Thank you so much for the great advice. When I posted here I never expected anything more than a book suggestion or two. Your advice makes perfect sense. We know we should pay our debt, and you were right - were were getting caught up in the need to jump in too early… I like your idea of renting a single place at first, at least so we get a taste of real estate while we’re doing all of the research. I’ll have to read those books you suggested, as well as other research to try and develop some way of coming up with a downpayment for it.
We are very determined not to fail - and if that means we need to have the will power to do 2 years of research, that is exactly what we are going to do.
As an engineer - I had to sit down and go over the numbers before I believed real estate had any potential. After going over the numbers - I’m shocked at the enormous potential to make a very good living as a real estate investor.
I’m glad professionals like the two of you post to this site - your words of advice are going to be much more helpful than you can imagine.
I especially liked the part about paying off some credit card debt. Yes, you can become wealthy in real estate as so many have and so many more will. But you need to learn self-control. If you collect the rent and rob Peter to pay Paul, then can’t pay your mortgages, taxes, insurance, repairs, etc you will be in worse shape in a couple of years. Flips sound wonderful, but do you think that you can come from no experience and little real estate education and buy low, fix cheap, and sell high? I have done it, but I have studied much of the material out there and am still studying more. And I still see a lot of things that I should have done differently.
One reason that I liked Eduardo’s advise so much is that he recommended that you try landlording on a small scale for a couple years. It is an almost free education, but do your reading too. Flips may require some staying power; you bought it, you fixed it, now you are trying to sell it; the repairs cost you twice what you estimated and even though you looked at the property very carefully, you missed a dozen things to fix; now broke and tired, you need a buyer before the next payment comes due! Do you need that?
There are many good materials, books, and courses for sale on this and other sites. Some are more motivational than educational, but most will teach you something. Stay away from the very high priced stuff. Most of the real estate gurus who really have something to say are reasonably priced. I like Bill Bronchick, Lonnie Scruggs and others, but look for yourself at the many authors and see what is right for you. There are also many good articles that you can read free of charge and following these discussion groups will teach you some.
If you are really determined to get started in real estate, I have a fixer not too far away from you that I might trade for something or sell to you cheap on credit, but remember what Eduardo and I said about changing your patterns. If you don’t change your habbits you will not change your results. If you are interested, E-mail me at seniorito@excelonline.com and I will call or E-mail the details.
Re: Would like to make investor friends. - Posted by mike gaya
Posted by mike gaya on November 06, 2004 at 14:51:27:
if you are serious i have a project in central california that is going to kick off with in 6 months and we are looking for investors. the project consists of a housing tract of 138 homes in the 300,000-450,000 dollar range we are looking for investors for the land as well as construction cost. please contact me for more info. and a list of all the builder in this area.
i have an in source for the land and it is extremely hard to get land in the fresn meto area. i need investors
It may be hard to believe that someone would turn over a house to you without asking for an option fee/down payment in return…but it happens all the time. The house I recently put under contract had been on the market 3 months. The owners had moved to Vegas and they were paying 2 mortgages. Ouch! I came along and gave them the spiel about taking care of their home and making their payments until I could buy it. I offered them a solution to their problem. Did they ask me to pay them for solving their problem? No.That’s why I mentioned earlier that sellers will sometimes expect to pay YOU (“seems too good to be true” are words I often hear them say).I got the home under lease/option contract, and collected a 3000.00 option fee from my buyer 2 days ago. Oh, and my monthly payment to the seller is $900, but the sellers mortgage payment (on two mortgages) totals $1150.00. They are coming up with $250 per month to subsidize my payment! But it sure beats the full $1150!
Find motivated sellers and you’ll rarely be asked to pay an option fee.
Russ
Hi Courtney: I actually got started by taking the Carleton Sheets course. That gave me enough knowledge to be dangerous. I bought my own residence using some of the stuff I leaned from Sheets, but I wanted a faster way of making money than the “buy and hold” strategies that Sheets teaches. I was self employed and business was lousy.We were buying groceries with the only credit card that hadn’t been maxed out!Then I found this site!! I took a very basic Legrand course on flipping and lease/options. That course is no longer offered but his comprehensive lease/option course is. That would be a great place to start. Since I had been initiated into lease/options by Legrand (and was beginning to do deals) I decided to further my knowledge with the Bill Bronchick lease/option course…just to get a different slant on things.In my opinion you can’t go wrong with the Bronchick material. It’s the most thorough I’ve seen.I know it seems as if I’m recommending both courses. I am! Legrand or Bronchick. That’s a tough one. The best part is you can’t go wrong with either choice. I hear Joe Kaiser’s course is excellent. But I haven’t taken it.
I really agonized about spending the money on that first course.I shouldn’t have. It’s the best investment I’ve ever made. Good luck to you.
Russ
One comment on landlording. Even though I think it is a great cashflow business, most of the time when you first acquire a property the cashflow is minimal. Especially if you do what Eduardro recommends and have it 100% financed. When you have minimal cashflow (say $100 a month or less) and you have a vacancy, a late or non-paying tenant, or a major repair, you might quickly have a negative cashflow. I am not trying to discourage, but I am trying to show you that it is not quite as simple as you might be lead to believe.