All Forum Posts by: Udoka Omenukor

@Travis Rasmussen Good idea. I am struggling with making sure that the duplex I get is in a good area of town. Because my credit is not where I want it to be and my cashflow isn't as high, my mortgage loan isn't high enough for the duplexes I really want. It's either in a bad part of town or in a far suburb still in development. 

I do have my RV which I will be keeping near Plano. I want to airbnb out the RV! 

Hey guys!

I'm a young lady attempting to make her first real estate investment (well, third. First attempt was a time-share. Second attempt was an RV. This is my first real traditional try).

I want to use SETH programs and FHA.

I want a DUPLEX so I can live there and also rent out the other side. 

Seems simple enough. I will be documenting my progress here. Please, provide any advise as you see fit :)

I may qualify for habitat for humanity but I don’t know if it’s worth it. Here’s how it works and y’all chime in (btw, I am in the beautiful, great state of Texas if that gives you an idea of laws and reg) How HFH works is you apply, qualify and if you do, you Work 250 to 300 hours at their home-depot-knockoff thrift store and building houses. When you finish this, you Get a home depending on your need (you don’t get to choose a 2 bedroom just because, they pick for you). You need to live in this home until it’s paid in full (no renting out) and you can’t sell it to anyone other than HFH until after a 10 year term. Homes seem to be valued at $80-$100k. You pay 0 down and your mortgage will be no more than 1/3 of your income (you must have the same low income until after closing). And please correct me if I’m wrong, but the loan is half the valuation of the house, Right? Also 0% interest. Is all of that worth it when there are SETH options (low down payment options) + FHA loans out there? Should I spend 300 hours on my business (not my job because 300 times my hourly isn’t enough to get a good house deal) which could bring in more money at an undetermined time?

I want to re-iterate that through this experience, I learned these things:

1. After reading books and searching around BP, it was clear that we needed some sort of class or guidance or hand-holding (erm, we needed all three lol). Free advice from strangers online or online articles, free advice from friends here and there, and cheap advice from books that typically detail the "dream" and the "possibilities" instead of detailing specific information and strategies for YOUR AREA is a waste of time and leads to frustration. I am a fan of PAYING for a solid foundation. 

2. It is not necessary to spend more than $2,000 (it's not necessary to spend even THAT now that I've found classes/guidance/hand-holding for just $250). Spending more than $10,000 for real estate education is a mistake because that is how much you need to do a deal. Find a cheaper route to educate yourself.

3. There are A LOT of different strategies. You don't need to know all of them, you just need to choose one you feel good enough about and be committed to following through on it

Originally posted by @David Scott:

If this is your first deal I would HIGHLY suggest looking at other forms of financing first. There are a lot of options for first time home buyers. I personally would try an FHA 203K for a rehab. With an FHA you can put as little as 3% down and you get preferred interest rates.

Conventional loans can also have a construction loan component as well and you will get lower interest rates as well.

A hard money lender will tend to have higher interest rates and points.  This is a method of securing a loan when the conventional methods have been exhausted and you no longer fit the debt to income ratio that banks like to see.

 You're saying a bank will give me money for fixing it because I thought they will only give me money for the value of a home in live-able condition?

If hard money lendering won't actually be converted to bank loan, what are other people doing? Using their own money? 

Originally posted by @Lee Lockhart:

Hello,

You may can go FHA and qualify for a smaller down payment (2% to 5%)...

Thankyou I will research the HUD areas later and see if people are renting there.

Originally posted by @Mike Cumbie:

Hi @Udoka Omenukor and Welcome!

There are a few things missing that may help to guide you some.

1) Are you looking for a "House Hack" Owner Occupy type deal or just a flip?

2) Do you own a home currently?

3) Is this for investment of personal use?

4) Do you have a good credit score?

Thanks and good Luck!

 1) I don't know what you mean? But I want to purchase a cheap home that I can fix so that I can rent it out. 

2) No

3) This is for investment use

4) Yes

I need all the luck thankyou!

I am saving money to purchase a home. I was told if I go to a hard money lender, I still need to use my own cash for part of the deal. I'm saving around $15,000. I'd buy the house, use hard money lender cash to rehab it, then convert to a bank loan.

The problem is, it will take me over a year to save $15,000.

What can I do to speed this up? Is there something I didn't think of?

Thanks @Linda Ezrah ! Someone who gets it! :) Speaking of finding a cheaper way to get motivated...

UPDATE:

I'm just updating this thread with a new finding. LIfestyles Unlimited seems to provide fantastic mentoring and game plan for MUCH MUCH cheaper. Membership is $250/year for the first 2 years then it goes up to $500. You go to their 2 day seminar and you have access to a "team" of people who can help you pull through on deals. I had NO IDEA about this and googling did not help us find this. I only found this via word of mouth...

That being said, now that I know this option exists, I highly highly highly recommend it over doing Legacy Education. Save yourself a ton of money! Lifestyle Unlimited's plan to get you into REI makes a lot of sense, is simple, is easy to do, etc. Through Legacy Education, Walter and I learned a lot of different techniques and things to do and we were beginning to look for deals to apply it on and it gave us the confidence to do our first "small" deal. We were ready to start doing normal house deals and the game plan we came up with (with the help of a friend/mentor) is basically the game plan Lifestyles Unlimited teaches you.

Free podcast here: http://www.lifestylesunlimited.com/category/radio_...

So you won't know how to do all the fancy stuff and breath of stuff you will know how to do if you do invest in something like Legacy Education, but I think this program will get you to have skin in the game in a really do-able fashion.

@Helen Bollinger and @Linda Erzah bring up very good points -- as a beginner, the seminars and trainings were OVERWHELMING. Of the group we formed after the seminar, only 1 (other than us) have managed to make deals. It is incredibly easy to feel discouraged and make slow progress as a beginner. I do feel like telling a beginner "Pick ONE specific strategy and follow through until success". Even if they paid for the seminar and got some ideas, as long as they had in their head to do ONE strategy, they would be able to get some leeway (which is what we did. We started with one strategy in mind but the education on marketing for that strategy is incredbily poor -- not just through Rich Dad but in general. Very little books or materials on the realistic monetary investment needed to market for Wholesaling...). I have no doubt that the Rich Dad Seminar pay for itself when you are already practiced in doing deals. Something for us to keep in mind for the future!! Thankyou.

That being said, I don't think I would go with Rich Dad in the future after we have multiple  deals under our belt. There are educators and mentors that give just as much value at a cheaper cost. But it was only because we started with Rich Dad that we were able to SEE and FIND these other education opportunities. 

It's funny how things are working out. It's like -- you have to pay a cost (aka commit to SOMETHING) before you can see the other opportunities... hmm