All Forum Posts by: Dave Carpenter

I'm good with Thursday nights, or Saturday mornings. I vote for Wauwatosa, but no big deal either way. Excited for another meet up, and to talk a bit about financing!

I also like the idea of Habitat for Humanity. It is a similar industry, which is neat. I also think they have established a strong and pure reputation.

I echo @Jay Neaves idea to have a unit that is used to help people out exclusively. I have always thought that would be a very real way to give back to others. There certainly would be hurdles to figure out with something like that, but could really be a neat thing.

Those of us in the Milwaukee area have had one meet up so far, with more hopefully to come. That gathering was a fun experience, and even cooler as it seemed like we all kind of already knew each other. I expect there will be many more gatherings as well as deals worked on together.

That is great!! I can only imagine what that would cost, but would make for an epic story for life!

DJ,

There was a podcast a few weeks ago that talked about working for a bank or loan company doing research on loans and due diligence for banks. It seems to me being involved in the financial side of real estate would be a great experience and an opportunity to learn some of the rules and regs of the business that might otherwise be very hard to learn without doing. With a BA degree I would guess you could get a foot-in-the-door that way. I know Wells Fargo hires lots of younger folks for loan related jobs.

I think you are taking a great approach to learning the industry. If you can get paid to learn, why not!?

Good luck.

@Catherine Corrao - That sounds like a great opportunity for you, and I think it is a very wise approach to use this as a learning experience. Hopefully there will still be some money left at the end too!

i would check out this part of the BP website: http://www.biggerpockets.com/real-estate-investment-calculator

I haven't used it myself...yet, but I have heard great things.

J Scott also has a spreadsheet that you can use to plug in prices for many of the typical line items and analyse profits, costs, etc. I believe it is called the "Rehab Analysis Spreadsheet-Basic under the most downloaded section: http://www.biggerpockets.com/files

The only thing I would add to @J Scott is that the paperwork would be very important for a foundation repair.

Last year when I was looking to buy my own home I saw a few with foundation repairs, and oddly enough the listing agent acted like that was detrimental to the the house. In talking with my agent later, she said that a lot of buyers are scared off because you can see the beams, and know there was something wrong with it.

Having the paperwork, and even better some kind of warranty would help to ally that fear, though some may react negatively out of instinct. Having the listing agent informed about it will certainly help too. The selling agent I dealt with did not explain the benefits of having a foundation repaired, only that it looked scary!

here is a link to read more: http://www.cariboucoffee.com/page/1/meeting-rooms.jsp

Every 2 months is great with me!

As far as location, one idea would be to find a coffee shop that has a "community room" you can reserve. The Caribou Coffee in Wauwatosa has a meeting room that might work for us. The biggest challenge is the room only holds 18 people, and I think we are pretty close to that! Worst case though, we could break a group out that could sit elsewhere in the coffee shop.

@Nicole Pettis , I would be happy to work with you to coordinate this.

Thoughts?