All Forum Posts by: Trevor Lohman

@Dawn Anastasi

Oops sorry didn't answer all of your question. A house that is fairly priced for the area at roughly 50,000 dollars is what I am most interested in. That's a bit of an arbitrary number based primarily on what I expect to be able to save this year.

Hi Dawn,

Not necessarily low priced, actually from the properties listed on the site they seem relatively median priced. I've looked at some comps and the properties listed on jasonhartman.com seem fair for their respective areas. Um, I dunno, like I said his podcasts don't seem guru-ie, although he does sell educational products which does seem guru-ie. I'm more interested in the network they have though. Basically they list properties that meet their various criteria (rent to value ratio, etc) and only work in areas with certain criteria as well (job groth, pop. growth, low crime rate) and then set you up with a property manager (you can select your own or theirs).

I'm not even sure if they make any money off of you buying their listed properties. I think they make their money off their educational products which I wasn't planning on buying. So really, I don't see any glaring issues, which is why I was hoping maybe someone had worked with their network in the past.

I want to be a passive investor like you mentioned, just not in my area, which is why this network seemed appealing to me.

Trevor

Hi Everyone,

I am fully prepared to take some heat for asking this question, and recognize many of the problems with long distance income property ownership and investing in a "network" but wanted to ask anyway.

I'm 24 and spend probably about 50-60 hours a week working. I'm making what I consider good money (roughly 150 thousand a year pre tax). While I don't necessarily love my job, I don't see myself having the courage to quit and jump into real estate at any major capacity in the next five years. I'm at a time in my life when I'm saving for all kinds of things (wedding, new car, investing) and feel much more comfortable with what is a reasonably steady income (I know no job is guaranteed) I am not a huge fan of leverage, or debt of any kind, which is why I'm putting away money like crazy. I think within this year I would have the money to buy a lower end house in a few other parts of the country that seem to make a lot of sense to me. I do not however see myself having a tremendous amount of time to manage these properties though.

I am wondering if anyone has heard much about or invested in Jason Hartman's platinum properties network. I have listened to his podcast for quite a while, and his investing principles seem to strike me as being inline with bigger pockets philosophy, and my own philosophy. His network does not strike me as guru-ie (is that a word?) but at the same time it is an investment network managed by someone else, which I know many investors would likely call a suckers bet.

Does anyone have any experience with Platinum Properties? Or does anyone want to tell me how crazy I am for considering it lol? At this point it is either get involved in something like this, get some skin in the game, and learn from my experience, or just save my money away for the next five years until I'm at a point where I feel more comfortable ratcheting back from work, and try to become a part time buy and hold investor on my own.

Either way I plan on getting involved in managing my own real estate down the road, but thought this may be a viable way to get started and learn in the mean time.

What do you guys think? Thanks for the help!

Trevor

Haha That's Awesome!

Thanks @Giovanni Isaksen

Just realized that I am not an accredited investor... I guess that shouldn't have been such a surprise! lol. From what I have read and from what I've read on their website I really like realtymogul, unfortunately that is one of the sites that requires accredited investor status, but I hear that may change soon so we will see. I'll check out fundrise some more, I went on the website and there weren't many investments to choose from but I will keep checking them out. Thanks you guys! I appreciate all of the help. I will check out the forum! Thanks again.

Thanks Karen!

Does anyone have any experience with fundrise.com or similar crowd funded REI sites? I have more money than time (and not much money lol) so I thought this might be worth looking into. I have a feeling I already know what some of the downsides are.... Lack of control, fees, etc. but I'd love to hear what some of you guys think. Thanks for the help! I'm all ears.

@Gerald Harris Wow, I can't believe I didn't consider the Victorville area... I actually know a spec home builder up there, maybe I can pick his brain on the area. Thanks for the feedback!

@Account Closed

If you don't mind me asking, do you invest in notes here in California yourself? I'd love to learn more about it.

@Jeff B. It's awesome to hear a success story, hopefully some day I'll get the courage to leave the old job behind and try to work for myself one of these days.

@Jonathan M. San Bernardino is a big city (at least area-wise) with a lot of different neighborhoods. There are definitely some rough areas, at least in my opinion, but nothing compared to some parts of LA and other bigger metropolitan areas. I'm sure you know that already though! Personally I'd stay away from the north side of downtown (highland ave area) and some areas around the train station. Hopefully you'll be surprised by some of the many better areas. Any area of San Bernardino (except for by the country club and in the foothills) is a huge discount to the rest of southern California. Good Luck!