All Forum Posts by: Scott V.

Thanks Henry, Jon, & Vinay. All points noted and appreciated. 

Dylan that's a good question regarding my current housing situation. I haven't mentioned it because in light of the opportunities out there for house hacking I feel a little bit bad about the situation I'm in. I was not as financially educated at the time.

I have a mortgage on a townhome for the amount of $399,000. My mortgage payment is approximately 15% of my gross income. The home was a partially emotional decision on my part. Yes, it forces me to save in the form of equity and is protected from the rent increases I was facing at my previous residence, but I turned a blind eye to house hacking because of my love of home design, architecture, and having a space to myself that I really enjoy. 

Because of my guilty conscience regarding the housing situation, I do rent it out a couple days a month at $250 a pop to subsidize my mortgage although I don't really need to (it just makes me feel good). In my market, it is considered a high-end townhome in one of the most desirable areas in the city. I'm the least expensive unit so far out of all my neighbors. Based on rental comps in the area, I could probably rent it out for about $3000/mo if a tenant could be found (not sure how this would affect my mortgage, however). 

I'm interested to hear how this may change your view of my situation and how you'd approach it in my shoes. 

Amazing posts Dave and Leslie you guys are amazing. Can't thank you enough and I'm going to run with all this advice. 

Thanks Michael, Nick, and the rest for all the great insights. I should be paying you guys for helping me avoid these pitfalls but I appreciate the free advice. 

A couple points I'll briefly address regarding the above posts: 

• I'm an associate dentist in a group practice owned by my father. It consists of two buildings he has mortgaged and one building which is much larger that is owned by another party (it's a multimillion dollar downtown building that's out of my reach to purchase). Because of these factors, I'm not really in a position to buy any of these buildings at least in the near term. 
• I do understand the "crawl before you walk" philosophy regarding purchasing properties. I'd certainly have major regrets if I failed to capitalize on a large investment versus a small one for my first deal. The reason I have such pause to invest small is because of two reasons. The first being that I can direct that time and energy to my work and easily multiply whatever small profits I would gain from a small investment property. My time is simply more valuable being used in my profession. In addition, I have no experience in the rehab world and couldn't put much sweat equity into a single family home. It seems like larger apartment buildings are generally better maintained than SFHs and are a bit more turnkey (although this could simply be an error in perception on my part). 

Thanks again and to answer one more question from above, no I haven't read white coat investor but I have read millionaire next door, the rich dad series, and a few others. To be frank, the traditional view of obtaining wealth as outlined in the millionaire next door is almost depressing to me in a way. I can't picture myself stunting my entire lifestyle through the prime years of my life just to suddenly come into financial freedom when I'm 65 and less able to enjoy it. My dream is to own a ski home in the mountains of Vermont and have a family to take there for vacation for a week every couple months while I'm in my late 30s and 40s. 

Sorry for the rambling and my naivety but I can't thank you all enough for checking out my thread. 

Thanks for all the input Jay I really appreciate it 

 Point well taken. That being said, I'm sure you can also empathize with me that it's not ideal to know you're only producing income when the drill is spinning. 

Hey everyone, first post on BP but been lurking for a bit. 

I know many people on here have started their REI journey with single family and other small investments. Some "gurus" out there say to skip the small stuff and go big from the start. This strategy makes sense to me because of the value of my time as well as my ability to fund down payments on medium size properties (10-20 unit apartment buildings in C areas). Economies of scale and lesser buyer competition come together to make a $1M apartment building make much more sense than a $70k SF home.

What these gurus never seem to mention however is how someone starting out is supposed to secure commercial lending when the requirements are so much different than residential. The main obstacles seem to be net worth and experience. I'm a relatively young (29) professional (dentist) and have high future net worth and income potential but I've only been out of school for a year and have low net worth and experience. Given these limitations, am I going to be constrained to the following options?

1) Be forced to start investing in small deals that will earn me negligible monthly cashflow to gain "experience" in the eyes of commercial lenders

2) Continue to sack away capital year after year until I have cash reserves that will allow me to obtain a commercial loan

I have heard some people say that they found co-signers on the loan who have high net worth but the last thing I want to do is approach family or friends with this when so many of them are also young professionals with little net worth or are highly leveraged and busy business owners. 

Any advice is welcome  and you won't hurt my feelings if you call me a complete dumbass. I'm trying to learn as fast as I can.