Newbie looking for advice - Posted by Molly

Posted by arlanj on September 15, 2004 at 09:22:18:

Search the foreclosure websites for your area. Look at the properties. Make some offers. Start small. No LLC necessary to begin with. Borrow against anything you have to get your first deal. Then borrow against that to do another.

Newbie looking for advice - Posted by Molly

Posted by Molly on September 15, 2004 at 07:33:43:

Hello everyone - my husband and I are looking into becoming real estate investors/developers, but we’re not really sure where to start. I read some messages on the board yesterday that said to look for motivated sellers, not properties, but since we’re new at this we want to learn all we can before diving in. I’m very familiar with real estate law/title insurance, having worked in the industry for several years, but investing is a whole new ball game. Should we form an LLC for taking title, and what are the advantages to that? Should we establish relationships with lenders who can provide financing if we need it, before we start looking into buying properties? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Re: Newbie looking for advice - Posted by jasonrei

Posted by jasonrei on September 15, 2004 at 12:16:53:

Read the articles and money-making ideas on this site. Might wanna get a course or two (I think Ron Legrand is pretty good).

I’m not really an investor, I’m a rehabber. An S-corp takes title to my rehabs, an LLC takes title to my longer-term houses (not many of those). I had lenders lined up from the beginning. I didn’t have a very high-paying job, and my credit wasn’t very good (620 FICO?). I have good reported income now, and my FICO is over 700 finally, but I still don’t use my own money for purchases, though I do use some of my own funds for repairs here and there. I don’t use conventional financing, but my deals are short-term. If you want to be an investor, you’ll need long-term money. The easiest to get is existing financing- loans that are already in place. If you can get conventional financing on investment properties, that’s a good second option.

Anyway, read the articles and get a bit more familiar before pulling the trigger. There is a ton of good info on this site.

Re: Newbie looking for advice - Posted by Joe

Posted by Joe on September 15, 2004 at 11:47:08:

If you study “wholesaling,” you shouldn’t even have to “borrow against what you have,” because you can put something under contract, and then make money by assigning your contract. Your buyer pays both you and the seller of the house.

If you do have money or credit, though, you can also use that to your advantage.