All Forum Posts by: Ali Boone

*Feeling overwhelmed trying to get your start as a real estate investor?

*Trying to figure out a solid REI strategy with the best chance of success?

*Already investing but you're hitting some obstacles you'd like help with or things aren't flowing as efficiently as you would like?

Online resources can be great, but sometimes it's helpful to have someone help you directly 1-on-1. Quite often it just takes one small shift to change the entire fate of your REI journey.

If you've been around BiggerPockets much, you know I've been around for a while. I've always done real estate coaching on and off over the years, but I've never offered it publicly until now. With the pandemic and all the rest of the craziness in the world, I figured- what better time to offer another option to help you with your REI journey.

If you're interested, check out more information here- https://b.link/3wfl2y and email me at [email protected] if you'd like to talk more.

You might know me for turnkeys, but my coaching isn't limited to turnkey investors! In fact, more people that I've coached have actually needed non-turnkey help. Here's some information on what I can and can't offer:

What I can help with:

• General real estate investing coaching– helping with your mindset, figuring out your plans/path, clarifying goals, etc. Like creating your business plan for investing.
• Help you overcome a particular obstacle or challenge that's holding you back
• Anything turnkey-related– everything from selecting properties and providers, learning what to look for, guidance through the buying process, etc.
  Accountability partner!

What I can’t help with:

• Technical or process information on how to do strategies I don’t have experience with (flipping, wholesaling, syndications, etc.) I can, however, still mentor someone doing these strategies from a broader picture perspective.

Here's what some people have said:

"Ali was very instrumental in providing much needed advice at the last minute. I was in the process of closing on a deal that had some foundation issues. Along with that, I was at a crossroad of how to proceed with my long term goals. I am grateful that she took the time to help me evaluate and determine which course of action to execute and held me accountable for the decisions I made moving forward. Thanks to Ali's solid advice, it allowed me to understand the power of leverage and add two more homes to my portfolio." - J.M., Jacksonville, FL

"I am a Newbie investor who has been researching the best strategy to get started to build my portfolio. As soon as I learned about Turnkey Properties, I began looking to absorb as much as I could because I believe it’s a perfect way for me to get my 1st property under my belt. It was immediately apparent to me that Ali is the authority on all things Turnkey and so I reached out right away. She got back to me almost instantly and her excitement, enthusiasm and energy to help brand new investors like me was contagious. I signed right up for her 1:1 coaching and right out of the gate - she helped validate my ideas, boost my confidence and now I have a resource to help “hold my hand” as I begin this exciting journey. I can already see we are going to work really well together and I am SO grateful to BiggerPockets for creating the forum where I could meet and partner with Ali. Can’t wait to see where this goes!" - A.O., Philadelphia, PA

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If you're interested, check out more information here- https://b.link/3wfl2y and email me at [email protected] if you'd like to talk more.

If you aren't familiar with me or want to know more about my experience, I recently published a book that you can check out on Amazon! https://amzn.to/3rfnH97

Originally posted by @Shankar Sridhar:

@Ali Boone Thanks for referring to your article. I have read it before, but now, it even more makes sense.
the negative cash flows for me go as far as 1000$ per month. I think I need to turn this appreciation factors into pure numbers and get the quantitative picture.

When you say profitable, what is the metric you are looking at? Annualized return? NOI?

I was calculating my profit along these lines:

Cash In Hand = (House value after appreciation for that year) - Loan Balance - SellingCost(10% of house value)

Profit = Cash In Hand - ClosingCost - DownPayment - MortgagePaid(which includes PITI + maintenance).
Is this right way of thinking?

All these info makes me think that they should have introduced Real Estate Investment 101 during school. LOL.

I'd give annnything to have learned all this stuff in school! That and general finance, business, how to do my taxes... ugh. For profit--it's just: are you going to come out with more money than you went in with? So like a most straightforward example would be on a primary home that you live in (no househacking)- the property would have to appreciate more than the total of what you put into it, including all the mortgage interest. So then for an investment property, same general concept-- can you make more than what you put into it... including $1000/month expense. Whether that's in future cash flow, appreciation, etc.

