All Forum Posts by: Corey Hawkinson

@James Melby You’re off to a great start with that amount saved up while you’re still in college. I agree with David that house hacking is the best way to start. If I could start again at age 20 I would follow the path laid out in Set For Life by Scott Trench.

With that said, you can afford to be very picky since you’re in a great position living with your parents and saving money. Take your time to find the best house hacking property.

@Jayna Stevens I sent a PM with one suggestion for a Minnesota group to join.

@Michael Schraepfer Sounds like a good deal. If you’re confident in your numbers, go for it. From reading your background it seems like you know the Duluth market very well.

@Jayna Stevens if you’re serious about real estate investing I would encourage you to seek out meetings and investors in the Duluth area. I’m not trying to make a mean comment with this (maybe just average MN passive aggressive), but I’m surprised to hear your comment. I’ve heard a different opinion about Duluth and the surrounding area. I’ve even considered investing up there as I love the area, but I’m tapped out right now with investing in the Twin Cites area.

@Grant R. Love that listing! It came up for me in Instagram because I follow ZillowGoneWild. They post weird home listings. Very entertaining for a real estate addict like myself.

@Doug Hogan welcome from another Twin Cities investor. Hope to see you at some of the events when they start happening again.

@Evan Kraljic Brag all you want. I love hearing investors crushing it in the Twin Cities! Sounds like a home run to cash flow like that while living there.

@Zach Sullivan As Brad said, you can still use a realtor. You would just make that arrangement on top of the purchase price. I’m under contract using this situation right now. I found a property that I wanted to buy, and the seller had the price he wanted to receive. Because I want the assistance of my realtor, we added that to the purchase amount. I know that might sound crazy to some people, but it’s money well spent in my opinion.

@Natalie Keller My thoughts:

There is serious talk about student loans being forgiven. With that in mind, I would not pay those off early. (And for other readers, I’m not looking for a political debate on whether or not they should be forgiven, I’m only saying if that’s on the table I would not pay student loans off early)

For the car loans I would pay off the 5.5% interest loan early but not the other one. My personal cutoff is 5%. If debt is above that I would look into paying it off early or refinancing. If it is less than that I expect to do better in the market so I would make the minimum payments.

Along with many others here, I recommend looking into house hacking as the best decision. With that said, I realize that’s not always a realistic option.

@John Hanson The Twin Cities market is certainly tough right now. I’m personally well aware of that. With that said, my thought would be to dive deeper on a few properties to see if you’re hitting your projections too hard for expenses. What makes you pick 50% for expenses? Is that from a general guideline or is that accurate for the Twin Cities?

I know that in my analysis I get more specific instead of just using percentages, but I also only analyze a few properties a month as my criteria is specific.