BiggerPockets

After reading many posts on the forums for the last month or so I decided it was time to officially introduce myself. My name is Bill Andrae and I have spent the last 10 years or so living in Madison, WI ( GO Badgers!) after growing up in Milwaukee.

I spent the last 6 years working for a HealthCare IT company traveling consistently around the country implementing an electronic medical record for major hospitals. The entire time I was doing that I got interested in real estate and wondering how I could eventually invest enough to make a nice income on the side. I recently left my job and am waiting to start a new job as a local IT consultant.

After reading many books on real estate and talking about it all the time, I'm finally starting to "walk the walk". My wife and I close next week on a new home which also happens to be a short sale. I still can't believe both lenders approved the offer in less than 30 days. I don't think that is typical at all.

In addition, we also are renting my wife's condo which we couldn't sell in this market. Unfortunately, we are at a slight negative cash flow. Trying to work out a deal to sell to our tenant.

I'm also starting to look at other investment properties in town, focusing on 2-4 units in short sale or REO status. I went to Don DeRosa's investment bootcamp in March as was excited about buying properties "subject to" but have had a hard time finding private lenders to fund the deals.

It's probably not going to be easy, but I'm trying to find properties at a steep enough discount that I won't have to put a lot of money down. The local banks tell me that if the purchase price is 75% or less of the appraised value, then I will not have to put any money down. I'll believe it when it happens I guess.

My entire goal is to eventually work for myself full time investing in properties. We all know that the tax code was written for the small business owner. Plus, who wants to work 8-5 for someone else the rest of their lives, right? :D

One of the biggest things I've learned so far about real estate investing is that you just need to jump in and do it otherwise you will never learn. Looking forward to learning more on BP.

Still trying to figure it out. I'm surprised how few properties actually cash flow when you analyze them. Then again, I'm being pretty conservative with my numbers. Minimum $100/unit cash flow and 30-40% expenses.

It's a small market but I suppose it makes it easier to keep on top of what's going on.

I've thought about it since there seem to be a lot of them right now. I've read about direct mail marketing. Any other recommendations? Perhaps Craigslist?

Greetings Bill, welcome to BiggerPockets.

-Michael

That's a good question. I'm not aware of any conventional products. But, there's hard money at 65% - 75% after repair value.

There's still creative ways to structure no money down deals. In today's economic climate there's a ton of individuals just walking away from homes. My heart goes out to them. Many of them just want to stop the bleeding.

If you really want to help people and can provide a solution to their problems, sometimes you can put together no money down transactions.

There's still lease options, sweat equity, assignments, or a new concept that I'm working on whereby you do an option on a property with a potentially modifiable loan product. This could be great way to cash flow alot of inventory.