All Forum Posts by: Samantha N.

Question to those of you that are also newbies:

What's the plan for the winter? I am looking at properties now, but every time I get close to pulling the trigger, I think that it's going to be winter shortly and I would be struggling to get any tenant at all until spring or summer, let alone a good one. 

Do you all mostly wait until the tail end of winter for purchasing/reno so that it's ready for renting in spring/summer? 

Are you actually able to somehow build in 5 months of vacancy to your property price and still get people to sell to you?

Looking to build my team in anticipation of owning some investment property in Coralville/Iowa City area. Does anyone have any recommendations of good local management companies?

This is probably a silly newbie question, but here goes:

I'm trying to take the advice of many investors out there and practice analyzing some deals as I am looking to get into my first actual deal in 6-8 months (multifamily). I have access to some spreadsheets and I have watched various webinars. I'm trying to practice using some deals posted on Loopnet or MLS.

I have no issue with understanding the math (CoC, IRR, etc).

My problem is when the spreadsheet gets to "just punch in your loan rate at 5%" - how would I know how my loan rate would come through without actually going to the bank or a private lender and getting a loan?

Or "punch in renovation costs here" - how can I know what to put in as that number without actually seeing the property, and not having lived through a larger scale renovation yet? Obviously this number would hugely affect my deal. I can make up almost any numbers at this point to make a deal look good on my spreadsheet.

I really want to practice this and get it down so that in a few months when I'm ready to buy, it doesn't take me forever to make a move. Does anyone know what I'm talking about, or have any advice?

Hi @Ben Barelman! Welcome!

Not to hijack the thread but @Chris Rodriguez, what makes Iowa a great lien state? And where does one find more information about it?

Welcome! Newbie investor here from iowa city area. There's a lot of info in this community!

Hi BP,

I'm a soon to be investor trying to educate myself as much as possible in the months leading up to my first investment. I have a question I'm hoping I can get some opinions on, knowing that no one has any perfect answers or knows the future. Here are the elements that go into my situation:

1) Currently in mid-range salary job (60k). I'm 30. Have a bit of personal debt I hope to get rid of by July. 

2) Salary will jump up to 350-550k/yr next July (I'm a professional)

3) Looking to get into real estate to create passive income. Currently hold no assets.

4) Holding 300K in professional school student loan debt at 6.8%, plan to refinance perhaps at 5%

I'm trying to figure out my strategy for avoiding taxes on my high salary/income that will start soon, and hoping to invest aggressively in the next few years in order to set myself up for passive income in the future. I lean towards the ideas of multi family and apartments, but I'm open to a lot of new ideas as I keep learning. 

My question is what is people's opinion on where I should put my money first? Is it better to pay down my debt quickly or invest quickly and try to pay my debt with income from investment? The other bit of my question is whether anyone's opinion is changed at all by the commonly held idea that the market may be topping out a bit. Maybe better to pay debt now and use capital later to buy assets when they are cheaper? Just wondering what everyone would do if they were me. 

I know it's a complicated question. Thanks in advance!

@TimAsher that's a wonderful idea, thanks!

Yup!

Looking for a referral to a helpful investor's agent in or around Iowa City, Coralville, or NL? I don't see much talk around these forums about those areas.

Grateful for any help or recommendations!

Hey, newbie here. When people say "no money down" would that mean that after all is said and done,  you got your initial purchase money back?

Because you did have the initial 17,500 plus ish for the cash purchase, right?