All Forum Posts by: Tim Pommett

Phenomenal responses, thanks everyone! It seems kind of silly to worry about something like this when I haven't even purchased my first property yet, but it's a great thought experiment and helps me grasp some of the challenges of real estate investing.

Welcome to the forums! I thought I was the youngest person on here and I just graduated college! Just moved to DFW from Florida, looks like you're in the same area as well. There are a ton of very experienced DFW investors who are eager to give advice. I'm personally a newbie, but can't wait to get started.

Like others have said, everyone's situation is different. I graduated, got a job, and definitely wouldn't have done it any differently if I had a change to go back in time. I learned an unbelievable amount in college, in and out of the classroom, and the person I am at 23 is unrecognizable compared to the person I was before college at 18.

Also, having a full-time job that pays well and has great benefits will help to fund my future investments. Having a job has given me options.

@Corey Muldrow Here's the website: http://dfwreiclub.com/

I've only been twice, but I've met some cool people and gotten some interesting ideas that I check here on Bigger Pockets

Hey Josh, welcome to the forums! I'm in the EXACT same position as you! I just graduated from University of Florida in May 2013 with a BS in Mechanical Engineering, and moved to Fort Worth to work for ExxonMobil. I have a lot of disposable income right now (I still live like a college kid: cheaply).

I've been attending the DFW REI club meetings on Saturday mornings, you should definitely check them out. Also, people on Bigger Pockets are extremely friendly and eager to help. Best of luck to you!

Thanks for the reply! I guess this idea is for people who are worried about some unforeseen catastrophe where vacancy spikes in their area and all of their rentals go vacant... And from the sounds of it, if you watch you business closely, that doesn't really happen

I'm a newbie, and recently attended my local DFW Real Estate Investment club this Saturday. I heard this interesting idea about a buy and hold philosophy in relation to vacancy:

Most investors don't own enough properties. In fact, your goal should be to own at least 20 properties. Even further, the most dangerous time in an investor's career is when they own about 5 properties.

Obviously the exact numbers can be argued, but I agree with the logic. Once you own 5, you are at the risk of multiple properties going vacant, which could be devastating. Once you have about 20 properties, the vacancy rate among your portfolio of investments flattens out. Basically it's the same idea as diversifying you stock portfolio.

Any thoughts on this? It was one of my bigger take aways from this last meeting, definitely stuck with me for some reason

I attended my first DFW REI Club meeting last night, and definitely plan on going back. There were roughly 70-80 people there to see Robyn Thompson - aka the "Queen of Rehab" - teach part of her curriculum, and it only cost $20 to attend. I'll share my thoughts on her lesson with y'all in case you ever hear about her. Note that I am a complete newbie, and have zero previous experience in real estate investing

Robyn tours the country teaching her methods on rehabbing. She has successfully purchased over 350 homes in 15 years, and has a no BS attitude. She obviously knows her stuff. Obviously this was an hour long presentation, not her full 5 day course, but I got a sense for the pros and cons of her teaching style.

Pro's: She's an expert, plain and simple. She has a lot of tips and tricks, and knows how to command a room. She claims to be wildly successful and a multi-millionaire.

Con's: She didn't focus on principles or fundamentals, and instead listed off a bunch of random "insider secrets" that a newbie like me shouldn't even worry about. Her biggest selling point was for direct mail: her patented "Horsey Letter". She says you don't want to come across to a desperate seller as a cold, only-cares-about-the-numbers business owner, but a normal human being. So, she was VERY specific about fonts, templates, even the style of stamps to use on direct mail, even going as far to say, "If you don't have a cute puppy or horse in the background of your letter, your response rate will drop from my typical 12% to the average 1-2% response rate". And of course, she spent the last 10 minutes selling her $2000 five day course.

Don't get me wrong, she had a lot of useful information, and I'm sure it's more likely that she would cover the fundamentals in her full course, something that is difficult to cover fully in a 90 minute presentation... But over half of the audience was completely new to REI. I mean, shouldn't the focus be on how to overcome your fear to even get started? Rather than focus on what color ink you should use to hand-write, NOT PRINT, the addresses on your direct mail? That's the biggest thing that bothered me.

I'd love to get some thoughts and feedback, especially from anyone who has taken the full course

@Gautam Venkatesan

Thanks for the info! I'm new to DFW as well

Welcome to BP, @Philip Magee ! I'm in the DFW area, and I'm new to RE investing as well.

And @Paul Timmins , I've taken to your advice and signed up for a DFW REI Club meeting, which happens to take place tomorrow at the Diamond Oaks Country Club. Philip, you should go too!

@Christopher Schmidt

Great story! I'm getting ready to start my first full-time job out of college as an engineer on Tuesday, so in the mean time I'm trying to learn as much about real estate investing as possible. I have no experience and just started reading about it a few weeks ago. I'm having a hard time understanding most of this paragraph from your original post:

"I've also been able to take advantage of the 0% until I found a HML (someone I know who was upset at the CD rates of the time). I offered them a nice rate, with 2 year minimum and 5 year balloon."

What is an HML?

Also, what is meant by a rate that has a "2 year minimum and 5 year balloon"? Sorry if these are dumb questions, just trying to learn the lingo!