All Forum Posts by: JoJo Diego

@Frankie Woods Thanks so much for sharing! I'm enjoying the stories and looking at the numbers get better each time. You may not know you're giving hope to new investors such as myself, as soon as I tackle these student loans - I'm grabbing my first property.

Thank you!

I would recommend calling Lexington Law firm and seeing if they might be able to help rebuild and clear up anything on your credit. The initial call wont cost you anything and as a current subscriber, I highly recommend them as I've seen my credit score jump at least 80 points in the short amount of time that I've been with them, they might be able to get your credit to where it needs to be to get you start with your buy and hold portfolio.

Good Luck!

Hey all,

I know some of you Dallas folks have been following some of my noob post and I'm back with a little more progress under my belt. I've gotten things with my finances and credit score worked out. I recently signed on with Lexington Law firm for credit repair and they have been GREAT! definitely worth it, even if you don't have much on your credit. My student loans are slowly starting to trickle in, but are definitely manageable. I've paid off my credit cards and even applied for two more (just to have the available credit as it looks good - maybe not the hard inquiries but Lexington will take care of those). Last, I decided to pay off my car note and to save up some cash.

Next, I reached out to a mortgage team and got pre-qualified for a hefty amount of 350K (yay!), but I only want to use $150K or less (preferably less than $80K but we'll see what I find). As I've been learning more and more about the Dallas real estate market, I'm seeing that what I initially wanted (which was a duplex/triplex) is not widely popular in my target areas (Addison, Carrollton, Lewisville, Plano, McKinney, Little Elm, the Colony, Allen, Frisco, essentially the far North Dallas area). From what I've seen they're popular in the Lakewood area (near White Rock Lake, between the 75 and 635) but I didn't have any plans on living in that area. Now I'm thinking of back up options to getting started like SFH which sell very well in those areas but how would I be able to make it work. Like do I buy a SFH rent it out and continue to pay rent for an apartment? Or do I buy the house, live through the rehab, and then rent it out later once I can purchase another home that I can move into? These are thoughts I've been battling with - what happens next? I figured you more experienced investors would be able to give some insight as I'm sort of at a dead end or can't think of other ways to make this work out.

Let me know your thoughts!

Thanks folks!

I agree with @Evan Manship as this is an easier way for beginners to get started.

Evan, I hope you and your brother plan on sharing your rehab journey with the bigger pockets community!

Welcome! This site will become addicting!

Hi @Tyler Shackelford 

It's funny you asked this question, I asked this same thing a couple months ago and got some really great feedback! You can check it out here: Student Loans and Investing

I'm 2 months away from finishing up grad school and I'm right there with you. I've got a mortgage worth of student loans :-/ but I want to invest as well nor do I want to wait. So basically it boils down to how much are your student loans costing you and how will paying those off affect your investing funds? The info I was given ranged from pay them all off to invest now and worry about those later. I decided to go with preparing myself for investing now, so I plan on purchasing my first property early next year and my student loans kick in summer of next year, so I may be juggling both but if investing goes well, I'll be able to generate some income and let that take care of the student loans.

So make sure you choose the best option for you and trust your gut - you know you the best!

Hope this helps!

@Mike M. I get that time is money, but technically wouldn't I be doing everything on his time? It would be different if he had to take time out to shadow me or some to me, but I would be the one doing most of the traveling to and from his location - idk just not what I expected from the mentoring aspect.

@Justin Owens I like that idea better than the one I was hit with, heck I'd rather just dive right in head first and see what happens - to me that's the best experience anyways but I know a lot of folks say there's too much free information out here to be jumping into anything blind.

@Michael Evans Thanks! I'll be sure to keep my eyes peeled for an invite.

Thanks! @J Scott that's how I was looking at it...I guess I see mentoring as what they do with high school students.

Hi folks,

I guess I just wanted to rant or ask, what's with experienced real estate investors wanting to charge for mentoring? Or perhaps I have the wrong idea of what "menor" really is. I recently got in touch with a guy who's actively flipping and has been for some time. He offered me to chat with him and see if I he and I would be a good fit. After he liked my drive and determination, he hit me with his fee - $1500/mth for a minimum of 3 months, what?! I truly thought mentors did this out of the kindness of their hearts, lol. Do all (or most) mentors follow this same philosophy and I'm just going to have to bite the bullet at some point? 

@Clay Manship I have been glued to this thread since you started. I'm so happy everything worked out for you. You've definitely given me the motivation to jump in and do this - and I'm definitely not expecting any part of this to be easy by any means, 

Thanks so much for sharing!

Congrats @Ronnie Boyd I know that's a huge weight lifted off your shoulders!