All Forum Posts by: Brian Ky

I am sure if you take your father on walks looking for houses to buy, he may see your dedication and feel more confident investing in you. 

Make your own leads. Since it appears your father and you are close how about the two of you have quality time by driving to an area he may consider investing in, park, and go for a walk. Find houses that look like potentials motivated sellers.  This way you can talk with your father about your investment plan while he can see first hand to bless of on it, all while getting exercise. 

I had that issue with my fha loan.  I refinanced to conventional and fixed that problem as well as got a better loan rate. If the appraisal comes in high enough he won't need to being money to the table. 

Sorry about the typo, meant 120k not 112k. On my second home the appraisal came in high enough compared to the mortgage and fees that I didn't bring any money to the table in closing. 

You can provide a large down payment so that pmi isn't needed. That would be around 24k plus all closing and financing coast. 

If it appraises for more than 112k then your down payment could be lower. 

Since I am not to sure about to many details of your life I can't give sound advice. But if you aren't old enough and withdraw from an ira you will be taxed at your current bracket as income for the amount you withdraw. Additionally you will be penalised 10%for the amount you pull. That should be painful enough to discourage using your ira if you aren't of age. If you are buying a residence you will live in, you can get a loan for 3.5%down. If you can't afford that you should stick to renting while you build up your funds and figure out expenses to cut. 

You are in luck,  bp has published a book about buying a small apartment complex with little money. I haven't read it yet, but it is probably what you are looking for on information. I haven't made the leap yet into apartment buildings, but when I do that will be my first read. 

Jeffrey, I am in the same boat as you. I currently live in Europe and plan on obtaining my real estate license once I return to the US. What I would recommend now is research online, read books, and figure out as much as possible about REI as possible. The technique you will use by living in the place you buy then move out and rent it is called house hacking if you want to read more about that. Being in the military makes house hacking a built in strategy since the government pays to move you to the next house you bought.

 Once you find out what state you will be on orders to, I would google what the requirements are to become a realtor.  I know people who are active military and do part time realtor.  Be sure to get a blessing from your commander for the second employment.  Should be easy since you work for yourself and do your own hours so there is no conflict with your military duties.  Most states you need some education to become a realtor, this can typically be completed online.  So you should be able to complete the state required education prior to your PCS.

Since you are planning on using your VA, just a heads up, the property cant be a fixer upper, but instead more move in ready. So keep that in mind, you won't be buying a place and do a big flip.

I am no an expert or very experienced in REI, so I can't give you to many details on where is the best place to buy a house. But just from my knowledge of the first 3 cities you listed you have a college and military presence in each of them. Colorado springs has army installations where a major command just moved to and the air force academy. That should be safe from the BRAC. San Antonio just merged its army and AF installation, as well as being the medical training facility for the military. Again a good protection from the BRAC. Tampa, not to sure what the story is for the military there, so research its military future. Universities are not going away, so you should be good in those cities.

Anyway, good luck on your REI adventure. If you haven't done so yet, search Bigger Pockets at Amazon and get free books on the basics.

I became a landlord in Jan 2011 and the tenates were newly weds and one of their parents. They insisted on having a 6 month lease as they planned on buying a home while renting in my place. Not wanting to deal with the whole finding renter thing so soon. They agreed and signed a year lease. It is now Apr 2015 and they are still there. Guess negotiating the lease length didn't matter. Not sure why they haven't bought a house, seems like 4 adults could save up and move out after that amount of time. In the mean time I'll keep up the cf while they pay my mortgage. 

I definitely see the use of the wholesaler as a force multiplier for your rei team, but at the rate Paul is describing I feel tempted to buy the property direct from the owner just to teach the wholesaler a lesson. Don't get me wrong, I believe realtors earn their commission and so should wholesalers, if they are fair in their finders fee.