All Forum Posts by: Steve Babiak

Frequently, a new post will come into the BP forums, and it will be from a first time poster (or poster with very few prior posts) , AND it will praise some product / service / course / whatever. The experts here at BP will post to that effect, to alert others who might not be so wary. EWI may or not be worthy of such praise, and the more experienced investor would probably not speak as highly of EWI as a novice might.

As for these "free" weekend seminars, I have been to a few, not necessarily all from the same training entity. Regardless of the trainer, each one was a platform for an upsell to rather pricy paid training. There are threads here on BP where people have paid for these subsequent trainings, and not been very happy (and there are probably those who were pleased as well). The giveaway usually comes where they ask attendees to get the credit limits increased on their credti cards - to charge the paid training. And when you are at the "free" training, you should be able to notice that the power point presentation slides will have inconsistent background graphics - these are selected slides taken from the varying modules that are to be sold, so you get a flavor for the content of all modules without all of the meat [some of the trainers have caught onto this and gottne their background graphics to look alike between modules].

My suggestion: take the free training and avoid the upsell; more training and info are available elsewhere.

Mike,

I don't do MH, but I did read your "book chapter" posting. I would suggest you have somebody (say an editor) polish the grammar a bit. You have used the word "to" where the intent was to use "too" from the context of what is being said. In another place, you have used "pursing" where you meant "pursuing". These are kind of nit-picky maybe, but the spell-checker software still isn't as good as a the properly trained/educated human when it comes to grammar.

Tim Barry,

Your first post on BP, and it is in defense of a service provider who has been labeled as "stay away" by another post (from an established user).

Profile on BP is incomplete as well, otherwise you would have been given that award at the least.

Seems to lack any kind of credibility, and I'm sure other BP users will chime in to this effect as well.

So Tim, did you actually COMPLETE any business transactions with this company, seeing that you said "the biz is legit"? Speak from your own experience. please.

In an interest-only loan, there is no principle being paid - so the balance does not change. Don't know why you weren't hoping for that, but that's the reality of interest-only loans.

One thing to keep in mind - that it can be difficult to tap the equity in your investment property. That's just the current lending environment, and maybe it will change ... but that could be for better or worse.

So when you make that extra principle payment on a loan, and then you wish you had those extra funds as cash-in-hand, don't be suprised that there might be lender qualifying that prevents you from getting at that extra money that is now equity in a property.

There was another thread that discussed paying off existing properties or buying more, and where I agreed with another poster who said to do both.
http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/12/topics/34337-pay-off-properties-vs-purchase-more-properties
I still think you should do both - you just have to plan how much and how fast to pay off when you are in a buyer's market. Having your funds tied up and unavailable these days could result in you not making as much over the long run.

As I stated in one of my older posts, you should never consider "free" labor when setting your purchase price. That post was in regard to wholesalers, but it applies in general, because life happens. If your "free" worker gets injured, how will things get done?

Be sure to properly account for all real expenses, and set your budget accordingly.

As Jon said, get it under contract. Since you plan on an appraisal, include an appraisal contingency (along with any others that you need to cover your risks). If your appraisal says it's over-priced, then you can decide to use your contingency to back out.

If part of the closing costs is escrow of pre-payment for property taxes and insurance with the lender, then you will have some of those funds either applied to those payments, or refunded to you after the conclusion of the refi.

I attended a presentation by a lender specializing in investor loans. NOO, LLC, cash-out refi, etc are all available. This was from a representative of Arlington Capital. See if they can handle your area.

One of the major REIAs in the Philadelphia area is called DIG - Diversified Investor Group. Visit:

http://www.digonline.org/

Put my name down as sponsor.