All Forum Posts by: Steven Eitreim

 Let me take this another direction.  The "greatest generation" were children of the depression, and therefore took great pride in saving.  They birthed the baby boomer generation, who, in my opinion, grew up in a time of great fiscal prosperity, even while their parents were cheap.  The boomers earned a great deal of money, maintained a good deal of the savings attitude for their own retirement, but did not teach their children the same.  My generation (Gen X) started to lose that fiscal sanity, and we've been progressively teaching our children worse and worse how to manage a dollar.  For that reason, I foresee future generations continue to exhibit poor money choices and have very little interest to save for a down payment.  This will become a landlord nation, and those who provide affordable housing with decent amenities will be rewarded (and ostracized by politicians, since fiscal "equality" will probably only continue to grow). 

I think there will be high demand in nice communities, even though millennials and Gen Y'ers prefer to text on their phones as opposed to talking to their friend right next to them. 

Buy affordable housing properties that cash flow in a market with diverse employment, and you almost can't go wrong.  Wait for blood in the streets, and then open your pocketbook.  While unfortunate for many, recessions are the right time to acquire.  I'm stockpiling cash at the moment, but still won't stay on the sidelines for properties that meet the above criteria. 

I'll make every effort to be there, Sean.  Look forward to meeting you in person

That's about right.  As a personal aside, i installed a 5-foot by 9-foot quartz countertop in my own personal dwelling to facilitate lunches with my wife and 4 kids, and it's too big.  We call it the ping-pong table, as that's about the size.  5-feet is too far to reach when passing out food to those on the other side.  It has cabinet space on both sides, which is nice, but unnecessary.  We're on record for the largest single piece through our local home depot... they still refer to it as "the continent".

36 is nice with standard 24-inch depth single row of cabinets. 

Hi, Allen.  Go listen to episode #1527 of Joe Fairless' "Best Ever real estate advice" podcast, where Theo Hicks goes through how we compiles this information on 200 multi-family properties in his target markets.  Very enlightening and actionable, and what I'm trying to do right now for my market.  Takes time, but seems VERY thorough and advantageous. 

Good luck.

@Aaron Mayo.

Do what the smartest folks in the game are doing.  Buy a 2, 3, or 4-plex as a primary residence, rent it out (including additional bedrooms in your own unit, if willing), and live for free or with a profit.  Look for a value-add opportunity that you can refi in a couple years and pay off your remaining debt with that.  Or, as @Nick Macklin suggested, invest in a property that gives you a better rate of return that what you're paying for your school debt, which shouldn't be hard if you find even a reasonable deal. 

If you're really interested in getting in the game, don't wait.  Do it now.  Remember... each year that you delay investing in real estate, you're not losing the amount you'd earn in your first year... you're losing one more year of earnings at the end of your career, which for good investors, is counted in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions.  Start now. 

Good luck.

@David Monroe:

We'll have to agree to disagree.  I'm certainly not saying that the effect is immediate, but were rampant inflation to occur due to an influx of printed money (ie, quantitative easing, other efforts to inject more capital into the market, or even an effort to pay off debts to other countries), their are still only so many assets that can be purchased with those additional dollars.  Even though we're off the gold standard, look what happens to precious metals (a safe harbor) during excessive inflation... their stored value goes through the roof.  As the cost of living increases drastically, so do worker wages to keep parity (though at a delay to the market).  Home prices therefore increase drastically, since a dollar simply isn't worth what it was before.  And if the cost of buying a home increases sharply, so will the competing prices for renting a home. 

Take a look at severe cases, like Venezuela.  With inflation reducing currency value to less than 10% of what it was before, do you think property owners are still holding rents at pre-inflation rates?  I wouldn't. 

Every metric has 2 sides.  refinancing at a higher rate WILL technically reduce your cash flow (though as Jaysen Medhurst suggested, not much), but consider what else rising rates will do.  Rising rates are a sign of impending inflation.  Inflation is FANTASTIC for those who own hard assets like real estate, as their principal owned remains the same, yet the rents should climb in correlation with inflation rates.  In the extreme case of hyperinflation, for example, the building you bought for $1M and originally collected $10K/mth on will still have the same mortgage payment, but you can theoretically collect $20K/mth in rent.  Other expenses will climb, but that major debt piece remains, and improves your cash flow. 

Additionally, if you're looking at multifamily, as interest rates increase, so should the expected cap rates, which will reduce the market value of a property (again, in theory). 

With all the quantitative easing that occurred in the last decade, the US is due for some SIGNIFICANT inflation in our near future, so I'm intending to buy as many assets as I can. 

Investor's time is quite valuable... I recommend you put yourself where you're likely to bump into them... REIAs, more forums, etc.  Unless you can entice feedback by offering some value to them, I'll be honest... you won't get much feedback.  I'm not a flipper, so can't help you out, but wanted to add a dose of reality. 

Look to add value first, and pick brains later. 

Has anyone found any luck with avoiding the "seasoning" requirement from banks by paying cash through hard money until the property is stabilized (hopefully within a month or two)?