All Forum Posts by: Jason Pelch

Thanks for all this great information @Thomas S..  You've really helped clarify some of my confusion.

@Account Closed, the local REIA that I joined does a similar thing. They call them their Bus Tours. You guessed it, we ride on a bus. It's a great idea. As a newbie, getting into and actual property and discussing it takes these ideas of real estate and makes them tangible.

I would like to know more about no money down lines of credit. Funding is always a concern but it’s not my primary. Everyone keeps telling me that if I find a deal, there will be plenty of people with the money willing to help you out. However, I do like options.

@Jacob Anderson, Your experience reinforces one of my fears about dealing with anyone selling a service, real estate or not. It seems that it can be difficult to find someone who has your best interests in mind rather than just their own. Either that or their just damn fools that don’t know what they’re doing.

Thanks @Nick Alvarez for the reply.  Currently my time fights between finding a market and figuring out to do once I find it.  We're in St. Louis, living in across the Mississippi in Illinois.  We know this part of Illinois like the back of our hand but foreclosure laws make hard money difficult to acquire (a serious option for funding) and property taxes here can really cut into cash flow.  There is a great deal of growth in my county but much of it appears to be new construction.  In Missouri, there are lots of opportunities in up and coming areas that still have their share of distressed properties.  The problem is that those areas can change from street to street and we know those streets like the bottom of our feet.  

Our long term strategy is mostly buy and hold with flips to generate buying cash. With little cash reserves on hand, we do have a debate whether to start with a flip to get a reserve or go with the "BRRR" strategy 'cause baby it's cold outside. We could rehab and rent and put all cash flow back in to our reserves until we got a kitty. It seems that if we rehab before we rent, many of the risks of not not having reserves could be minimized excluding a prolonged vacancy or evil tenant. .

So, as I sum up my ramble:  Your advise is to get all the way to the point where we are ready to buy real estate: strategy, market, financing, network and exit strategies...  then speak with the "suits" before dropping any earnest money.  Sound about right?

@Nick Alvarez

Here is a bit of background: A friend of mine and I have teamed up and are diving into real estate. Neither of us have any substantial cash on hand but we both have good jobs and good credit. We’ve teamed up because our skill sets match up and neither of us have an abundance of free time; one of the wonders of having small children. I’m the numbers guy and he’s the construction guy. Our plan is to buy distressed properties, rehab them and either put tenants in them or flip the property to a retail buyer, depending on our primary exit strategy for each property. At this point, we haven’t bought any properties. We’re under our minimum education threshold, but we are doing our best to support @Joshua Dorkin & @Brandon Turner by reading The Book(s) on Rental Properties, Managing Rental Properties, Flipping Houses, & Estimating Rehab Costs. We've joined a REIA, gone to a couple of their seminars and to one of their monthly meetings so far. That bit of background seems big enough…

So, once we’ve gained a bit of confidence and run out of excuses, we’re probably going to have to buy something. My question is, at what point do we need to talk to all the professionals (the lawyers, the CPAs and the ilk.) Is this done before we seriously start looking for properties? Do we need a legal entity first, since we aren’t going it alone? No one is going to get much if we’re sued. Here, let me help:

Steps to success:

1. Read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, realize you’ve been doing it all wrong, shake fist in air.

2. Educate yourself on real estate

3.

4. (I need some help in this area)

..

X. Buy Piece of real estate

..

..

Z. Drink on Beach.

@Jamie Carter I'm pretty sure they are open to anyone.  $100 for the day.

I recently joined the South Side Investment Club.  They have a free two-hour workshop every month.  They give some good info in those two hours then pitch you an Access Pass membership that's a pretty good deal.  The pitch worked on my friend and I.  We took advantage of the partnership discount.  Since then we've been on one of their bus tours and are excited to attend our first monthly meeting next week.  @Kyle Grimm any tips on what to expect?