All Forum Posts by: Alex Shaughnessy

Here is my situation: i bought a condo in 2015 because i was broke and it was what i could afford. it isnt in the best of neighborhoods and i assured my girlfriend (now my wife) that i would not take long to get out of it and turn it into a rental. fast forward, she got over it and doesnt hate it as much as she thought. now, we are currently shopping for a new primary. I shop based on the numbers (just like BP taught me!), she is very emotional. we agreed that if we cant find a location that we thought was "forever home", then we would do something similar to what we did last time, buy something, add some value, live in it for 12-18 months, and move on. we live in san diego, ca. our jobs and debt-to-income only allow us to go so far. everything we are seeing doesnt scream "forever" to us. we went to see a fixer upper yesterday and seemed to be on the same page. if we bought it, made it livable, it would cash flow day one if we left (even though we plan to live in it). however, there is a duplex i have been looking at (in a C neighborhood), but would cashflow almost three times as much as the single family. Here is where i need advice (i apologize for the novel), i dont want to live in the duplex. I would buy it, make it rent ready, and rent it out. Thus, we would have to stay in our condo, which she was so excited to leave, at least for maybe another  year. i showed her the numbers, but i could see all the excitement she had yesterday quickly drain from her soul. i know the phrase happy wife happy life, but i cant get past the numbers. Help!!!

i bought brand new for my condo and am leaving them behind after a year. i would probably bite the bullet and go new but as cheap as you can for hopefully deferred maintenance. but, im a newbie so idk how much weight that holds until time tells me

great job, keep going

im about to be a new landlord and this thread was very helpful. one of my main concerns was wanting to electronically receive payment. thank you everyone

its always good to shop around. usually, you want to go w/ a bank/credit union, a mortgage broker and a direct lender. each will have different ways of dealing w/ this process. for example, I am currently using a direct lender and, because its a small shop, they are really personable. I can call and ask for a pre approval letter to help get offers submitted at any time of day for any amount (w/in reason and I would obviously qualify for). a mortgage broker is great if you don't know a lot of the lingo or are just starting out but they usually will cost a bit more. big banks are big banks. just a machine but if you are dealing w/ the right person im sure you will be fine. good luck

I think 90% of ppl would never invest if this was the case. saving up that much, while dealing w/ all that life throws at you, would require a lot of things going your way. other variables of kids, bills, etc. the people that would benefit the most from investing are those that probably don't have the income from a job that will allow you to save 100k in the bank in any decent amount of time.

welcome and good luck. do you plan on staying local?

I am a newbie as well and plan on house hacking a duplex. figure try to make all the mistakes up front. get all the experience I can hopefully w/o bankrupting myself. I feel after that, mentally, everything opens up and it should become so much easier. we are probably in the same stage so this probably isn't that helpful, but this is what I am planning. good luck

I don't have cash (yet) but I qualify for bank financing pretty easily. I would be interested in looking at what you got when you come across it.

welcome and thank you for your service. I had a friend out there ex military that I wanted to buy a rental w/ but is scared to pull the trigger. good luck