All Forum Posts by: Daniel Haberkost

@Ruben Castillo I highly recommend @Colin Smith

He helped me when I moved here several years ago and I doubt anyone knows the local market better than he does.

@Bonnie Rhodes 21 I bought my first duplex, what about yourself?

Your statement about shorting the market and having "already gotten bit by that" is massively ironic. You already thought you knew the future and that didn't workout too well. Yet now you're certain you know what's going to happen? The Fed has made it clear that they'll keep pumping money into the market so who knows how long this will go on. 

As a corollary, I definitely wouldn't want to be too cash heavy as so much of it is being printed. 

Your paragraph about how a "capitalist market should work" seems very emotionally charged. This is nothing new, we simply have to adapt to change as it comes whether we like it or not. 

I don't blame you, I'd rather be overly conservative and wrong than overly bullish and wrong (and I'm certainly not bullish now). More than either of those options I'd rather proceed with caution but not shutdown completely because there are always ways to invest wisely, especially when you look at the micro level.

You're tired of defending yourself against bulls? Then don't waste your time doing so, since you already know the future you should just keep shorting stocks.  

@josh hamilton housing is in short supply across the country and this is especially true for us as 80911 was rated the hottest zip code in the country a week or two ago. 

However, this is as much of a good thing as a bad thing. You're not the only one struggling to get a property under contract. One of my house hacking tenants that has been renting a room from me for a year was only supposed to be here three months. The only reason he's still with me is because the market is so hot and he can't get a place within his budget. 

The state of the market makes it extremely easy to find good tenants and keep them for the long term. Plus, the criteria that you're looking for is a little different than the standard buyer which helps a bit, what parts of town are you looking in? Many houses do sell well over ask but that's not true for them all and I just saw a property pop up this morning as "price decrease" on the MLS that would work perfectly for house hacking.

-Dan

@Mindy Jensen fun thread idea,

I’m working my way through climbing all of Colorado’s 14ers, I mountain bike, I snowboard in the back country, play volleyball, run and spend a great deal of time reading!

This is an interesting post, I don't often see people thinking they know the future to this extent. Of course the market has to correct eventually but you don't know when that is. I remember hearing extremely reputable investors saying something similar to what you're saying now 3 years ago, glad I didn't listen to their advice. With the amount of variables at play here nobody has any clue when a crash will happen. What if there ends up being more stimulus? What if the fed keep rates this low for years? What if Trump gets re-elected? Ad infinitum.......

You don't know when the market will crash and nobody does. Trying to predict a recession with certainty is foolish and is as prudent as rolling a dice to make decisions. 

Plus, as several others have mentioned, if you're a long term buy/hold investor it doesn't really matter assuming you keep a healthy amount of liquidity. As usual, it really comes down to the basics of investing. Telling newbies they shouldn't buy now is ridiculous and entirely dependent on their situation. 

Every day there are millions of people who make predictions about the future of markets. Inevitably, some of them end up being right. Just as some people would get lucky if enough of them rolled a pair of dice to pick stocks. Maybe the market will crash tomorrow but that would make you lucky, not clairvoyant.  

Okay so couple of thoughts:

1.) find a lender at one of your local meetups and talk to them about where you are currently and what you’re looking to accomplish. Then they can help give you clear action steps to getting where you want to go. Starting with a credit card you pay off every month is good but why leave it at that? Talk to someone who does this for a living and they can help move in the direction you want quicker.

2.) the more cash you have the easier this will be. Can you take on more projects in your day job to increase your income and save more for when you’re bankable?

3.) If you can’t find a small multi deal you should buy a large single family house and rent out all of the extra rooms. Check around to see if there are a decent amount of single room rentals in your area and talk to people at the real estate club to be sure it’s something that works in your market. Assuming it is, that’s a great first step because managing tenants you see every day is an easier starting point than in a traditional rental.

Feel free to message me anytime,

Dan

@Account Closed It's hard to beat a house hack to start, have you spoken to any lenders to get pre-qualified?

Housing is so cheap where you're at that you should have enough (or close to enough) for a down payment. If you start there, then you can eliminate your housing expense which greatly accelerates your saving rate, start building equity and get your first experience as a landlord. 

Dan

@Account Closed hit the nail on the head. 

When someone is unpleasant for no rational reason it tells you a lot more about them than anything. They're having a bad day (or a bad life perhaps) and take it out on the people around them. 

I'm pretty much always in a good mood so I generally feel bad for people who do that sort of thing. I sent out a fairly tame mailer recently that prompted someone to call me and tell me to "go die in a fire". It still makes me laugh thinking about it. I couldn't imagine how miserable someone would have to be to respond like that to an innocuous mailer and the same applies to the people sending you the nasty texts. 

I'd make sure you have a solid/legal lease but other than that you're probably over thinking. House hacking is a very easy intro into real estate investing, screening your tenants is the main hurdle. 

They can pay you any of those ways, just make sure you report it. One of my house hacking tenants pays me in cash and I don't mind (emphasis on house hacking tenant - my other tenants don't pay me that way).