All Forum Posts by: Chris Hayes

Thanks for the tips, Amber! 

The advice I always give is get a store credit card or cards from Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, etc. Use them when needed, and pay off the balance the next month or during a couple/few months time. Don't go on a spending spree to build your credit, just use them as needed. Also, get the Credit Karma app. It allows you to keep track of your score without taking hits. 

Starting out, how do you go about tenant screening and writing up a lease? I'm wanting to get into long term investing and want to select good tenants. How do you go about getting a potential tenants credit score, rental history, etc? Also, in regards to a lease, does everyone type out their own lease or are there templates you can use and just customize?

My goal is to buy a duplex/tri/quad in the Oklahoma City area by November to start househacking to begin my real estate. I have a couple questions for those who took this route. Would or did you get a duplex even if you needed to pay some of the mortgage each month; say 100 or 200, because the rent your tenant is paying won't cover the cost? When living next to your tenant, did you let them know you were the owner of the property and landlord or did you set it up so that they don't know? I'll probably have some more as this unfolds.

@Cody Evans I mentioned a duplex because of initial cost to buy, and there are more of them than 4-plexes around OKC and the metro in general. But, like I said, if I could find a triplex or 4-plex, and the numbers were good, I would be all over it. It could certainly accelerate my career in investing; especially considering I want to do multifamily in the future. 

@Cody Evans I'd consider a 4-plex if I found one that would be a good deal. There'd be a bigger learning curve in regards to property management, but the potential reward would be much larger than a duplex. 

@Laura 

@Laura Alamery thank you for the tips! 

My car loan is through a local credit union so I might just start with them and go from there. 

I live in Oklahoma City. I've been a member of BP for a couple years, and interested in getting into real estate the same time. I've been doing a lot of overtime at my job and working on my savings and have about 20,000 saved up. My credit score is in the 750-800 range. I've got a 230 a month car loan for the next few years and owe 9500 on it. The lease for my apartment is up in November and I hope to have 25-28K saved up by then. If you were in my position how would you start? I'm mostly interested in house hacking by getting a duplex. But I've also thought about getting a live in flip, fixing it up, and selling for a profit a couple years down the road. Would it also be possible to take out an equity loan on said house to get an investment property? Or maybe BRRRR the house. My goal is to do buy and hold investing, with maybe a couple flips per year down the road.

I'm big on having good credit and at least a few grand in savings. I have yet start my real estate business, but I've got over 760 credit and about 20,000 saved up. What kind of methods are you using to rebuild your credit? I've always recommended getting a store credit card or two, and pay it off after a month or two.

I plan on doing that. I'm just wanting other opinions on this subject. I met with a loan officer from Union Home Mortgage a while back, but they don't do conventional loans without the 20+ down.