All Forum Posts by: James H.

I never rake leaves. I just mow over them and they compost back into the ground.

I don't know what prices are like where you are compared to me, but I would assume that being in the south where there's a lot of grass to be cut, prices would be pretty competitive. It's pretty easy to find someone to do front/back for around 25 a cut - at least where I live.

To clarify, I don't think college is the only way to go. I just think the notion that you will most likely owe 50K for something that is worthless or near worthless is not accurate.

If you are going to accept a job that you don't need a college degree after you get a college degree, than no, you should not have gone to school.

I suppose "employee" is a 4 letter word around here to a lot of folks, but I would need millions of dollars of assets to return what I make at my day job as an employee. In fact, considering my salary, health benefits and retirement benefits, it would probably take about 10MM.

Can I make an equivelant salary in RE as I do at my dayjob without 10 MM in assetts? Yes I can. But that would require me to work. I already do that. I like RE investing partly because I am not compelled to do it. If I stopped being an "employee" I would still be a slave to whatever work I was doing. And I'd have to be pretty good at it to equal what I make working for someone else right now.

I have a good job that allows some degree of freedom (I'm at work postiong this right now...) and I can work remotely in a pinch. So I don't see that big of a lifestyle difference between doing what I do and being self employed.

Young people who live with their parents and go to in state universities have no excuse to owe 50-80K for a degree, especially when you can complete the first two years at a community college for less than 5K including books. It is pretty easy for most kids with a 3.5 or better GPA to get scholarships, too, if they are willing to go to universities that are not flagships.

If you can't figure out how to make a college education benefit you based on the expenses that can be accured, you will probably not make a good entrepanuer either.

'you know what they say, "those that can...DO and those that can't...TEACH"'

70% of my professors had private industry experience and most of them consulted on the side.

You cannot get OJT to be an engineer or become a CPA, a lawyer, a doctor, a nures or any other true professional occupation. Most jobs worth anything will require you have some sort of degree. Again, if you can't find a good use for a college degree, you are doing it wrong.

I would vet some banks to see if it is really as hard as your relative says before you just develop an entirely different strategy.

Haha! that is awesome! I only WISH the duds I have screened were that entertaining.

Jon makes good points as usual. For your first house, duplex or not, I would try to find something that will be profitable as a stand alone rental or at least break even. A good rule of thumb to determine this is the 50% rule. (search the forums for what the rule entails). If you can land something that fullfills 50% rule criteria and at least breaks even, you will most likely be making a good decsion. The challenge is finding the house in the neighborhood you are willing to live in for 2 to (lets be realistic) 5 years.

If you buy a duplex now, you can start building your 2 year landlording experience required by most banks before they will count the rental income for your DTI ratios when you apply for another unit. That is the main advantage of a duplex IMO.

As far as a duplex being more profitable than an SFR, per side, it may or may not be.

If you haven't already, start saving your cash, too, so you are ready to move once you decide what you want to do.

John Chapman,

I'm kind of laughing a little as I see we keep indirectly disagreeing with each other in our responses to Curtis. I would like to clarify that I think there are definitely ways to make hard money make the numbers work and that it can be a powerful tool used in the right hands.

I am on the fence about using hard money for myself, but just barely to the side of not using it. It is definitely a tool I will consider for the appropriate project. I may be less risk averse if I had a higher W2 that would heal possible mistakes faster.

I think do think the prospect of using hard money on your first deal is very scary considering the overall learning curve, but although I'm not necessarily proud of it, I am one to ease into things rather than jump fully in when it comes to financial risks.

Curtis, I would stay away from stuff that needs structural work in most cases. You can find good deals without going there - so why go there? Foundations that need repair are a little different story, but by and large, for the purposes of buy and hold in this market you don't have to go through the whole dog and pony show of major renovations before renting. Yes there is value to be made in those situations, but for the first one or two, I would just look for a good deal on an almost ready to go property.

Everyone has a different approach/experience. I just think that you don't really need to do everything on your first deal. For example, my first deal was all cash, but it needed rehab. And it was extremely cheap. I would feel less comfortable combining rehab with financing - especially hard money. You will learn a lot on your first deal regardless the approach you take.

But again, hard money is no better than using your own cash. You said you had 100K. You can fund your own rehab if you want.