All Forum Posts by: Greg N.

Hi Rob Randle - have you decided on a broker yet? I'm in the same position as you and am evaluating different brokers (aka cheapest, or, best value). Would love to hear who you decide to go with. Greg

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@Josh Caldwell thanks!

Hey All,

I plan on purchasing my first property by the end of the year and I'm thinking about how to most effectively use my funds/savings for a down payment (about 20-25K).

I amassed a small 401K balance with my previous employer (around 10K), and rather than rolling it into my new employers' 401K, I figured I could get a better return by using the money towards a down payment.  

From my initial googling-around, it seems like rolling the 401K into a self-directed traditional IRA and using that towards the down payment would be my best bet (will be taxed, but won't have to pay 10% penalty if I just pulled money out of the 401K).

Has anyone ever done this before, or planning on doing it? Would appreciate your thoughts on whether or not this is a great/terrible idea. 

P.S. Going forward, I do plan on saving up some money in my new employers' 401K program to take advantage of their profit sharing model. But, I won't be contributing the max amount as I want to funnel most of my cash towards real estate. 

@Adrian Chu yeah they are! SPG knows how to treat their customers, especially when traveling internationally. 

@Joe Villeneuve - thanks for the hint of wisdom. I definitely agree with your points, especially about investing 'where you live.' I would be way more comfortable investing where I am now, but truth is, i'm trying to experience something different! I truly hope the right market picks me - which is going to take a lot of careful research. 

@Jay Hinrichs - Manhattan Beach definitely sounds great, but I think it's a bit too expensive for my first place. I'm definitely going to look into Oregon and Charleston - I love the history/charm of Charleston, but I have yet to check out Oregon. May have to take a quick trip up there to check it out - I've heard great things! Thanks for the suggestions.

@Paul Ewing - I really appreciate the fact that you know the road warrior lifestyle. While I love my work, I can't do the constant travel forever (hence my motivation to get into REI). I didn't take into account state income tax, which will definitely pay a HUGE factor in my criteria (thank you!). About your last point on strategies/styles to match local situations - could you elaborate a bit more on this? Are you saying that it may be better to Buy&hold in one market and fix/flip in another?

Hey BP-ers!

I currently work as a consultant, and have the flexibility of living mostly anywhere in the lower 48. Aside from my day job, I'm interested in getting started in real estate investing - my current thought is to find a good market and 'househack' a duplex/triplex/quad as my first investment (and slowly build upon my portfolio of Buy&Hold properties while I work).

I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on where you would start your real estate careers - what markets and why?

Just a note - I love the outdoors, I prefer to live near the ocean (i'm from NJ after all!) and it's 100% essential that there's an airport nearby (for work). 

Looking forward to your thoughts!

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As a regular business traveller, I'm always interested in a good credit card signup bonus. Thanks to them I haven't paid for a plane ticket in nearly two years and I've flown business class at least 25% of the time. If you funnel a lot of money through credit cards already, signing up for the 'right' ones can be extremely valuable. If you're going to try and do the whole 'churn' thing and hold 10+ cards at a time, it may be more work then it's worth - you're better off using that time to focus on finding good RE deals :)

I happen to have 2-3 credit cards at a time depending on which hotels/airlines i'm using - SPG Amex (for hotels), United Explorer (for flights) and my all-time favorite card, Chase Sapphire Preferred (for dining and everything else). I signed up for each of these when they ran their annual promotions, so I racked up a ton of points. From what I can tell, my credit score hasn't been negatively affected from holding all of these - but I do make sure I pay them off regularly and sometimes carry a small balance. If anything, they've helped a young buck like myself build up my credit history. 

I regularly check sites like creditcards.com / thepointsguy.com to see what sort of promotions are going on. If I find a good one, i'll evaluate what to do (cancel one, add one, etc) so that I don't go over my 2-3 card limit.