All Forum Posts by: James Teutschmann

@Account Closed I am 24 years old and have been in the real estate game for 4 months. I would encourage you to LEARN, LEARN, LEARN. Read books, listen to podcasts, get audible. RE is a game that you can learn the rules and strategies to be successful. With low money down, I would read the book "investing in real estate with little and no money down" this is how I got started. We have a house that we are going to begin house hacking, and have brought deals to investors to parter with. Go to a real estate meet up in your area and try to meet an investor or someone to do hard money. Just because you don't have money doesn't mean you can't bring value to someone and strike a deal.

I use Lowe's we have a business account with them with gives you 5% discount on everything. I have tried to use home Depot and (in my experience) they are less knowledgable about the quality of projects. People at Lowe's have been extremely helpful, knowledgable, remember us, help us balance quality and cost. I suppose it just matters what area you are in, Menards is great too! 

@Roberto Lugo welcome to bigger pockets! This is where I got my start as a real estate investor only 6 months ago. I now own three properties, just bought a house to house hack (just like you!) and we are making offers on other properties. Real estate is a great way for you to accomplish your goals. I would encourage you to read books and listen to podcasts. RE is a game that you can learn the rules and strategies to become better. Right now I am focusing on building a team around me that we can push each other forward! Continue to invest in BP it's a great resource.

@Johnny Accardo I live in the midwest, Omaha to be exact. Although we don't have prices that are as sky high as a place like LA the Omaha market is really hot and prices are way higher than usual. There is A LOT OF CASHFLOW to be found in more rural areas. Smaller towns/cities of 100,000 or less housing markets are usually pretty stable and higher rent/value ratios. I would begin searching in some of those areas. You could pretty easily find some turnkey properties that could cash flow $400month with the kind of money that you have. Or you could look for a BRRRR with that as well.

@Ola Dantis If rental properties are "the get rich slow game" then using the extra rental income to pay down the principal changes the game to "the get rich in 60 years game". I guess it all depends on your goals with the cash flow as you said. I do like the idea of having more equity in the property to use as a HELOC later.

 @Ronnie Holbert I would encourage you save up the extra money in an account for misc. expenses. Real Estate is playing the long game. I know it seems like the best option to keep paying it down, but save up money for a rainy day. Or potentially a REALLY rainy day. If you got that savings account to $8,000 with one property I would feel really comfortable that you could probably handle anything that would get thrown your way. Then start saving up for the next property. 

Has anyone done a deal with #5 "Getting the seller to transfer their mortgage to you?" If so, what kind of deal is the owner expecting to get out of it? Transfer their mortgage, and some cash to level it out?

I just closed on my first deal. We are in the process of rehabbing and getting everything in order for renters. If you feel like you are moving in the right direction with your goals, is this something you would all still recommend?

Thanks for your comments. We are forming a joint venture. Since we are friends, we are writing the terms and having them notarized at our bank. Thanks @Gary Barella! 

Hello,

I recently just put some properties under contract with an investor. This is both of our first deal, so we are unsure as to how to structure the partnership. He supplied the funds to do a cash offer, so the properties are under his name. I am supplying the rehab costs. Thoughts on what we should do to ensure we both get tax benefits and can keep track of who has spent what? Is it just easiest to form an LLC, and a joint bank account and go from there?