All Forum Posts by: Steve K.

Come Join us at Davinci's in Lewiston on Wednesday May 8th at 6 o'clock, for a night of networking and real estate talk!

Event info:
- We'll be located in the private room out back past the bar.
- Pizza will be provided and there will be drinks available for you to buy at the bar.
- Please bring a business card if you'd like.
- We'll start at 6, have a speaker share some insights for 20 minutes or so, then have a chance to catch up and socialize until 8, when Davinci's closes.

I look forward to seeing everyone there!

Join us at The Pub at Baxter on March 26th at 6:30 for an evening dedicated to real estate investing! 

The Lewiston/Auburn Landlord Association is hosting a meetup welcoming beginners, seasoned investors, and industry professionals alike. Bring your business cards and connect with fellow investors.

Whether you're seeking contractors, deals, financing, or property managers, this is the perfect opportunity to network and exchange ideas. Don't miss out on valuable connections and insights! See you there!

Hey Anant,

Welcome to the community! The first thing you should do when starting out is just getting a process down for analyzing deals. I have a spreadsheet for doing this and can share that with you, or you can use the BP calculators. Set a goal to analyze a few deals a day and establish your buy criteria. Most the deals I analyze don't meet my buy criteria, so I just move on and wait for something else, so if you're getting discouraged at first just keep in mind that it can take some time to find the right deal. 

So to get started, analyze deals consistently. I'd also highly recommend doing the following:

1. Talk to a few different lenders in your market and get pre-approved, real estate agents will be more willing to help you if they know you are pre-approved.

2. Go to your local real estate meetups and start networking with people in your area. This may be uncomfortable being a new investor, but it's really important to get out there and start talking to people in your market.

3. Find an investor focused-agent in your area that can help you navigate through your first deal. A good agent can also help you analyze deals as well!

Hope that helps and let me know if there are any other questions I can help answer.

Good luck!

Hey Marcus, 

I think the co-living/rent by the room strategy would be a great way to start out. There is a strategy for doing this the right way. Taylor Jolly is someone in my network that has been crushing it, he's based out of Texas. I'm not sure if he's on this forum but he's been making videos on the process and is always willing to share what he's learned. If you want to message me I can make the connection for you. 

Good luck!

Welcome to the community Heather, I'm excited for you! 

You didn't provide much in your post so I'm curious what your journey looks like. What types of investments are you looking at? Are you planning to do long-term by and hold, or another type of investing? What are some questions you have now that the community can help answer?

Good luck!

Hey Tony,

For me the biggest benefit of the BP Pro account has been the calculators, they provide a quick and easy way to analyze deals and then generate a report after, so if you want to share your analyses with a partner, bank, agent etc you can do that easily. I do have a spreadsheet that I use to analyze deals and overall I do prefer using that over the calculators, but that's just me. Shoot me a message on here and I'd be happy to share my spreadsheet with you. 

There is a lot to learn in real estate investing, but like others have said, start going to meetups, talk with other local investors, and look to find a mentor in your market that can help guide you through your first deal. There are a lot of good investor-focused agents out there that can serve as a mentor and help you get your first deal. 

Good luck and let me know if there is anything I can do to help!

For a lot of owner-occupy loans, there is a 12 month occupancy requirement. You need to live in the property for 12 months before moving and renting it out. If someone is buying a property with the intent of occupying it, but doesn't end up doing that and instead rents it out, it would be considered mortgage fraud. 

It's best to confirm with your lender on occupancy requirements for the particular loan being used. 

I should have clarified - by "pulling out equity" I was referring to doing a cash out refinance on one of the existing properties. Your lender can give you more details on the specifics of doing this in your situation. You typically can't use a HELOC on an investment property.

Hi Abram,

The three things I'd recommend doing for anyone just starting out are:

1. Start listening to podcasts and listening to books about real estate investing. BiggerPockets is obviously a great podcast to start. 

2. Attend local real estate investor meetups in your market to build your network and find a mentor. 

3. Find an investor focused real estate agent in your market! This one is really important. The right agent will be able to help you navigate the purchase process and analyze deals. 

Those are the three biggest things I'd recommend doing when first starting out. That's what I did and they greatly helped me and gave me the confidence to get my first deal. As far as action steps to get your first deal should do the following:

1. Get pre-qualified with a lender (talk to several lenders in your market to get the best rate)

2. Define your "buy box" or criteria for your first property (this may change a bit as your start analyzing deals and looking at properties, but it's important to know what you want). 

3. Meet with an investor focused agent, they will set you up with an email list of properties in your area that meet your criteria. 

4. Start analyzing deals. Set a goal to analyze two properties a day. 

5. When you find a deal that meets your buy criteria setup a showing to view the property.

6. Once you've viewed some properties and find one you like, make an offer. It's important to get some offers out there, if you don't make any offers you'll never get a deal!

7. Once your offer is accepted, you'll move forward with the bank appraisal, building inspection, and then you'll close on your first deal!

It may sound like a lot, but the right agent will be able to guide you through this process. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions!

I have my properties in an LLC, but keep in mind when purchasing a property in an LLC you cannot use conventional financing, as Alecia said. So if you wanted to purchase a rental property using an FHA or VA loan, you'd need to put that in your name. If you want a bank loan for a property that will be in an LLC, it will be a commercial loan.