to help. Once again welcome to BP and good luck on your career!!!

Hey Ivan!

Thank you so much for these tips! I actually don't live too far from the South Bay area. I eventually do want to look into buying and holding property, but I just need to practice the whole process of running the numbers with the BP calculations. And you should totally start up a meet up group! I would love to come and network with other real estate enthusiasts! maybe even form partnerships since this is definitely something I want to pursue on the side of my full time! 

Post: Newbie Looking to Network (Lakewood)

Rochelle DuongPosted
  • Lakewood, CA
  • Posts 32
  • Votes 17
Originally posted by @Ivan Vargas:

Hey Rochelle!! Welcome to BP, I'm also new to the real estate investing world. 

You can set up key words here on BP to get notified when investors are setting up meetings in your area. That's what I did but all the meetings are in the South Bay Area and I live in the North part of the Bay Area. I'm thinking about just starting my own meet up in my area, because I'm eager to get started. 

It makes sense that your looking for extra cash to pay off debt, I'm on the other end of the spectrum looking to Buy & Hold real estate for cash flow. You can also set up key words relating to wholesaling so you can find information on your topic. 

I just got my real estate license like 2 months ago and I've been studying books and dissecting BP for information this whole year. I'm looking to buy my first rental property next year. 

As you can see, I'm not yet a professional investor but I do know a thing or two about the real estate world. If you have any questions, feel free to message me, I'll be glad to help. Once again welcome to BP and good luck on your career!!!

Post: Newbie Looking to Network (Lakewood)

Rochelle DuongPosted
  • Lakewood, CA
  • Posts 32
  • Votes 17
Originally posted by @Account Closed:

Hello @Rochelle Duong and welcome to Bigger Pockets!  You can do this. Why not start small and buy some rural vacant land, say Kern or San Bernardino County for a $500, sell for $1500 and keep growing your acquisition balance to where you are comfortable enough to make some other choices? And while you are doing that you can sell a few of the nicer properties with owner financing and sit back and collect income per month per property for doing nothing. Totally not crazy. A ton of us are doing it. Great way to get rolling in real estate and since you are paying cash for everything you don't have to worry about credit - AND - you will sleep well at night because everything is paid for.  Hope this helps, and I wish you the best in your success!

Hey Anthony!


I didn't even know I could even do that! $500 down seems totally do-able starting out.

Where can I go to learn more about buying land property?

Hey there!

Currently new to the world of real estate investing, and looking forward to attending this as my first networking event. Tips for a newbie attending?