All Forum Posts by: Wendy McLean

Hello BPers,

We are new to REI and also have limited funds. My hubby and I are self-employed and so conventional loans are a challenge for us. My friend, who is in the military, is interested in becoming RE partners/investors with us. She has an available sum of money (almost $300,000) left over from her last home purchase that she can use to purchase another home, if she wanted to. I'm not sure how it works when you're in the military but how she explained it is she had an approved amount of $600,000 at the time she bought her house, her home cost a little over $300,000 so she has the remainder left over. If we did decide to partner with her, I'm not sure how to work out the details of our partnership, the property would be in her name obviously and I'm thinking we could split the profits 50/50 because she's bringing money to the table and we're bringing our construction/property mgmt expertise to the table. Should we set-up an LLC for this? Any advice? Thanks!

@Chris Mason Very timely response! Good advice. Thank you.

Hello everyone,

I have a question and need some thoughts/advice. My hubby and I own a small HVAC/Plumbing services business, but we are totally new to REI. As we gain more and more information through BP, we are growing in confidence and looking forward to, one day, being able to make our first deal. Where we feel stuck is this: We are self-employed and bought our first home 3 years ago through a special program for low to moderate income individuals. We are very happy with our low and fixed interest mortgage, however, one of the conditions of the mortgage (to ensure that it is owner-occupied and not abused by investors) is there is a lien on the property. The only way to get out of this is to refinance with another mortgage company. So what's the problem? We tried to get the conventional mortgage loan before and we got no where because we are self-employed (no W-2s), we were grateful to find our current mortgage program. Our mortgage interest right now is 1.875% fixed, it's a great rate that we wouldn't want to lose. We're willing to lose it though if we could find a way to refinance to eliminate that lien and give us more financing options for future real estate endeavors. Has anyone ever had a situation like this before? What kind of advice could you offer in light of all of the above. Thanks for your time.

Karen, thank you for welcoming me! I love BP and members like you who take the time to help newbies like me. :)

I really like the file by street idea, I can see how that would be a simple, effective set-up. Thanks also for your inbox message detailing your own system. I'll re-read it to get a "visual" of what your system looks like. Appreciated. 

I will also check out those links you included. As you are well aware, paperwork is the "unglamorous" yet critical side of all businesses so getting it right, that is keeping it simple, and efficient is super important. Like you, I have some angst about the whole paperless stuff but would be willing to do it, if I could reliably back up all my info. We'll see. 

Hello all,

We are very new to REI. We homeschool and have our own small HVAC business so I deal with a fair amount of paperwork regularly. As I think about our next steps and I know REI requires paperwork, I'm thinking about paperless options. I am also asking for any tips for filing, organizing and sorting real estate paperwork. What systems work for you? Have you tried paperless and if so which software/hardware? Thanks for your help!

I know this thread began last year, but, we bought our first home through NACA in 2012 and have never been happier. We were able to buy down our rate to 1.875%. The HAND/Rehab Dept is a tricky part of the process BUT it was all worth it and their process is thorough for a reason. They want to make sure people purchase decent, livable properties and have an affordable mortgage which means homeowners are less likely to lose their homes. We started in May of 2012 and closed on December 28, 2012.

Hello everyone, I have to say it is so comforting to know that there are established investor out there who are willing to help newbies. We know several people who do property investing and you can hardly get a peep out of them. lol. Thank you all and thank you for the passion of the BiggerPockets team that makes this possible. I really love your site. My husband and I are learning all we can about investing to eventually (sooner than later) take the plunge. We live in the Maryland area. Shout out to all the DMVers dealing with this large snow event. Bundle up!