Normally no, it's not a deal-breaker and it's a great chance to get in at owner-occupied interest rates. However, you also want to be careful of adding multiple risk factors on top of one another. Moving away from the property is fine, but it will force a couple logistical risks--finding good property management, not having an eye on the property, etc. But then a big one is--renting to your friends. You can certainly do it, but I personally learned a LONG time ago not to mix business and my friends. It often doesn't take very long for a friend to ask for a break, ask for leeway, etc., and then it's also easy to be hesitant to come down hard on a friend if you need to. It can be a recipe for disaster. So I'd just be careful of how you do it.

There's no way you can get the answer to this question on here, unless someone answering happens to be a local real estate agent to where you're buying. Your agent should know that answer. Agents know exactly what properties are going for and how the bidding is going as a whole. Most markets right now... $20k wouldn't even put a dent in giving you a chance to get it. But who knows- you have to know for your exact market.

If you're willing to go a little longer than the length of an elevator speech, you'll be able to be much more convincing with it. Here's details on the pros and cons for the debate-
https://www.biggerpockets.com/...
Hope that helps.
Me personally- I'm always a fan of leveraging. Much higher returns.

Here's some general considerations for househacking-

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

But more specifically to your question--run the numbers. You're going to be way more than $100-200/month negative cash flow in San Diego using an FHA. So step 1: figure out how negative you're actually going to be, and step 2: figure out exactly how much appreciation you would need for the property to actually be profitable.

Never go into an investment property just assuming profit...somewhere, from someplace. Know exactly how you plan to profit.

You're talking about possibly househacking in two of the most HCOL (high cost of living) cities in the U.S. My advice--run the numbers. And more specifically, know exactly how it is that you plan to profit if you do that.

Here's some general househacking considerations:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

I'm down in LA and have run househacking numbers a ton. Can't find any that make sense, but more importantly I don't want to live anywhere in LA where they are even in the ballpark of making sense. So I rent where I want to live and invest just in straight investment properties.

You put an offer on a property before you have any idea what the financing terms might be? How do you know the property numbers make any sense if you don't know the financing terms?

This doesn't seem dangerous at all...

Originally posted by @Stephen Brown:

Originally posted by @Theresa Harris:

At some point, you just need to buy a place.  You have due diligence with the inspection, look at the age of the home and how old the roof, furnace and hot water tank are.  After that, you have little control over what happens.  Make sure you have money in reserves in case of repairs.  Find a place where the numbers make sense and go for it.  Yes there may always be a better deal somewhere, but you aren't going to get ahead sitting on the sidelines waiting for the perfect deal (which does NOT exist).

Yep! You're so right! Go for it and the inspection is your bail out. I appreciate your comment :)

Uhhhh... that's true at a certain point, but if you go flying off into the deep end of the pool without any floaties on your arms... you (and your wallet) could be in for a wild ride. Yes, you will have to jump into the pool at some point, but throw a floatie on your arm at least first (i.e. have some intelligent idea of what exactly you're doing and how to mitigate risks).

In a way it was unfortunate I didn't have all these resources (BP, the whole internet, podcasts, etc.) when I started into REI, but on the flip side, I was able to stay more focused and not get completely bombarded with TMI- too much information. Never mind how much information is available, the other challenge is knowing whether what someone is saying is actually legit or not.

Usually analysis paralysis and the feeling of overwhelm is simply because of TMI. It gets people scattered, and when you're focusing wide rather than deep, you don't get any traction. The absolute best way to defeat analysis paralysis and overwhelm, while also increasing your chances for success, is to hone in on one strategy (and only one, to start) and then go piece by piece learning each part of that strategy. So you begin to go deep with info, rather than staying wide. I do real estate coaching and I swear this is the exact problem for most people- TMI and it becomes a mess.

The other thing to realize is the option of starting easier. Rather than taking on something advanced like a rehab, start with something more turnkey (doesn't have to be through a turnkey provider, just something in more rent-ready or turnkey condition). Give yourself a chance to learn the fundamentals, rather than completely bombarding yourself with advanced and risky stuff. You absolutely cannot go into a rehab job all willy-nilly, assuming you'll figure it out. There's SO much more that goes into it that you have to know.

If these articles help at all, check out:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

The absolute trick to chilling out all those feelings you're having (real estate investing is *not* worth losing sleep... I don't care how good the returns are), is to make it simple. Get rid of TMI, get rid of extra info you don't need, and just hone in on ONE thing to start. Deep, not wide (say it with me... deep, not wide :))

I absolutely do not recommend diving into something from a state of overwhelm. That will only get exponentially worse. Instead, take that step back, relax, and simplify it. Throw your psyche a bone.