All Forum Posts by: Ryan E.

Originally posted by @Paul LaSpina:

@Ryan E. So you're saying start with SFH first? Get feet wet. I don't necessarily disagree but in thinking about Investment strategies and learning what I've learned to this point, If it's a true deal and the NUMBERS make sense, whether it is for $100K ot $10mil the investment should make $$. My thought process is if I can Find and analyze a multi unit deal (To me it seems those size deals are much more predicated on the "Numbers", even more so than SFH) that has Money making potential for an investor, That engages the "Law of large numbers" for both me and the investor. Maybe you disagree?

No I don’t disagree necessarily. And I’m not saying start with single family. I’m more saying start with your own money first and establish a track record. Possibly do what someone else suggested....house hack a fourplex or maybe find a 5-10 unit in your price range somewhere. You can get into a fourplex for 3.5% down if you are going to owner occupy.  

Paul LaSpina my question is why would you want to jump in with no experience and little money? Wouldn’t you rather build some of both through some smaller real estate investing first? To me it’s an incredibly large burden to bear to take other people’s money (whether it be friends, family, or strangers, or even the bank’s for that matter) and have them trust me with it. I mean, this could be some people’s life savings and you really feel like you can look them in the eye and say, hey, I’ve never done this before but your money is safe with me! Some people are comfortable with that and have probably had success but I am not and wouldn’t be. I plan to take on partners myself but only after establishing a solid track record first. Not to belabor the point but it would almost be like betting on a child learning to ride a bike that they will get it their first try and be popping wheelies down the street. I’m not trying to be negative at all just sharing how I would feel and do feel in your shoes as I’m no seasoned pro.

Daniel J. In the time you’ve spent on this thread you could have created an LLC. Why haven’t you? Is there some reason you are waiting?

@Brandon Miller there are too many variables at work to answer such a short question. That’s like saying which profession has more success a dentist or a medical dr? 

There are individual characteristics such as knowledge of the each strategy, knowledge of market, determination, ability to find deals, create teams, personal finances and ability to obtain loans and fund deals. There are macro-market-specific variables such as median house price, population growth,  etc and micro specific variables such as which neighborhoods to target etc. 

Each has plenty of successful investors as well as people who have tried and failed or given up. YOU could find success in either route but it depends on the fire in your belly to succeed and how determined you are to put in the work to make it work. 

Tom Saccente literally the reason this site was created was because of gurus charging outrages amounts for education. There’s an astounding amount of information on BP and out there for next to nothing except your time and effort. At some point you’ll learn exponentially more by doing than just reading.

Josh Thompson read this blogpost by Brandon Hall (he was on today’s podcast): https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2015/05/10/invest-out-of-state-how-to-analyze-a-city/ You can look up a city’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) just by googling it. The blog post tells you what to specifically look for in the CAFR. This helps you to get a solid picture on who the big employers are, population growth, unemployment, the areas where the city will be investing etc

@Arthur Wilson III if you are looking for a mentor I would highly recommend getting involved in/attending any real estate investor associations in your area or any BP meet ups, like you already mentioned. The best way to get a "mentor" is to just go out and make friends and associate with people. You will naturally find someone who will help you.

Other than that I think BP is absolutey the best mentor possible! So many people willing to help and give info it's pretty astounding, really. Basically it looks like you alrady know what to do this is just a long way of saying hello and good luck!

@Saul Moreno you should really go to the wholesaler meet up. Plenty of wholesalers/flippers there:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/54...

In addition to that @Jeff Rappaport organizes an investor meetup that's purely for networking. Just a bunch of investors getting together and building relationships. 

Haley Graham with a VA loan I believe you can also use it multiple times up to the max of the VA loan. So if, for example, a duplex is 150k where you live you could buy with the VA loan, owner occupy for a year, then move out and owner occupy another that you also purchase with a VA loan. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong. I believe a VA loan is around $450k. You may need to find a loan officer who really knows his/her stuff. Also, I feel like Thomas S. is being slightly extreme. Your baby will certainly be the center of your life and you will definitely lose some freedom but you will love the baby and being a mom so much that you won’t even be worried about what you thought was “freedom” before. At least that’s been my experience. Also, once they get out of the infant stage and start sleeping more regularly life gets a lot easier (4-6 months old) You’ll be able to do a ton of real estate research during all the midnight feedings! All that said, Thomas brings up an excellent point that you probably want to wait until the dust settles with your baby before jumping in to investing. Good luck! Having kids was the best decision I’ve ever made.

Stephen Hall I’ve done a lot of reading/research on UT and I am very very optimistic on the future of UT housing prices. Sure, we will most likely experience dips or corrections here and there and possibly in the near future but in the long term my bet is that you’d be really kicking yourself if you backed out of that house. Utah’s population is growing rapidly. It’s expected to double in the next 50 years and most of that will be in SL and UT counties. A huge chunk of the population growth is internal but there’s also a lot of people moving here. UT County is expected to rival SLC as the economic powerhouse within the next couple of decades. There’s only something like 40,000 buildable acres left in SL county and there’s like 320,000 in UT County so it’s clear most of the growth will be pushed farther south and north by necessity. UT is consistently ranked the best place for business by Forbes. UT has very low unemployment. There’s currently a housing shortage. When you combine population growth, job growth, and housing shortage you get what we are experiencing. We all see that when prices go up rents typically tend to follow. I would just say make sure you have plenty in reserves in case there’s a some unforeseen dip in rents/vacancy.