BiggerPockets

Hey everyone, I'm new here. For the record I'm currently 17 years old right now and I'm trying to learn as much as possible about real estate so that when I'm 18, I can start with a plan already set. I've been studying real estate since I was 14 years old, I know a little bit here and there. Anyone who could help me out would be great. I'm mostly into building my passive income portfolio. I look forward to meeting all of you.

What sort of help do you need? If you want to do buy and hold, you should accumulate a nice stash of cash and be sure you're credit is good.

Also, since I'm under 18 years old I have absolutely no credit. First off I want to build up a bit of capital. But eventually the plan is to buy properties and hold them to make rental money off them and eventually snowball it through 1031 exchanges.

Accumulating $15K is simple, but difficult. Its simply a matter of spending less than you make. Save the difference and its only a matter of time before you have the $15K.

In fact, if the is only one piece of financial advice you heed, its to just spend less than you make.

But, I think you mean how could you earn the money quickly. Honestly, I know of no method to make a quick $15K, so it has to be slow. What are your skills? What are your interests? Find something you love doing, or that at least you find interesting and pursue that. In the mean time, find another job or two. Are you heading to college? Do you have a trade? If not, figure out SOMETHING that will earn more than a minimum wage retail or restaurant job.

Rates on hard money are up to six points and 12-18%. Since you're asking about that, I assume you mean fix and flipping and not wholesaling. "Flipping" is used both ways.

To do a fix and flip, you need cash. Don't know what price range of houses you could do, but I wouldn't want to try it without about 10% of ARV in liquid cash.

Takes less to wholesale, but you need to find sellers and buyers and you need to know the laws. So, it still takes some cash.

Seller financing is when you sell your home you care the financing instead of the buyer going to a lender. Their are a number of things to take into consideration such as the buyer credit. Generally it should be 600 or better. You want a down payment of typically of 20% down. You also want to make sure the home you own is either free and clear of loans or enough equity in it that you can seller finance. I would suggest visiting the forum geared toward Real Estate notes for more information. You would do all this with a good real estate lawyer. I would also purchase Eddie Speeds Book "Street Wise Seller Financing"
LeJonR

Investor financing right now requires 25-30% down payments. Getting just 5-10% down on investment property is impossible right now.

But you were talking about flipping, now you're talking about buy and hold.

Bird dogging is finding out information about a property and passing it along to someone who actually does the deal. Might be good for a few hundred per deal.

Generally you cannot put the down payment on a credit card for the simple reason that taking out a big chunk like that will wreck your credit rating and make it difficult for you to get the loan.

To get an investor loan for a buy and hold property, you must have good credit and steady income. You'll need gross income about 3X or 4X the PITI payment on the property you're buying. Sorry, but this doesn't sound like your situation.

The more your buyer puts down the more likely he /she will not walk away from the deal. Say they put down $5,000 on a $100,000 home. The LTV would be 95/5 or 90/10 it is not secure. You want to make sure they think twice before they walk away from the home. that's why you typically want a LTV of 80/20. Not to many people want to walk away from $20,000 if they don't have to. Also you have to perform your due diligence, and check their previous rental history, job situation (make sure their company does not plans to skip town in the next year) this all is covered in the book I mentioned.

I apologize what I meant to say is a good experienced lawyer. I would simply ask them if they have ever dealt with seller financing.
LeJonR

Also, should the first property I deal with, should I or the person who puts the money down, put the property under an LLC? Or should I wait later for the next properties, or just do it if I plan to rent it out?