All Forum Posts by: James Ehrig

Hello all, I have $140,000 I want to invest. $100,000 comes from a prime rate line of credit. I am interested in nearly all types on investing in real estate. I have a strong W2 with a great DTI ratio with great credit. Besides education, how would you utilize these funds to escape the rat race as fast as possible? Thanks in advance for your reply Jimmy

Hello, I've been thinking about using credit cards to purchase another rental property then re-financing and paying back the credit card. Does anyone know how to siphon the cash from the credit cards without or with a very minimal cash advance fee? I know of a few programs where they will teach you how to utilize this strategy however it costs money for the teaching. I will gladly pay for this knowledge but I figured I would try to figure it out on my own first. I know I can get the Apple cube or the PayPal cube but I believe they charge 2 1/2 to 3% per purchase. However, 3% interest for money is pretty good. As long as I pay off the balance prior to the interest free credit card time frame Ending. ? Any other ideas? Thanks for reading. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Jimmy

Hey Dan Krupa, During one's wealth creation phase they should acquire, leverage and get their name on as much title as possible, then during their wealth preservation phase they should pay off as much of the leveraged debt as possible starting with their primary residence. With your name on title it gives you options and possibilities others do not have that simply save, pay off their debt and mortgage, and live a modest life "below their means" that never invest in real estate.

Sunny, You can Enter the property to do an inspection even if the tenant is not home, as long as you write at least a 24hour notice. You might also want to email them and text them the notice as well. In Dale Carnegie "How to win friends and influence people" it's about taking the softer approach to in-turn get what you want. Start out by thanking them for there concerns and criticisms by making you aware then genuinely telling them what makes them a good tenant and characteristics you admire, after that tell them why this arrangement will be mutually beneficial. The PM has systems in place to make collecting rent and taking maintenance requests easier and more efficient. I would also fix any maintenance issues prior to the property management taking over. If you clench your fists and come out swinging, they will do the same.

Hey BP,

I own a property out of state and am looking to use Hard Money to buy, rehab and hold more properties in the same region.  Ideally, I would like to buy distressed properties, fix them, then refinance out of HM into a conventional Mortgage. I understand there is a zix month seasoning of a loan prior to obtaining a new mortgage. Will this still be the case? Will this strategy be possible?  Will I be able to obtain properties from an auction with this strategy?  Is anyone doing this?

Hey @Rob Grove

The thing that is great about investing in real estate is it teaches you to be resourceful.  If you don't know the answer you have two options: 1.) find the answer or 2.) quit looking for the answer.  

I will share some Gold nuggets that I have come across for researching properties, addresses and owners of properties.  I can usually always find the owner, their address, and a phone number of a typical homeowner.  (investors on the other hand are a little more savvy if they do not want their information any where on the property) 

Zillow.com: ( I am sure you know) is Awesome.  However, people do not seem to know about the  trick  I am about to share with you. Click on the "more" tab under discription the description. There will be a link to the county website.  Then once at the county website (they're all similar but different) do a property search. It will ask for the parcel number. The parcel number is listed on Zillow.  This trick will give you the owner's name and most cases address too. 

Once you have the owners name, Google it, facebook it, whitepage it. Any thing you can think of.  Type it in to all search engines.  Often time you can find out everything about the owner, including a phone number, business and known associates and family.  There are a lot of paid websites that will find people for you and everything about them for a monthly fee.  (instantcheckmate.com) It is kind of scary, how easy all of  this information is to get. 

If you found this information useful let me know.

Sounds like a tricky situation.  The business person and real estate investor in you says to not do it. The human, helping out a family member side of you say to do it.  This is one of those pearly opinion circumstances but hopefully I can point out a few more things to think about.  

To answer your question on if you should rent to them, I think it really depends.  Why are they loosing their house? Will they be able to pay for rent?  If you were to screen them as a normal tenant would they qualify?  What is their character like? Are the honorable, trust worthy, hardworking people. I would no matter what make them sign the same lease agreement that all your other tenants sign that way you still have the power to evict them if you have to and for them to feel more committed with a defined structure of agreement.  Or you can do a charity case and help out a family member for given period  of time and rent the house for your cost (break even) for a defined period of time for them to get "back on their feet" (3 months or whatever). Then, increase their rent to the normal rental rate.  Any and all of which you need to make clear up front and have it in the lease agreement. Or you can simply not get involved.  Sometimes people are down on their luck and one-hand up will be enough to propel them to new success. On the other hand, I have a close child hood friend (like a brother)  that bad things always happen to him. Situations like he lost his job again due to something with the supervisor, customer or some other circumstance.  He can't pay his rent due to ________(insert excuse.)  Everything always goes wrong for him. At some point I plainly told him "none of the stuff that you go through happens to me, none of it.  And its not luck on my part and its not an accident. Its intentional".   Good luck. I hope this has given you a few things to think about.

@Chad Johnson and @Shannon K.  You need to make sure there are elaborate disagreement, fights, name calling, craziness.  haha the viewers want excitement and the producers want ratings.  Then, at the end bring it all back with a couple of "I'm sorry" and make it a successful, beautiful flip.  haha  I will look for it on HGTV.

Originally posted by @Nick Versetto:

Acquisition 92,100

Rehab 34,000

ARV 200,000

Rented for 1700.00

 The house looks GREAT!!  Keep up the good work.  Thanks for sharing.

Hey Josh,

I too am looking into apartment investing. I have read the ABCs of REI and Commercial real estate for Dummies and they are both very informative books that teach all of the numbers but lack market research techniques and raising capital for the down payment. I have taken a 9 hour apartment investing working shop and it was fantastic but barley scratched the surface of the process because there is so much to learn. It was my first workshop ever. It was $90 and well worth the money. I will be taking a 4 day boot camp that covers the entire process in Feb with the same guy that did the single day work shop. I will report back and tell you if it is worth the money. I understand that on BP there is a culture that paid workshops are unnecessary and scams, however I have found them very educational and useful. In my opinion, self-development and education are vital for progression. Maybe look in to an accelerated "boot camp".