All Forum Posts by: Sergio Aguinaga

@Ashley Bieniek Lmao I feel this a lot. Also a beginner, wanted to get my feet wet so I bought a house in a C class neighborhood for 75,050. House was in good condition but my relative said he’d do the repair labor for free, there weren’t many anyways. Ended up doing foundation, plumbing, ceramic tile on basement, patio with cement which costed like 12,000 but I don’t think that cost is for material only and it has been 5 months already, when it should only take like 1 month tops! So I lost on all that money i could have earned if I rented it, spent an extra 12,000 (some things I didn’t even need but since he would do it for free i went for it anyways) and now what I thought was a good deal with 10% ROI may seem like a not so good deal because my relative took forever to finish, it’s winter time so less rent Income and I need about 1 more week to finish, and I was definitely charged some labor in there, which makes me regret doing stuff the home didn’t even need in the first place. So in those 5 months, I’ve spent a lot of time learning and reading so this hiccup won’t stop me, but I think the home now won’t rent for more than 1050 and I was hoping for 1200 for the summer and it’s probably worth about 85,000 which is a bit less than what I paid for it. Also bought it all cash, which I shouldn’t have done but my family let me borrow at 0% interest so that was nice. I am 100% sure my next deal will be better.

@Dylan Tanaka I was going but couldn’t make it! What is next month’s topic about?

@Greg M. It almost feels like a double edged sword. Tenant can sue me for things and the additional insured is added protection. But, I can also sue the tenant for damaged items. In this case it backfires on me. I purchased the lease agreement from bigger pockets and they had it as additional insured and most professional investors encourage that one but I can see why it can be bad since I can’t sue tenant.

@Marcia Maynard why additional interest over additional insured? Doesn’t additional insured protect from lawsuits?

@Greg M. Why not additional insured to protect from lawsuits?

@Tamara Laycox off the top of my head, collect security deposit and have them sign a document specifying that the hold of that money is security that they can’t back down otherwise you keep it. Once they give that within 24 hours, you can transfer it to their security deposit. Utility bill name transfers, do the itemized checklist, give them pamphlet and sheet for lead based paint, sign lease and make sure they understand everything they’re signing in it. Can’t think of anything else but the book on managing rental properties as mentioned has a chapter dedicated to that. You can skim the chapter and make your checklist in less than an hour.

@Jim K. You can still invest and not find a gold digger. They’re not mutually exclusive.

@Tyler Warlow whether you start now depends on whether you start 10 years from now. The rules don’t change. So if you start now, and need a mortgage from the bank, do you have a good enough credit score so your interest rate isn’t so high. Even if it’s still high, have you analyzed the deal well enough to know it’ll cash flow. That’s important since you don’t want any trouble paying your mortgage because you’ll need to concentrate in school.

@Frank Wolter hey, great story! I have a cohple quearions: How did you acquire enough money so fast to buy all these properties free and clear since you didn’t leverage? Also, when you found good deals and didn’t have the capital for it, what did you do about it?

@Nicholas Gray well, considering you got your masters from Stanford, that means you are really smart. It really sucks you invested many years of your life and a lot of money into getting a valuable education just to let it all go that easy. If you dislike your current job that much, I’d say you can change job position. To invest in real estate, you need money. If you’re really serious about it, you can invest in the next 4-5 years to earn enough cash flow and quit your job, then dedicate to it easier but you need money to invest and getting loans is much easier if you have a high paying job. Take advantage of that, transition slowly and then get a job in something more related to RE. Also, since you’re emotional about getting out of the corporate world, don’t invest in properties that are “OK” just because you want to leave faster. Make sure the numbers are right and don’t be emotional about it despite wanting to quit badly.