All Forum Posts by: Mark Podolsky

Congrats on your two rental acquisitions. There is a ton of great advice on BP. Welcome and don't be shy about asking direct questions for others to share their experiences with you.

Best of luck!

Rick,

Welcome to BP. If you are looking to generate cash then flipping for profit will help you achieve that goal. Renting is going to help with passive income. Both are admirable goals!

Best of luck.

Kurt K. I want to clarify my advice to Nick K.. The reason Nick K. should eventually do Real Estate is for the passive income not necessarily because it's his passion. He needs to make money first, save that money to invest in real estate and then build his portfolio for retirement and passive income.

If I asked most people what their true "passion" was in life, most people couldn't give me an answer. For example, my oldest son loves basketball, but not before he became more skilled at it. When he first started learning the fundamentals he was the worst player on his team. After much coaching and hard work, he's now, 4 years later the captain of his team. He's hitting game winning shots and bursting with confidence and passion to get better. Will he make the NBA? No.

However, that's how you develop a passion is by developing a marketable skill, becoming great at it, and then watch your passion for that marketable skill grow. Hence, watch the Documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi. I'm sure Jiro has other investments outside of his Sushi restaurant considering all the money he's making from being the best in the world.

Anyways, once Nick K. is great at his marketable skill, then and only then, should he think about leveraging that skill into other less labor intensive pursuits like real estate which can be done on the side.

I hope that clarifies my advice.

Hey Ivan,

Bigger Pockets is a great place to start! Take time getting to know your local market, the local players, etc. before jumping in. Measure twice, cut once. Best of luck!

My advice... Don't follow your passion. Get really good at something first. Whether it be commercial real estate sales, or something else that has potential to be lucrative. Everyone else had excellent advice, but to even think about playing in real estate, you need to have capital or access to capital. If you are the "best" at whatever it is you choose to do, the money will follow.

I know it seems counterintuitive, but we don't like anything we aren't already good at. This is why "follow your passion" is such bad advice. Watch the documentary, Jiro Dreams of Sushi. He's 86 years old now and is the best in the world at taking sticky rice, and smashing together raw fish. Seems simple? But people pay a minimum of $350 for one of his meals! He's the best in the world at it and he hated it at first! Now he loves it and loathes holidays because he has to take off of work. This is an extreme example, but my point is, acquire the skills to become invaluable and then watch your passion for it grow as your skills, confidence and respect from your colleagues grows.

Then and only then, once you are so good at what you do, that people are lined up around the block to work with you, will you be able to start investing for passive income. At that point, it's just details. I started my own investing business in land 12 years ago only after I saved enough money from my investment banking job. I hated that job, but it was lucrative, and I was really great at it. I don't regret one day of working those 60-80 hour weeks to get really good at something so I could then control my own destiny.

Watch the documentary so you are clear on what it really takes to become great. I hope this helps and best of luck.

Great question. Typically, the seller will have you sign a promissory note, purchase sale agreement and either a land contract or a deed of trust (which they provide). With a land contract, you have to insist that they record it with the County so there is a record that as long as you are making payments you own the property. A deed of trust, places a lien on the property, but your seller transfers ownership into your name which gives you the assurances that while you are making payments, the property is in your name and recorded with the county. Once you pay off your note, the seller removes the lien on the property. Also, I would advise that within the agreement, the seller guarantees the property is free and clear of all liens and encumbrances and at the end of your payment term they will pay for your title insurance in your name. I hope that helps.

I’m not familiar with the Larry Goins program, but I have been acquiring land out-of-state doing my due diligence using Google Earth, www.homeinfomax.com and then use an inexpensive crowd sourcing site named www.wegolook.com to take pictures and provide me a report. This saves me so much time and money performing due diligence and helps me sleep at night knowing the land has been investigated properly.

If you like the idea of passive income without any tenants, termites or toilets breaking in the middle of the night, then you should think about investing in raw land. With raw land of there are no maintenance headaches and the pressure to keep the tenant happy. Plus, there is less capital involved with structuring land deals. What I like to do is acquire 5 - 40 acre parcels from a distressed owner, sell that property on a land contract and a promissory note and collect the monthly payments. In this way, I have monthly passive income, plus I don’t have to incur the expense of foreclosure should my owner fail to make their payments. Simply rinse and repeat.

If you like the idea of passive income without any tenants, termites or toilets breaking in the middle of the night, then you should think about investing in raw land. What I like to do is acquire 5 - 40 acre parcels from a distressed owner, sell that property on a land contract and a promissory note and collect the monthly payments. In this way, I have monthly passive income, plus I don’t have to incur the expense of foreclosure should my owner fail to make their payments. Simply rinse and repeat. I’ve been creating land notes since 2007 and there’s no better feeling than waking up and seeing those payments hit my account. There are a number of 3rd parties that will manage the paperwork, and collect the payments charging a small fee. They will then provide your customer with a 1098 so they can deduct the interest expense from their tax return.