All Forum Posts by: Elizabeth Colegrove

Honestly we looked at all our options and decided in Jan of this year to just do a cash out refinance. It locked in a lower rate for 30 years, allowed us to pull our money out. The bad thing is the loan restarts but for us it was worth it. 

Don't forget that Home Equity Lines are typically shorter terms so more expensive. 

In May of 2015 we bought both a personal property (5% down conventional) and an investment property (25% down) all in our name. It was quiet the paperwork and I thought I was losing my name sine we closed within 2 weeks but it worked!

So the short answer is YES!

@Pavlos Kasselouris We have 8 houses but they got to expensive for us with all their changes and upgrades. While we might use them some day, right now we don't. So I am not a great authority on that.

I raise rents based on the market rates. So unless I absolutely could not install a new tenant, and had to have this tenant or their were other business pressures. I do not cave to no increases due to a tenant unable to pay. I personally have no issue with turn over and since I can install a tenant on the same day as the leaving tenant. I have no tenant costs. 

Everyone has their own opinion, but no ones holds me hostage ;) 

I have a late fee and than a per day penalty. While I am no lawyer so no legal advice, I have always been told that contract renegotiations can only happen at renewal. I personally would send a strong letter that if rent is more than X days later, I will be starting eviction proceedings, if I wanted to curb the behavior (of course after getting advice from my attorney). This way he understands that it is unacceptable to be so late paying the rent.

Hoppe that helps! Good luck

Honestly the best thing we did was just DO! Over the years are team's number has expanded and decreased depending on whats going on. While doing research and getting set up is important, by getting involve and participating we have always had the resources needed. 

Once you get started and act, you start to make mistakes, ask questions, and get involved with the investor community. This community becomes your team, your cheerleaders, provides you with recommendations when team member defincians appear (aka you won't need a plumber till you need one NOW lol), etc.

The one thing I do advice you to be careful regarding, is not to get analysis paralysis. Every deal we have down has been better than the first. The best thing we ever did was just get started.

My husband is also active duty so I totally understand the desire to have a plan once you retire from the military. For us it is a goal of financial independence, so that we can sail around the world. Personally we do that by buying houses every where we go and leveraging our growth allowing us to quickly grow.

As to what to do next only you know, since you know whats your goal. You could refinance and cash out to have more money to buy investments. You could buy a personal property and house hack to raise more funds to buy more houses with cash. 

We have 8 rentals and our goal is to buy the houses with as many down to allow us to buy as many as possible. This allows us to have more money for the next rental. On the other hand, we are okay with debt because as long as the profits are giving us our goal income, it does matter how, paid off or with mortgages. Since we will have less paid off, we will need more houses.

So its really a personal choice. 

Good Luck! Hope that helps.

Congratulations! That is awesome. Hope to see you and your wife at Summit.

There are a few military families who bought down there in the past years and had great things to say about the rentals. The biggest complain has been the low military bah aka low rental prices. One of the families started a vacation rental only to have it bought by an investor within a year. So that area has traffic, but does have high utilities.

Welcome!! 

You will LOVE BP its an amazing place!! It's great to see another military family.  My husband is active duty and we have bought and kept them as rentals as we have moved on. We have 8 rentals in 3 different states. While it has had many many moments finically it has been amazing! I have been able to make up my corporate salary while working from home on my schedule. 

We have had a few houses that started off only making $100-$200 but overall it worked out amazing over time. 

Let me know if I can help in any way. Look forward to seeing you.