All Forum Posts by: Brenden Mitchum

Hey @Joseph M'Mwirichia!

This is one thing that I love so much about BP that I feel many new users do not fully understand: The amount of information on here is practically endless. You could spend all day, every day for the next 5 years going through all the blogs, posts, videos, webinars and podcasts; and still only scratch the surface. Those videos are a terrific resource that I did not even know existed until a couple months into my membership. In fact, I have not even stumbled across the video you reference in your post. 

By the way, I just watched the entire video and have at least 5 more things added to my "should do" list. I read the Millionaire Real Estate Investor when I first started learning about real estate, but at that time I could not even wrap my mind around where I wanted to be in 10 years and how to use real estate to get there. Now that I have learned a lot more about REI, I have slowly begun to develop this plan. This weekend I will be honing that plan and really breaking down the vision into shorter and shorter-term goals.

Thanks so much for sharing!

Hey @Henry Brown, welcome to the BP community!

I have only just begun skip tracing leads but some affordable ones I have found are: Dealmachine, ProfitDrive and LeadSherpa. Dealmachine and profitdrive are more than just skip trace services in that they both support a driving 4 deals model. If you are just skip tracing you might find their interfaces to be a bit hard to use. I cannot testify to their accuracy and reliability but they both offer free/cheap trials. Leadsherpa is one that has been highly recommended to me by experienced investors. Their interface is easier to work with as it is designed specifically for skip tracing. You need some kind of "invitation code" to sign up and if I remember correctly it is "skipsherpa." 

Please, feel free to message me anytime if you have other questions or just want to chat!

Hey @Damian Gallardo!

I see your a real estate agent so you have access to the MLS, correct? Shoot me a message sometime. I'd be happy to walk you through some stuff!

Hey @Hunter Jackson Thorpe, welcome to the BP community!

Without knowing your area, it is highly unlikely anyone will be able to put you in touch with private lenders. By private lenders, I am going to guess you mean hard money since you can't really just go around asking people for their list of private independent lenders. A great place to find hmls in your area is right here on BP!

Good luck and if you have any other questions or just want to chat please do not hesitate to message me anytime!

Hey @Jackson Anderson, welcome to the BP community, man!

First off, you should be pretty stoked to be getting into real estate at such a young age. Many successful investors' biggest regret is that they did not get started earlier. So the good news here is that time is definitely on your side!

That being said, here's the bad news. While it is certainly possible, buying a huge asset with no cash reserves is probably not a good call. If anything goes south you will find yourself in a hole that you'll have to dig back out of before getting your real estate game going again. Even @Brandon Turner who wrote the book on Investing in Real Estate with No and Low Money Down, does not recommend anyone get started with zero $$ to their name. 

But again, time is on your side man so be patient. Build that capital and educate yourself. And in the meantime, you can dip your toes into real estate by rent hacking. This is a great way to start getting some hands-on experience without needing a ton of capital. Essentially, you just find a house or multi-room apartment to rent that will allow you to sublet the rooms. You pay the owner the entire lease and you collect rent from the sublets that exceeds that amount. I've never done this myself, but it's common for short-term rentals.

Anyways hope that helped a bit, man! Please feel free to reach out anytime if you have other questions or just want to chat!

Hey @Mitchell McLean!

Fantastic comments here, take them all to heart! 

I will add one thing as I do not see it mentioned here. Your vacancy is too low. This may suffice for a commercial MF property but if you're thinking SF you want at least 10%. If it's vacant just one month out of the year that's almost 10% right there. 

I am also looking for my first investment property and Cobb is one of the areas on my list. So if you have any other questions or just want to chat, please feel free to shoot me a message anytime.

Hey @Account Closed

Have you asked your investor for their reasoning? I agree with you that "It's priced too high," is not enough explanation. Maybe the real reason is "It's priced too high with all the uncertainty currently going on." That is a lot of cash; maybe not in LA but still. Perhaps they can't get that kind of financing right now? So my first suggestion would be to get some more information from your buyer. 

My second suggestion would be to renegotiate with the seller. Capitalize on that uncertainty and see if they would take less. Or perhaps the seller would be willing to finance part or all of the deal and you can kill two birds with one stone? 

Please, feel free to message me anytime if you have questions or just want to chat.

Hey @Damian Gallardo!

Everyone's got to start somewhere and identifying that you are interested in real estate and want to make your first purchase is the first step! 

The strategy you are referring to is known as house hacking and there are tons of discussions and blog posts here on the subject. There is even a book written by BP's own Craig Curelop on the subject. If living rent free while also building equity in a property sounds like a pretty sweet deal to you I highly recommend you dive into the subject a little more. Listening to episodes 252 and 350 of the Biggerpockets podcast is a great place to start.

Now to answer your questions. Yes, you could move out after a year and rent out that unit. Most likely you will be getting an FHA loan and the requirement is for you to live in the property a minimum of one year.

I am unsure how to answer your second questions as I am unsure what exactly you are asking. The question of whether to move or not will depend on many different variables, most of which will be personal and are best answered by taking a good look at where you want to be in 5 years. 10 years? 

Last thing. You can actually house hack a single family home too so you are not necessarily limited to 2-4 units.

Please, feel free to message me anytime if you have other questions or just want to chat!

Hey @Mitch Messer! 

Just wanted to say there are so many little bits of gold in this discussion. Thanks so much for sharing your wisdom and experience during an uncertain time. 

Hugely helpful!

Hey @Dan Ricks, welcome to the BP community!

A strategy often used in situations like these is known as "Subject-to." Basically, you are buying the deal subject-to the existing loan. This means that you start making the payments for the previous owner without actually assuming the loan. The specifics of this strategy are quite nuanced so you will definitely want to educate yourself and speak with a real estate attorney in your area. 

The problem here is that you do not simply want to take over the property as an investment and rent it out. It sounds like what you want to do is take on a liability and allow a nonpaying tenant (previous owners) to remain in the property. It also sounds like you cannot afford the loan payments either so that makes the situation even trickier. So perhaps a sub-to won't work. You may want to sit down with the seller and the lender and see if you can help work out some kind of deal. There is no investment strategy (that I know of) that works with a nonpaying tenant.

Unfortunately, I think you may have to pick one or the other. Either help the family remain in their home by helping pay their loan or take the home off their hands with a sub-to deal and rent the property out to a paying tenant. Yes, the family loses their home but at least they don't ruin their credit and lose their home. Tough decision but at least you have options!

Please feel free to message me anytime if you have other questions or just want to chat!