All Forum Posts by: Seth B.

Hello all!

I just got back from a home buyers seminar at BMO|Harris Bank. No one showed up so it ended up being me with an agent, lender, and insurance agent. It was really informative meeting for me because it was tailored around me. Lo and behold I may have even found the so called "team"...

Anyways, before I left I was talking to the lender about pre approval and my current job. I currently work in a staffing company and absolutely hate it! It is a soul sucking, 50 hours a week, and my co workers there are just bad.

I have the opportunity to get into a line of work that I am much more passionate about, but it will come at a little bit of a cost. The base salary will be a bit lower (both of these jobs are sales gigs and are base+commission).

When I told this to the lender he advised me that I should not make the switch until I get my first property because it will look bad to the banks that I am switching to a lower paying job. I have been at the staffing company 2.5 years (I'm 26 so not a lot of professional work experience to begin with.. about 4.5 years to be exact).

I wanted to check in with all of you and see what your take on this is. Will I be screwed if I make this jump? I guess I could stay at my current place, but I literally hate it soooooo much! I feel like the guy from office space there.

According to mint.com I have a positive net worth so I'm not in a bad financial situation at all. I don't make a lot of money, but my expenses are pretty low too.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated! And while we are on the topic, should I even be dealing with BMO|Harris Bank? I know my Dad absolutely hates them, and he is not the only person I have heard this from.

Thanks again!

Hey Nicole!

I am new to the forums but heard somewhere that there might be a meet up in MKE this weekend. I saw your flyer above and just wanted to double check and see if it will be alright if I could meet up with you all? I reside in Verona right now, so I shouldn't have a problem being there at 9AM :)

Thanks,

Seth

Nilay,

I'm still pretty new to BP but I have been reading and learning for a while.

I believe you calculate 50% for your expenses. So....

Your yearly income is $6,936.88 take half of that and save it for expenses.

So really your take away income is $3,468.44

As far as vacancy rates - I believe you need to look in your area to determine what the average vacancy rate is... call local property mgmt. to see what they normally see in your area. I'm sure others can help contribute to his portion.

Either way it looks like you are doing a good job. So congrats!

Thank you everyone for you advice I really apprecieate it!

One thing I'd like to point out before this thread goes down a different road is that.... I'm kind of bound to my location.

My fiance just recently got a new job around here (hopefully she'll do well and maybe we'll have the extra money from that?) Also, we plan on starting a family within the next 5 years and would like to stay close to family.

So with that being said, should I start looking at towns around Madison? That seems to be the general idea that I'm picking up so far.

After reading the beginner's guide and a lot of other information I seem to be stuck. Where do I actually look for and find properties?!

I've been currently looking on zillow, craig's list, and realtor.com...

These sites definitely have some properties for me to look at, but I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of the market. There has to be more than a few dozen options out there right?

The main areas I'm looking at right now are Rockford, IL and Madison, WI (Verona and Middleton to be specific).

I would greatly appreciate any other suggestions as to where I should be looking... For starters should I be speaking with a real estate agent?

Thanks!

P.S. - I did do a search on this before I posted. If this has already been covered in other posts could you please copy those links? Thanks!

Hello All!

I had a question for everyone here and wanted to get some opinions on the topic. I currently live in Madison, WI (Verona to be exact) and I want to get into the buy and hold aspect of REI.

Ideally, I would like to live in one unit and rent out the other; however, it has been quite a challenge to find any kind of property that isn't super expensive, and will return some good rents...

End of the day, I love Madison and would like to stay here. I just can't find anything! Maybe I'm not looking in the right places? I've tried Craigs List, realtor.com, and Zillow.. I'm sure I'm missing something.

Anyways, if I were to go an hour south of me to Rockford, IL. I'm finding a ton a duplex properties, and more specifically I'm finding them at really low prices :) Now I understand that the location could be terrible, and I'd obviously do my due diligence to make sure the location and tenants are solid before I made a move...

My question is... would it behoove me to start off in Rockford as I'm only 26 and want to start off with cheaper property with greater returns? That way I could get one property live on the one side and fix it up and then grab a new property every year... live in it then move.

Once I get up to 5 properties I could hand it off to a property management company. Then maybe move back to Madison and deal with more expensive properties.

Overall, I'm sick of working in a corporate environment and I want to start REI ASAP! I'm super handy and I would love to just work on fixing up properties and living in them and making money all at the same time.

What do you all think? Thanks for any advice!!

Hey Sean,

That's great! Could you give me a little background on how you got started as an appraiser? Is it a career that you are glad you got into?

Did you end up "going to school" to become an appraiser? How long did that take? I was looking at some of the online schools and that would seem like the best route to go for myself.

Would it make more sense to go into business for myself and start up my own company or would it be best to work for a bank or some other company to get started?

I'm sure I'll have a few more questions. I don't mean to blow you up right away I just really want to get the ball rolling on this. :)

Thanks!

Hello all!

I'm not sure exactly where to post this so I thought I would try the off topic section first as it doesn't really pertain to investing.

Currently, I'm in a job that I don't really enjoy. I have always been very interested in real estate and have wanted to become an investor since I was 18. Well now I'm 26 and no closer to being an investor than I was 8 years ago.

I do plan on getting my feet wet here really soon, but I thought for starters I should try and get into a field of work that I really enjoy first. I came across real estate appraiser and it looks like a pretty good career path!

I reside in Madison, WI and I have been looking up how to become an appraiser and I wanted to ask all of you what you think the best steps to becoming one would be?

It looks like I have to pass a few certifications and have an internship with 2000 hours under my belt before I can become a full blown appraiser, but the thing that is keeping me from pulling the trigger is that there is some kind of schooling that I would have to attend for 150 hours? That sounds like it's as much schooling as a bachelor's degree!

Is there any ways I can go about doing this and getting the certifications on my own time, and more importantly study for these certifications by myself with some self study guides? My plan was to stay at the job I'm at and work up to getting my certs then getting the hours knocked out part time. Then making the transition.

Thoughts?

Thanks for reading my post!
Seth