All Forum Posts by: Robin Schumacher

My wife and I have kicked around downsizing from our rather large paid off home to something smaller and then using some of the cash received after we pay off the smaller home for RE investing. I wondered, though, if there were any good strategies outside of a home equity loan for just pulling a very small portion of our equity out and investing in 1-2 properties? Any smart ways of doing this or is the idea just plain bad?

The investment materials I've read so far have given me a good handle on the key criteria to use for single family investment purchases (e.g. 3brdm, 2bath, place for storage/growth, etc.), but they don't do so well with multi-family. What are the key checklist items for purchasing 4-8plex properties? For example, should each unit have a minimum of 2bdrm or do such things not universally apply to all units or the building in general?

Thanks in advance.

Just want to say a big thanks to all of you who took the time to respond and provide advice - I greatly appreciate it and definitely picked up some wisdom!

Hi Dawn - thanks for the quick reply and advice. I forgot to mention that my wife will be running the real estate business for us, loves to be hand's on, and used to buy properties for a major hospital chain before she stopped working outside the home, so she's got some experience in this area already.

Let me know what you think about the all-cash vs. non questions I had...

First, thanks to everyone here for creating/maintaining a great site. I'm new here and am learning a lot via the posts, articles, and more.

I've noticed that there are lots of posts and advice on how to get started with real estate investing with little/no money. But my question is: what's the smartest strategy to use (given my goals and preferred method below) if a person *does* have a decent sum of capital to fund the startup of the business?

I've got lots of experience with stock investing, have done fine, and have a business background of starting and selling/IPO'ing software companies (currently on my 3rd right now). I've carved out a chunk of my portfolio to now use for real estate with my preferred method being buy/hold single family homes and perhaps quads that meet my criteria. Is it better to buy few properties for cash upfront to get going or buy more properties and use leverage? I've already bought one foreclosure for cash that's a single-family home and just put my first tenant into it this weekend.

I do understand how a better ROI can be realized with the latter, however currently I am totally debt free and like the freedom and worry-free peace of mind that provides. In one of the investing books I read, the author provided an example of a couple who ran their business in a way where they bought new investment properties and aimed all the cash flow of their existing properties at the new one until it was paid off and then rinsed/repeated. That plan appeals to me, but I'm open to other strategies. I don't need the income right now or for the foreseeable future.

So what if you had a decent six-figure or even seven-figure base of $$$ to get started and didn't need the income, but was instead building a real-estate portfolio for retirement income in 10-15 years? What would be your plan of attack?

Thanks again for a great site.