All Forum Posts by: Chris Luksha

I just want to say thanks to everyone who is participating in the podcasts.  I joined BP about a month ago or so and I feel like I am drinking from a fire-hose.  Every time I think I might be narrowing down my desired market, something new comes up in a horizontal market to what I am learning about. The wealth of knowledge is amazing out there.

All this great info has gotten me a little bolder to just start looking and talking.  Today I saw someone standing outside a run down SF home that was for sale, so I stopped to see what was up since the house was 'deserted'. The guy was pouring diesel into the furnace feed line :) He said he was the owner of the property so I asked what he was selling it for and started a short conversation.  He said he just bought it and was listing the house for $107k so I asked him how was planning on getting that price.

His response was he was planning to rehab it and was simply starting the sales process ahead of time. So I said "Oh you are flipping it that's cool." His response was an immediate and fearful "Oh no I will do a good job. it will be a good house ..." As if flipping were a four letter word. I told him that I was very interested in REI and that flipping carried no negative implications with me but I would not be interested in buying it after he renovated as I would prefer to buy and rehab myself and then keep it as a rental property.

He said "Make me an offer."  How cool was that :) Make me an offer.  I love that. I told him I could not do that without even seeing inside etc. We exchanged cards and went our seperate ways after a little more conversation about how he came about getting the house since he was from an hour away.  (The house was his lawyer's mother's home and she passed away and the son didn't want it all run down etc.)

Anyway I went and looked it up and he purchased it for $40k and wants to sell it for $107 after he rehabs it.  I brought it to the rental calc (not a paying member yet so I only get a couple more tries at that fun toy and I can't print a pdf for your perusal.)

This guy bought into a franchise business called HomeVestors and he is flipping.  Anyway I immediately emailed him a thank you for taking the time note and encouraged him in hos ventures even if we don't end up doing a deal to keep in touch as we are both new to this whole thing.

All that was to say - thanks for the torrent of great information and the encouragement that I get from all the podcasts and webinars and the forums and the ... well you get the idea.  It has all helped me to get out and start talking.  To a guy on the street, to my local banker, to my favorite realtor, etc.

At this point my wife says "I am just sitting on the outside watching. You know I am skeptical of it all." I am glad to say that at least she is encouraging enough to let me learn and see what I can do with this - even if she thinks I'm nuts.

Thanks Brandon, Josh, and the whole gang and EVERYONE here who is helping out the newbies (and the oldies ;) You are a blessing.

Chris

Thank you @Thomas Franklin  for the response.  At this point I know I am interested in Duplex, Triplex and Four Plex.  I would like to buy them and keep them for both retirement and cash flow. First for cash flow to help promote future purchases.

The FHA Loan is certainly appealing on the surface - but I will have to do some more digging. I have spent this entire last week listening to past podcasts as well as watching a webinar on BP and reading a ton of blog posts. 

I would love to put everything into an LLC for the sake of protection but again - more digging is needed as I know that will require different bank financing if I go that route.

Thank you for the overview.  That was helpful to point me in some other directions to dig deeper as well.

Blessings,

Chris

Thank you @Paul Timmins. I will check out Amanda and look into her books. Thanks for seeing my first need and addressing it. 

Chris

Hi All,

My name is Chris Luksha and I am the male in my profile pic. My beautiful wife Beth is there with me and we have been happily married with three children for some time now. Our 17th Anniversary is coming next week and we are taking our first Anniversary getaway in 16 years (Since the the first two of three kids.) All that to say - I have been working for the sake of working and would love to start investing my time in my family's long term future and not just next week.

In keeping with the suggested first post topics, you have already heard a little about my family. My experience in Real Estate Investing is solely the purchase of my first home. It was a bad experience and after 10 years I am only now starting to pay down the principal in any noticeable manner. That bothers me. I would like to understand more about REI and hope to spend many hours here and at other forums reading and learning.

My hopes for REI is to buy and hold rental properties for both mid term income sources and long term retirement. So I hope to learn TONS about the best business entity to create, the use of land trusts, the understanding of self directed retirement accounts and which to start using, how to find investors to help me create small income in order to build large investments.

Here are some of the goals I came up with to start my time here:

GOALS

Short Term:

Research and Create Investment Team 

Read up on REI for 1 hour a day minimum and take note of the highlights and inspirations.

By 8/15/16 Have a company entity defined and registered with the state. So far an LLC seems to be the most common and ‘safe' however you can establish an LLC as a corporation as well as a member or manager llc. ICK! Where to start! (I have already read some great articles in the forums and blogs - thanks all.

Mid Term:

6/15/17 Have one fully insured multi family rental property.

I am glad to be a new member of BiggerPockets. Thank you to NHREIA for the tip. I look forward to meeting many of you.

God Bless!

Chris

Nice Job Jerryll!  Keep up the sweat equity and the sky's the limit of course.  It was fun to hear your enthusiasm and see all the support behind it.  Now to add another blog to my reading list. And oh yeah did I mention the need to learn to speed read with all this great content ;)

Blessings,

Chris