All Forum Posts by: Bob Woelfel

@Ed Engstrom Bigger Pockets has a great podcast if you didn't know, but that's more about the nuts and bolts of RE investing.

Here are 3 books that changed my life in various ways...you can probably download all of them on your phone.

Pay It Down - Debt Free on $10 a day - by Jean Chatzky

I was 25 living in Chicago and I was a financial idiot.  I had maxed out all my credit cards and basically had no money until my next paycheck.  I didn't even want to buy this book because it was going to cost me $15-$20, but I knew something had to change.  It's a very basic way of finding $10 a day in your current life so you can use that to pay down your debt and start saving.  Within 2 years of reading this book I had purchased my first house.

The Compound Effect - by Darren Hardy

This is a great book...easy read.  Basically the premise is how to make very small changes in your life that most people will barely notice, but over time those small changes will compound and end up being massive.  It's great for all aspects of your life...money, health, relationships, happiness, etc.  

Rich Dad Poor Dad - by Robert Kiyosaki

Hang around BP or the podcast long enough and you'll hear plenty about this.  He breaks down the differences between employees, self employed, business owners and investors.  It completely changed my perspective on life and I felt stupid for not realizing many of these things earlier.  If you ever want to get into RE investing I highly suggest reading this.

Others to consider reading or listening to...

The Millionaire Next Door

The E-Myth Revisited...I actually didn't think I would like this book, but it was awesome.

I wish you the best of luck.

@Ed Engstrom while I'm sure there are some on this site that would say go ahead and get started, I would highly suggest you get debt free, save more money and improve your score.  Your credit score is exactly what it says it is, a scoreboard of your financial past.  While your score certainly doesn't say anything about the kind of person you are in the grand scheme of things, it does say a lot to a bank or any other lender about the safety and security of their money.  There are any number of things that could have happened to you or reasons why your score is where it is.  All those things are now in the past and it's up to you to move forward from here.  It sounds like you are taking positive steps to do so.  Once you start making payments on time and become debt free you score should start to improve significantly over a short period of time.  I've always viewed real estate investing like a business.  One key to being a successful business person is to manage money.  A persons ability to mange their own money before starting a business is a pretty good indication of how they will manage their businesses money.  You must get better at this.

Take this time to educate yourself about money, investments and personal development.  Read books or better yet for you listen to podcasts while you are driving.  Learn what type of investor you want to be based on your career and what your overall goals are.  Best of luck.

Welcome @Samantha See. REI meetings are a great way to learn and to meet people. There are typically lots of different vendors at these meetings you can network with and add to your team. Each of these different groups typically has one major monthly meeting along with a handful of other opportunities to learn various parts of investing with sub meetings they hold. I hope to see you there.

@Venesa Ocasio I don't know anything about your market, location, taxes or demand.  This does not sound like a great deal from an investment standpoint.  As a house hack that might be a different story because if you can reduce or eliminate your housing expenses then the price is less important.  It seems to me though that rents are incredibly low as is for the price they are asking.  And while thats great that rents can get to 2k per month, there is a lot of time and money that need to be spent to get it in that position.  You shouldn't have to pay on the front end for something that might work as an investment on the back end, you should pay for the way it is right now.  I would try to work with your agent and find a number that makes sense to you.  Since they just reduced it sounds like there is a level of motivation since they clearly overpriced it in the first place.  The bigger issue for you might be your house contingency.  Where are you going to live when your house sells?  Good luck.

@Shaye Mora  Congrats man.  I wish I could go back to your age and be smart enough to implement this strategy.  Keep your auto costs low and pay off any student loans you have.  You are on your way!

@Brandon Allen...my main concern for you on this would be your rehab budget.  You have a 30k range between the high and the low, which suggests to me that you aren't confident in what the actual number is.  What happens if you use your 80k for the rehab and you run out of money and still have 30-40k left to go?  Underestimating rehab costs is one of the major challenges new investors have because you have no experience to draw from.  I'm not saying this can't be done, but I would try to get another set of eyes on this.  Maybe partner with someone or talk to an experienced hard money lender IN YOUR MARKET who can visit the property and see if your numbers are for real.   Good luck.

@Carlos Vega Congrats on your first property.  Unfortunately as others have said you are going through what most others go through when managing a rehab.  The good news is that it sounds like you are living on one side and you already have a tenant on the other paying for most of your mortgage.   Can you take care of the exterior work yourself to get the city off you and save some money?  Then maybe push the rest back until you have more cash?  Hopefully you have a decent job and can be paying off your credit cards, etc.  The unfortunate part is that you will have spent a lot of time and money working on this to have no equity and you won't get your cash back right away.  The nice part is hopefully you have at least a partially renovated property that will help offset your living expenses and potentially be a nice rental for you whenever you decide to move out.  I'm sure money is tight now and you are stressing, but it's not a total loss.  

@Bruny C. As long as you run your numbers and are confident in the deal it's definitely a great way to grow.  Since payments are interest only and made monthly it behooves you to complete the rehab and get a tenant as quickly as possible, therefore they are paying for your monthly mortgage until you can refinance into a loan that allows you to cash flow it better.  Good luck.

@Rich Somers I don't know if this property is listed or not, but in Kansas City (Kansas & Missouri) there is a place on the board of realtors contract that lists if it's cash or financing and in the financing section there is a place for investment loans. If you are using private money or hard money or any kind of bank financing then this is typically where that information goes. When people say they offer in cash and then end up using lender financing it typically means that they actually have the cash in an account and can provide the POF to prove it. Because of this, the sellers agent knows they have the ability to close and most won't care if they end up getting bank financing instead since if that falls through they will still move forward. As an agent on the selling side there is no way I would accept a "cash" offer without seeing proof of funds. Once I know they have that I care a lot less about how they actually buy it as long as they close when they said they would.

@Scott P. it's pretty simple for me on this.  First, it's not essential in my market at all.  I rarely have come across rental listings for houses in my market where the landlord provides W&D for the tenant.  I've never had a tenant ask me to provide, nor have I had a tenant not rent because I didn't provide (at least that I'm aware of).  Second, as others have said I don't want the burden of having to repair or replace them.  I also don't think I could monetize them enough to deal with the hassle.  Lastly, my houses are nice and most of the tenants we attract are one step away from buying a house of their own.  Because of that they typically are in a place where buying their own set makes sense, especially since we have the W&D hookups for them to use.