All Forum Posts by: Son D.

@Andy Chen Hey Andy. Have you found a better property management company in Jackson MS that you could refer? I am in need of one soon. Thank you.

@Kevin Parnella This site is very familiar with Clayton Morris. As you can see there's enough on here to make a whole forum. Lots of people lost money investing with him. Savings lost. Lives ruined. Still tastes sour even after all this time. BP is much more popular than it used to be so hopefully more will find what's been posted and stay away from him like you did.
As for Clayton's youtube channel. He's changed direction completely it seems. Went back to his roots of talking about the news. In his early days he's posted hundreds of videos hyping up his real estate company and how people can take out loans to go invest with him. All lies. He's just a front man for another company. He gets commision for referrals. Of course all those real estate videos have been deleted. But the internet never forget.

@Jonathan Bombaci I guess the best way to not be in this situation is that friends and family don't know exactly the location of this property. If they do find out, make sure they know it's a business property. That usually deter most reasonable people from expecting. I have friends that offer to let me stay at their airbnb home too but I intentionally ask them when they're using it so that our families can vacation together that same week. I don't know what you mean by "people I like", but that sounds mighty generous. The only people I would give 50% discount, 100% even, if I grew up knowing them...so immediate family and specific lifelong friends that I trust, but off peak season ONLY! :D

@Jamie Bateman Hi Jamie. How is your note in Jackson going? Is it still performing?

Corona has been hiking up home prices around the country and rent are not going to catch up soon, especially in cashflow areas. I've been investing in turnkeys in Indianapolis and others in the mid west and I haven't seen anything that make sense for me over the past year. It's been great for my refinancing strategy though. With those numbers, it's better to find an off-market property or change to a more appreciating strategy than a cashflow one. 

House hacking a duplex as a start sounds like a great plan. That's what I would have done if I had thought about REI earlier in life. Having a tenant reducing your monthly payments will allow you to save even faster. You'll learn to manage tenant quickly. Telling applicants the landlord will live under the same roof tend to weed out most bad tenants. Personal home ownership will help you understand investment property maintenance. There are many advantages to your plan.

I don't know why people tell you you're not ready to buy a home. You've finished school, got a career, saved up enough money. Saving 100k after 3 years of starting a career doesn't sound like financially irresponsible person to me. So what doesn't qualify you as ready? For a buy and hold strategy like yours, time in the market is better than timing the market. The earlier you start, the quicker you'll get to your goal. Just make sure you know your market well enough. Conventional usually require 20% down. FHA would get you in much faster with leftover cash to start saving for the next one. Remember to account for mortgage insurance in your calculations.

After the NY duplex I would go to Jersey. It's far enough for you to practice long distance investing but close enough for you to travel quickly should you need to. After that it doesn't matter if you go to TX or FL first.

If it is the bank that is doing appraisal and the amount comes out to what you want it to be, then it doesn't matter. The question is would the lender accept a desktop appraisal? If you don't like the desktop then you can always request the full. I've bought turnkey properties and appraisals come out "magically" the same to the purchase amount every time. Before doing refinancing, I ask my broker to estimate from her computer to see if it's worth it for me. Her estimate has been the same as the bank's full appraisal, every time.
Often time the appraiser doesn't know the area, so they'll rely heavily on comps and data online, which is what the desktop appraiser does. There's also an element of personal opinion as well based on what the appraiser know about the area. If you know the area well, then you can call them up and kindly, helpfully provide additional information to be considered for a change in appraised value. 

How to educate yourself on REI? Biggerpockets. Seriously. Listen to every single podcast. Read the forums. Use the tools available. Write down the names of books recommended and read those too. No time to read? Look for audio on youtube. It may seem intimidating at first and will probably take you at least several months to catch up but that's the point. You need to take time to plan out what you want, why you want it, and how you plan on achieving it. Biggerpockets will give you ideas you never thought of. Good luck.

@Satyajit Bappanadu Manjunath You only need 1 pre-approval. As long as the amount approved is more than or equal to the price you're buying then you're fine. They just want to see that you can get the funds to close. Once you get the property under contract then you can get the actual loan from anyone you want. Also when comparing loans, look at the %APR, not just %interest. That's your actual cost of the loan.

@Jay Hinrichs wouldn't your #4 be a consideration for #1? I know I wouldn't come back to a lender that spring a bunch of junk fees on me on the final CD.

Thanks for the words of encouragement Jay. 

As for the other topic i am not anywhere near the 10 year mark, though i suspect it is true. I do intend to find out. Right now I'm in the process of pulling out all the cash i put in my 1st (possibly the 2nd) non MI/OP rental. After this i just plan to hold it for long term. My cash flow would be small but i have nothing in it so i don't really care. I have a free asset with a tenant building my equity.