All Forum Posts by: Christina Morgan

With that awesome credit score, I'd say Stay as liquid as you feel comfortable and invest with other people's money, using small amounts for down payments on investments.  With your construction talents, you can make that $150K stretch further than most people's $250K.  Yes, education is the most important investment before taking any action!  Don't let realtors or lenders educate you.  Who knows what their agenda may be.  BiggerPockets is the perfect place to start.  I've heard Brandon say something like, Listen to 100 podcasts, read 100 blogs, post some number of questions on BP and read 10 books or 50.  I don't remember his exact numbers besides 100 podcasts because I made that part of my ongoing educational goals.  I would keep in mind some of the expenses you'll encounter before you reach that "Quit my day job." level of income.  Expenses for a CPA, lawyer, business setup, property management, etc.  In fact, you may want to start looking for those resources first if you really stress about the business organization piece.  Having everything organized from the start would be heaven-sent according to many CPAs.

And... the Carolinas are great states to invest.  So much growth and growth potential.  I'm partial to Greensboro, Winston-Salem and can't wait to get something going on the Outer Banks, but that's a whole different ballgame (hurricane and flood insurance, massive property management of vacation rentals, etc.).

Best of luck to you!

As I've learned here on BP, a lot depends on the market and your strategy.  Are you planning to rent it?  Might want to make sure they're durable.  Sell it?  Is the neighborhood more about higher-end-finishes?  Might want to rip them out.  I see a lot of questions get answered with "That all depends..."  Same answer here.  Best of luck!  Also, I would say the quality of your re-furbishing matters a lot as well.  Cabinets that look painted are worse than the old oak look IMHO.  :)

Thank you for this information!  Question for 100% financing:  What about schedule?  Is a deadline defined in the loan agreement?  Are there penalties for missing deadlines?  Are the penalties also equally shared?  Or are these negotiable terms?  Thanks again.

I am Not a CPA.  Watching all this great advice though.  Question:  You mention you both have w2 earnings.  Are you contributing to a 401(k) at your w2 jobs?  I would think that would exclude you from contributing to a solo 401(k) as well.

If you're talking office/admin type personnel, I've recently been made aware of Virtual Assistants.  You can hire a very talented, hardworking person from overseas for extremely low rates. I'm going to look into it myself.  Bookkeepers, outbound callers, etc.  Good luck!