All Forum Posts by: Scott Trench

 Hey - you can check out the replay here:

www.biggerpockets.com/pages/webinarreplay

It's been a topic mentioned extensively on the forums, podcast, blog, and in our webinars. 

EVERYONE seems to want to quit their job with real estate.  We know it's possible, we've seen it done.  What we don't have is a forum thread full of responses to this question.  Let's hear it folks - who successfully quit their jobs through real estate??

Specifically, if you've quit your job largely due to you success in real estate investing, please answer some of the following questions for the community:

What were you doing before, and what do you do now (professionally)?

Is your passive or business income from real estate the same, greater, or lesser than when you were working a job?

Do you "live the dream" and travel/vacation year round, do you focus on building your empire to ever greater heights, or do you pursue some other passion?

How long did it take you to build up a real estate portfolio sizable enough for you to "retire" on?

How much time does your real estate business consume per month?

Looking forward to hearing the responses from some of those folks that have succeeded with this!

We'd like to brag about your accomplishments to the world!  Let us know and let us share your success to inspire others!

@Tony Dragoo

 Thanks for this great topic!

The question of how much money you'll need for your first purchase can be followed up with two obvious questions:

1) How much do the properties you are interested in cost?

2) How much of Other People's Money can you use to finance the deal?

I'll actually start by solving question number two here first, and working backwards from there - as a first time purchaser you are in the enviable position of being able to use FHA financing (most likely) - so long as you occupy one part of the property initially. This means that you can put as little as 3.5% down on your purchase. If you do NOT want to live in this property, and it is a pure investment, you will in most cases need to put down 20%. While it's possible to get "creative" and find ways to put down less, the path of least resistance will likely be one of these two routes for your first property.

Now, I don't know your market very well, but if the types of properties you are interested in purchasing are in the ballpark of $100,000 apiece, you will either need $3,500 OR $20,000, depending on how you purchase it.  A vast difference in personal capital that can exponentially speed up or slow down your entry into real estate investing.

I personally went with the FHA financing route and was able to buy a $240,000 duplex with just $12,500 cash. I now live in part and rent out the other, enabling the other side to cover my mortgage. This enables me to accumulate capital for my next purchase at a more rapid rate - a purchase that I intend to acquire with the traditional 20% down.

It's remarkable how much easier it is to purchase a first property than people think - or its remarkable how much money others will loan you with decent credit history, etc.  That said, no matter what you do, how much you put down, or how you finance the property, make sure that you put in the time to get a great deal.  

@Richard Ball

Have you seen these search parameters:

I find that these criteria tend to get me all the refinement I need.  Depending on where you search, you may that "recently active" can vary greatly.  So we just let you sort through a list of the MOST recently active.

Hope that helps!

Also, kudos to Josh for his 5AM response...  

I've deactivated the duplicate account.  Thank you for the clarification here.

 Makes perfect sense to me - I just never would have considered it as I'm not married haha

Personally, I use this app:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/podcasts/id5254630...

I then download 10-20 at a time whenever I'm in wi-fi and listen to them until I'm through them.  I'd imagine that will be enough for you - should work great on most modern iPhones.  Downloading ALL 117 Podcasts might be quite a bit, but I'm sure you can get enough content for even several days of driving with this app's downloads. 

If anyone else has additional suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Personally, I think you'll be waiting for 30 years for the price to rent ratio to improve.  I don't see people leaving Denver, but I see a lot of new faces every month.  

I won't cash flow negative on a property I buy, but I'm certainly willing to a sacrifice a few points on my cash on cash return relative to what I'd get in Memphis, TN, or Milwaukee, WI on a rental for a chance at appreciation by buying in great neighborhoods here in Denver, CO.  Especially if I buy it initially as a house - hack, and rinse and repeat once I'm confident in the cash flow.  We are in a growing city.  Perhaps I'm young and naive, but I see that as a GOOD thing -  not a bad one for the savvy investor.

I struggle with questions like these every day:

How can I get more done?

Will getting more of THAT done make a difference?

What are the highest impact actions I can take NOW?

Well, the latest BiggerPockets Podcast seeks to answer those questions and provides valuable insights from one of the most respected business authors around - Mr. David Allen.  He's led a massive movement increasing both business and personal productivity and wrote the best selling book Getting Things Done.

If you aren't sure what action you should be taking now, then perhaps the highest impact action you can take is... listening to this show!

You can listen right now via this link:

http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2015/04/09...

@Jared Chipkin

A couple of things in response to this.  First of all, I recommend extreme caution when considering investing in condos.  Condo construction has been stifled due to some laws and aggressive law firms that are (in my personal opinion) very trigger happy suing builders for defects.  This has resulted in a long term shortage of condos in Denver, relative to similar markets around the country.  These laws are likely to be relaxed soon, and I'd expect a flood of newer, better condos to come on the market over the next 5-10 years.  Because I expect this to occur, I do not even consider investing in condos, as I don't want my purchase to be competing with newer, bigger, and better condos for market share in the next few years.

As far as purchasing properties in the low $100s, I recently purchased a duplex in the Clayton Neighborhood a few months ago.  I outlined how I did that here - I hope that provides some value to you as you define your search parameters and strategy.

The key for me was that as an owner occupier, I was looking at multifamilies that other homeowners weren't interested in, and I bought a property under HomePath's first look program where Fannie Mae only allowed people who intended to LIVE in the property to offer on it for the first 30 days.  This combination shielded me from competition from both homeowners and investors, and I think allowed me to get a great deal.