All Forum Posts by: JJ Conway

 I'm interested... what are the names of these "deadbeat database" sites?

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@Kadian F. one piece of advice is to have a local investor walk you through the ropes, even if it means compensating (paying) them for their time.  I did this with the last rehab - a really good rehabber came and walked through the property and told me all the things she would have done. She also alerted me to some lead safe issues I didn't realize I was going to have to deal with and showed me where I'd overspent. It honestly never occurred to me to have asked her to come out like that- she did because I bought and wished I had bought her lease.  She then took me to one of her rehabs and showed me how to "do it right." The couple hours we spent that day and the couple hours we spent later discussing the lease and clauses were WELL worth what I paid.  I just wish I'd have done it earlier because Baltimore City is not the rest of the world!  I also wish I'd have found THIS site earlier!

Hi everyone thanks for the welcome!  I do just want to address one thing real quick - as a financial planner, I am pretty familiar with the concepts of creative financing and leverage. I'm not above working a sub2 deal or lease option (working one now) where I'm not on the loan, but I personally no longer take out loans for real estate investing. Been there, done that.  Works for many of my clients, but didn't work for me. Left me nearly bankrupt when the market crashed.  

Nowadays I buy cash deals and I don't stress when I can't find the "right" tenant fast enough because there's no mortgage hanging over my head.  Gone are the days about rushing to get someone into one of my properties there b/c I had too many mortgages going unpaid.  Not saying it doesn't work for others (it does), just isn't for me.

Ok, so why was Ned's name highlighted and Russell's not?  Newb error?

Thanks for the welcome @Russell Brazil !

I did find a property manager 6 months ago when I came to this site.  They helped me get the project finished and rented in about 2 months - a week later my son was born!  

BTW, @Ned Carey came and spoke at my Building Wealth Together meeting a couple weeks ago - GREAT GUY!

Hi Welcome! I'm new here too!

I'm Janine "JJ" Conwaywho has been involved in "real estate investing lite" since 1999.  I say "lite" because up until last year my experience was basically military-driven: Move somewhere, buy a house, rent it out, move somewhere else buy a house, rent it out... and so on... 

A couple years ago our government went through a furlough and that's when I realized I could afford to retire and move home. I didn't, because I have other goals, but that realization pushed me into adding "education" to what I already did as a financial planner. Real estate investing is the #1 recommendation I make to clients who need to start over in mid-life with their wealth-building efforts.

I have also been involved in private lending deals where I contributed to other investors. Two years ago I invested with someone who overbuit the property, couldn't sell it, and then walked away. I lost enough money in that deal that I realized I could have put that money into my own property.  And so that's what I did: last year I bought a cash house in Baltimore City, rehabbed it and got it rented out.  Had a lot of issues and learned a lot.  Guess I caught the bug because I can't wait to save up and do it again.

I came to Bigger Pockets because I needed a property manager.  I've had **bad** experiences with property managers, but I was 9 months pregnant and I couldn't keep driving up there to a) finish out the property and b) work on finding a renter.  I found some recommendations here and one of those has really worked out for me.

I've been lurking for about 6 months now, and really excited to finally "join."  

Take care,

JJ