All Forum Posts by: Seth M. Jones

I live in Port Orange, and invest primarily in Port Orange and surrounding areas. If you're familiar with the area you'll know that the area has some of the best (if not the best) public schools on the east coast of Florida, and is a quickly growing area. It is a desirable area to live for families, which is why I focus on building my long term strategy out of Port Orange (and why I live here personally). If you google me, you'll find my information. Please feel free to reach out if you'd like to discuss the area further. 

Welcome to the area! I'm a local investor and real estate finance expert and would be happy to connect with you in the near future to discuss this in greater detail. 

Shain, happy to be another resource for you. I have a large network of Realtors in the area, and would be happy to connect you with a good fit. 

Jason(s), I'm located in Port Orange, and have a similar net worth but a differently structured portfolio... I currently hold approximately 50% in investment properties (not including primary), 15% in REITS, 10% Mortgage Notes, 20% in Stocks, and 5% in bonds... I'll be working to increase my stock, bond, REIT and note allocation over the coming years, so that my allocation isn't so heavily weighted towards real estate (the opposite of your situation). Personally, I focused on cashflow first, then wealth second, which has really worked well, and my cashflow has continued to increase over time, and really anything further is just bonus... Focusing specifically on your original question, I'd highly recommend focusing on the area of greatest opportunity, rather than focusing on getting a property under your belt... What I mean by this is, from an investors perspective right now, where are the opportunities for greatest yield? Oftentimes, unless your focused on flipping, a hot sellers market (which we're in) isn't the best environment for high yield rental properties. Feel free to reach out if you want to connect further.

When you own properties in the name of an LLC, it limits the mortgage options to business financing only... This essentially means that you're doing commercial financing, versus the traditional mortgage financing which is so attractive. All of the options you are looking for are going to be possible through niche business lenders, but not at nearly as attractive of terms as if you owned them in your name.

Might be worth investigating switching to your personal name, getting an umbrella policy, then financing through a traditional mortgage. In this case, a HELOC offers the most flexibility (for continual investing), while with current rates the cash-out offers the most stability and long term lowest interest. Hope this helps

Josh... I've been an investor and mortgage broker in the area for about 6 years. I can tell you that I do quite a bit of networking with agents and investors and I do believe that the market is saturated with investors and agents... but not GOOD wholesalers. If you do a great job as a wholesaler, you'll have investors (including myself) lining up to pay for your deals. 

Also, you only realize the appreciation and debt paydown once you sell... and it sounds like you are looking to buy and hold. I'm curious what your end goal would be? Are you only focused on increasing your net worth as opposed to creating passive income?

Cashflow is the difference between creating a business (or building passive income, however you want to look at it) and speculative investing. In most cases you are going to have an initial cash outlay... real investors expect a return on that investment. 

I've been following this thread. I'm a local buy and hold investor and Mortgage Broker based out of Port Orange. I'm not sure if I'll be available yet on the 13th, but our area desperately needs a decent organizer for RE investor events. I've attended numerous RE investor gathering's in the area and haven't found a good, organized group to meet with as of yet. Would love to network and mastermind with some fellow local investors. 

@John Moorhouse, I completely understand and identify with your feeling. When I was 13, I read Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, and at that point I decided that I was not going to attend college after high school. When you know you're not going to attend college, and you know you want to be a real estate professional (as I did), school can definitely seem to lose it's value. 

I did end up finishing high school, and becoming a real estate professional. I even went back to school part time at 23, and ended up earning my bachelor's, even though it is absolutely not a requirement for my profession. Why would I do this? The same reason why you want to become financially independent through real estate... options. Just like how having a substantial passive income gives you options for how you want to spend your time and live your life, education gives you options as well. You may not want to do anything but be a GC right now, but things can change. Once you become financially free, you may decide to pursue some other type of passion career... or not... but the point is that having a high school diploma gives you more options than not having one.