Investor from Rhode Island

[Marc Beaulieu]

My name is Marc and I am a Finance and Treasury auditor for a large regional bank in the North East.  I have always been interested in buy and hold real estate investing.  I graduated from college in 2009 and invested in my first property in 2010.  In total I have done three buy and hold deals in Rhode Island.  The biggest hurdle that I have encountered is financing and I would like to learn ways to overcome large down payments.

[Anthony Thompson]

Marc, depending on the deal, on a number of occasions I've bought properties with private (hard) money loans, held them for 6-18 months and then refinanced with bank financing. This lets me move quickly for good deals, but still have a decent rate for the long-term hold. Also lenders seem to like refinancing an existing property with some history and stable management, a little more than a new purchase/building.

However, building up private/hard money lender relationships does take time and work, and some experience to find deals and put everything together. If you haven't attended a real estate investor group such as the RI Real Estate Investor Group (http://rireig.com) or Black Diamond REI (blackdiamondrealestateinvestors.com) I'd recomend it.