All Forum Posts by: Ryan Tuleja

Have him meet you onsite to discuss. If you both see it and decide it's his issue, have him fix it before you pay. If it's not his issue, pay him and get a quote to make the repair.

Can you post a photo?

backstory- I'm looking to become a first time investor. My wife and I have a very small nest egg set aside that is allocated for property aquisition, and that egg grows by the month, so we're not in any hurry.

That said, like many other areas around the country, real estate prices are climbing and finding houses on the mls that meet our criteria seems to be going nowhere, which has me looking elsewhere.

Looking through the bigger pockets marketplace, I see adds for a few turnkey companies,  and have gone so far as to email a couple in hopes of talking with them this week. The properties listed have price tags in my range, and a quick glance at their proformas indicate that they fit my criteria and are worth looking into.

So, if you've found turnkey companies that you want to look into... how do you go about that? I've googled these guys and have found nothing but their website so far.

Hey folks,

So here's the deal. My wife and I have spent the last few years saving and scraping together a small nest egg that we want to invest in real estate. Unfortunately, as we dig deeper into our local market, it just doesn't seem to be enough to get us into a decently cash flowing property that is not in a war zone.

We already own a home in a very nice area that we do not want to sell as we are watching it appreciate almost by the month. However, we are considering putting it up for rent and using our savings to buy a duplex that we can live in one side while renting the other out. Unfortunately, the market rents will not allow for positive cashflow after capex (10%), Vacancy (10%), repairs and management (10%). We actually lose about $600 per year in this scenario.

Here is my question. Assuming we can buy a duplex and our tenant covers the mortgage, would  the loss on our current house be tolerable, or would you just hold and keep saving?

I have bought and sold a couple of personal residences, so I guess I have that going for me.

Honestly I'm less worried about the mistakes I know I'll make than I am about taking so much of my nest egg and doing something like this with it, even though I've run the numbers a million times and it sure looks like it will be a good long term play.

What is the land worth?  In my area there are many "cabins" that people build on the lakes where the land is worth much more than the house. It seems like in those cases a developer might have an interest in knocking it down and building new.

Just a thought. I'm sure this only applies in very specific situations

On a recent work trip to St Paul, I came across a house that is abandoned. Using this as an opportunity to practice tracing down non-resident homeowners,  I went to the county assessors website as well as the county records website only to find that they do not catalog properties by address. Instead they use parcel numbers.

Do any of you know how to find a physical addresses parcel number in Ramsey county (or probably any other county for that matter)?

@Tony

Are you an experienced investor?  I'm wondering if my nervousness has more to do with being a first timer than anything else...

Yeah, that's the thing, I do think the market is peaking. Borrowing against my 401k will functionally give me use for that cash that I don't think I'll get much more performance against right now.

Hey all,

I might have an unusual situation..

My wife and I are simultaneously looking for a cashflowing rental property as well as a home that I can move my mother into. She is on a fixed income, lives in a terrible neighborhood in another state and has no family nearby.

We have recently found a small triplex that has one unit that would fit her perfectly, and COULD cash flow, depending on how we view the following issue.

In order to acquire the down payment, I am planning to borrow against my 401k. This is a 5% payment for 5 years.  now the monthly payment will eat nearly all of the cashflow that this place produces,roughly $100 per door (all interest and payments go back into my 401k minus some small fees).

Would you take a deal like this? 

@Mike S.

that sucks, I'm sorry to read that. I'll be curious to see how that goes.