All Forum Posts by: Clifford Paul

I know things are going great in Texas because my property manager needs more rentals. She can't find enough rentals for all the qualified applicants she has. 

@Austin Gunther

Congratulations on taking the first steps. It's the hardest thing to do in real estate investing.

There's no right or wrong way to scale your portfolio. If you are only comfortable with having paid off rentals, there's nothing wrong with that.

However like others have said it makes more sense to use that money to buy another rental. you can then use your cash flow plus income to keep buying rentals. When you reach enough rentals that if paid off replaces your W-2 income stop buying rentals and then pay them off.

@Skyler McKinney

Buy a duplex, triplex or fourplex with your VA loan. Move into one unit then immediately refinance with a VA IRRRL refinance loan. The only requirement is to certify that you lived in the house. You can then buy another property and rent your unit. This relives you from the 1 year requirement to live in the house.

We don't use any of our investment money to live on but we both have well over 6 figures coming in to live on. 

I think the easy solution is to start paying half the bills by taking a salary.

As for your truck don't listen to the BS on BP. I live in a neighborhood of millionaires everyone drives nice cars. Apparently the millionaire next door was written for poor people that will drive a $500 car thinking that somehow that's going to make them successful. I've spent $170k on new cars in the last 3 years. LOL

But really what are people going to do when they become successful... keep driving that $500 car. Life is short, I fought cancer for 3 years I'm going to enjoy life. You are on your way, you just need to tweak your plan.

When I built my first portfolio to 32 doors I paid off 29 of the properties. I didn't really understand leverage then. The plus side was when I cashed out in 2007 due to medical reasons I secured our future. 

Now we try to keep 25% of our portfolio free and clear. In the next 10 years we will just pay everything off because we don't care to own 100 doors.

@Shane Albert

I don't know how common it is but I'm not the only one on BP that's getting 5% down loans. 

In my case I have been using the same small town bank for 30 years. In the last couple of years they given me 7 loans with 5% down and I have my builder building another one. 

Keep in mind that they didn't start out giving me 5%, it was 20%, then 15%, then 10% and now 5%. What really helps me is when I sold my first portfolio in 2007 I parked $250k in investments with them. So they know where some of my money is. 

I have been telling anyone who will listen to build a relationship with their small bank or credit union that does in house loans and stop chasing banks. I certainly wouldn't be where I am today had I keep chasing banks.

Last Friday I closed my 43rd loan with them a $300k new construction loan with 0 down, no points, 5% for 12 months. Bought 2 flops for $50k cash and gave 1 house to a house moving company and building a new office building with a projected profit of $350k. 

@Christopher Short

We have only bought SF homes with VA loans. We house hacked a triplex 20 years ago for 4 years not purchased with VA. That was enough for us, I don't care to live with my tenants. But it's great for someone starting out.

We had 3 VA loans at one time but we both are military and used all our eligibility. We currently only have 2 VA loans left, our primary home and our ranch house which is a VA IRRRL refinance loan.

Good news is we still have Texas veterans land board loans available. But the residence requirement is 3 years. We will use it when my wife retires in 6 years.

When I first posted my success story on BP I mentioned that divorce is the biggest killer of net worth. My first wife walked away with half of everything I worked two jobs to build. 

When I married my second wife, my net worth was about $800k hers was couple million. Her family wanted me to sign a prenup but she didn't want to. When we divorced we just agreed to take what we brought into the marriage.

With my current wife I was at 1 million net worth when we married. Her net worth was a negativite and I never considered a prenup because even if things went south I know how to make money. 

Once you know how to make money a 50% reduction in net worth isn't that scary. The plus side now is after 24 years working together if we did divorce my net worth will still be millions.

@Shane Albert

You could also find a new bank that will do a 15%, 10% or even 5% down like mine does for me.

Personal I wouldn't but in my market I have no problem filling my houses with great tenants. I haven't had to evict a tenant since 2000.