Posted by John Kastrava on March 29, 1999 at 01:29:07:
Kellie
You have had some valuable first hand experience. You have been an absentee owner and know the problems that can bring. You could begin by making contact with out of state or out of town owners of rental properties and see if they would be interested in selling that property to you. Just a thought…
Good luck
JohnK(CA)
New To RE Investing - Posted by Kellie Sisson Snider
Posted by Kellie Sisson Snider on March 28, 1999 at 12:49:21:
My husband, Richard, and I have just decided to get into Real Estate Investing and are doing Carleton Sheets CD program at home. It sounds great. We are moving to a new home ourselves, using his VA loan so we don’t have to make a down payment, and keeping our current house as a rental investment, so I suppose that’s our first Real Estate Deal- with ourselves! Richard makes good salary but wants to get out of his job eventually, and I am a writer and have just made my first big book sale- although I’m not sure HOW big yet. I will continue to write and hopefully make a somewhat regular income that way.
I guess to be honest, although we are both excited about this RE stuff and think it could be the answer for us, for me there’s an air of “too good to be true” about it. How common is it really to make a go of it?
I notice most of you talking about flipping houses- do any of you collect rentals? What are the advantages of each, or do you do both and balance things out?
What’s the reality of this stuff anyway? Is it only relative to the work you put in? How about economy fluxuations?
Any answers you can give would be MOST appreciated! Thanks!
My .02 - Posted by Mark (SDCA)
Posted by Mark (SDCA) on March 29, 1999 at 11:15:32:
There are many, many niches in real estate. And it is easy to get all gung ho and say I am gonna do tax liens and rehabs and mobiles and apartment buildings and so on.
Personally, I believe that you spend a little time and get to know the ins and outs of a few of the niches and then pick one that really feels right and really turns you on. Because if it doesn’t really excite you then you won’t stick with it. (Reason I say that is that “challenges” will come up. This is a get quick slow business in general and can be frustrating at times. But VERY well worth it in the long run.)
Cheers,
Mark
Re: New To RE Investing - Posted by Rob FL
Posted by Rob FL on March 28, 1999 at 19:20:24:
Assuming that you are like most people who are getting started in RE, little cash and average to below average credit, I would recommend either (1) doing quick flips; read Jackie Lange’s 2 how-to articles and Joe Kaiser’s new prehab article or (2) invest in Lonnie Scruggs mobile home books. These will help put actual CASH in the bank.
I started out landlording 6 years ago and will admit that it was alot of work at first. Not too bad now. The cash flow is there but is not that much in the beginning. It is only now that I am starting to see the true payoffs for the hard work in the past. Landlording, unless you hire a professional manager, is not easy unless you have a good system. It took me about 3 years to get one in place.
Re: New To RE Investing - Posted by Brandi_TX
Posted by Brandi_TX on March 28, 1999 at 16:49:20:
Kellie-
Congratulations on your decision to invest in Real Estate. My first course was also the Carlton Sheets Program. As Bill mentioned, it is a good starter, it gives you basic concepts. Sheets talks alot about being creative in his course. I found that compared to the information on this site, his ideas on creativity are still somewhat conventional.
You mentioned there’s an air of “too good to be true” about it. I think that comes from the dreamy way Sheets sells his course. Stick around and you will see the “reality” you are seeking. Everyday there are new posts about the good and bad that the investors on this site experience. You get all kinds of viewpoints from newbies (like you and me), and from experienced, knowledgable investors (who, by the way, also ask questions when they get stumped).
As a Sheets graduate, I encourage you to listen to his course, and pick an area that sounds the most interesting to you, then get more knowledge on that topic from this site.
Good Luck
-Brandi_TX
Re: New To RE Investing - Posted by Bill K. (AZ)
Posted by Bill K. (AZ) on March 28, 1999 at 14:14:10:
Kellie,
Congratulations on finding this site and seeking out the advice of others. There are A LOT of knowledgeable folks here who will help guide you through the real estate maze.
I, too, started with Carleton Sheets’ course. However, while it piqued my interest and got me enthusiastic about investing, I found it to be a little short on detail. I think he tries to cover too many different areas for the amount of material you get. But, nonetheless, that was my start.
It is quite common to “make a go of” real estate investing. If you frequent this board for only a short time, you’ll see that people are doing well in real estate all the time. Be sure to check out the “Success Stories” section on this board.
“Flipping”, if you buy right, allows you to make a few thousand dollars fast. “Renting”, if you buy right, provides you with a positive cash flow of, say, a hundred dollars a month and an large equity payoff when you sell. So, it’s a matter of when you need the money and how inclined you are to deal with tenants and their problems.
Regarding economy fluctuations, I find that I am always a buyer and a seller. Hence, I’m going to do extremely well on one side of the equation. But, the best advice I ever heard was “make your money going in”. So, deals have to make financial sense from the start. Then, you don’t have to worry too much about fluctuations.
Welcome Aboard! I hope this helps.
Bill K. (AZ)
Re: New To RE Investing - Posted by Kellie
Posted by Kellie on March 28, 1999 at 16:23:30:
It does help, thanks, Bill! We are brand new to this, and it will take some time to figure it all out I’m sure. I was against it at first since we’d had a rental property in Houston- we moved and were unable to sell the house so we rented it. The renter was a nightmare and trashed the house. Since we were remote owners and had no money at the time to fix it up we sold it for what we owed and I was very discouraged. Maybe if we’d known more techniques we would have handled it differently, but now we will deal with properties in our town. We are interested in developing some investments for retirement security and well as to let my husband get out of a job that is forcing him to travel too much while we have kids at home. We’d like a safety net, so to speak, for our other creative income avenues. As a writer I might make a lot one year and a few hundred the next with a couple of thousand from art work on the side. We also need to increase our net worth. So… we’re trying this. I guess we’ll go through the Sheets course and get what we can from that, then look at other courses, seminars, books, etc. Thanks! I’m glad I found this group!