All Forum Posts by: Loren Whitney

Some people are more conservative than

Welcome to BP! Looking forward to networking.

Luther M. Good question! Your IRA can get a mortgage (must be non-recourse) but you cannot sell a portion to yourself. Instead, you could have to distribute the asset from your retirement plan and pay the taxes. Bottom line, if you're trying to do this personally, think twice about using retirement funds as they should be used for investment purposes only. I'm out of the office until Monday but I'm happy to catch up then if you want to talk shop. Thanks.

Sounds good to me if rents are reasonable. Let us know what happens.

I agree with the others. Take this as a lesson and try to move on.

Originally posted by @JOSE LIRA:

Jeff Barnes is right.

For my solo 401k , I only have a checkbook account. I'm not interested in buying stocks with it so I don't need a brokerage account. I can buy stocks with my 403b at my job.

For me I had about 45k in losses on another investment which would give me back about 11k in tax refunds and put me into a small tax bracket. Knowing this would happen I choose to take a distribution and pay the taxes on the distribution at my lower rate. It was a one off kinda year.

Jose, if you have access to your funds at the trustee, can you open a brokerage account in the name of your plan anywhere. Your role as trustee allows you to invest the funds as you see fit. That could be through checking account, brokerage account, etc. You're shouldn't be limited to one option. You may like the liquid cash options at one bank vs. another and choose to have two checking accounts for the Solo(k).

@Kyle M. 

What did you end up doing Kyle? If you did buy, what's your experience been so far?

How in the world did an $80k purchase price and $1500 in rents only provide a $3xx cash flow? We're you figuring 20% vacancies? Haha

What's up guys! This thread is old but I figure some of you might still be following. I'm Loren and my family and I live in Louisville too. I'd love to meet up with any of you locals and talk real estate, make friends etc. I currently own two properties and I'm working at getting a third under contract this week in Lafayette. Looks promising so far.

Just for the record, I heard the pose as tenant idea from someone else here on BP. It's worked well for me personally.

@Cory Mickler

Congratulations on the purchase. I'm looking for another unit myself. 

I'm not familiar with your area at all but I have a few simple suggestions. You need to research what your market rents are today. This is the typical pricing question that all marketers face. 

Here's how I would start figuring it out:

1. Check Craigslist and see what other people are asking for similar properties close by.

2. Check the local newspaper and classifieds for similar listings.

3. Visit rentometer.com, a rent comparison website.

4. Go check out local rentals and pose as a potential tenant. This way you can see first hand what the competition looks like. 

At the end of the day, the idea is to offer a better deal overall. 

I haven't read any real estate specific books on marketing rental properties but any marketing book on the concept of pricing and value will give you good ideas.

Good luck!