All Forum Posts by: Simon Shih

Wake up early.
Read.
Inspire yourself
Exercise
Work on real estate every day. Even if it's just learning or listening to a podcast.
Once a week I read the Houston Business Journal to keep up to date on business in my city.

If I had 300K to invest I would use that money for down payments on multi family properties and have residual income each month. Since I just lost my job, I could manage the properties myself.

@Account Closed. What are your financial goals? I would start by asking yourself that.

There are so many aspects of real estate investing that you can go into with your 20K. Are you looking for passive income? Rentals.

Are you looking for a job? Flips and wholesaling.

Are you looking for a combination of both? BRRRR

Take the time to ask yourself what your goals are and then research the types of investing based on those goals. Then it's a matter of doing what fits your personality and your comfort zone.

I also vote for Credit Karma. They have an app for your phone you can log in and get your credit score anytime.

All for free.

@Brent Coombs. The red is just the text color. The parentheses around the number would make it a negative. 

@Jordan M. You have no closing costs in your numbers. It doesn't affect your monthly costs, but I would account for closing costs.

Welcome to BP @Terrence Pharr. There's lots of great podcasts on wholesaling and great blogs here on BP. If you have any questions, just ask away. Based on what you've accomplished so far, you'll catch on quick. Good luck!

Based on @Brandon Turner's rule of 100 dollars a door, you are fine. Personally, I'd prefer about 200 a door or more to give me a buffer if anything comes up. 

What's the actual house worth? Or is 140K the retail rate for the area you are in? Can you get a reassessment of the property and have the taxes reduced? Can you put more money down and reduce your PITI?

Earnest money is the seller's call. Sometime the realtor will put their 2 cents in, but look at it if you were selling a house. You'd want some kind of commitment (or skin in the game) so that you knew you weren't wasting your time on someone who had no intentions in buying your house.

As an investor, it's dependent. If you're a wholesaler, you probably don't want to have to put earnest money down. My first deal, I sent over a contract and it had no earnest money. If you have a house under contract and want to assign the contract to an end investor, you'd want earnest money to make sure they were committed to closing.

My personal thoughts are what's the harm in earnest money. I always put in an option period so I can back out of a deal in case there are major issues with the house that come up in an inspection. I plan on closing if there isn't so 1000 is no big deal to give the seller a sense of security.

It's dependent on the situation. What's the situation you're referring to?

It's normally each individual housing space. A four-plex is a 4 unit. In an apartment complex, each apartment is a unit.

I've never heard it refer to each bedroom, however, maybe in a situation where you are renting rooms out in a house in a college rental situation, each room might be considered a unit.

Hey @William Patterson. Welcome to BP.  I'm from Houston also. Hit me up if you want to talk shop.