All Forum Posts by: Jody Sperling

If there's an open bedroom, or if you can take a couch in the living area, rent a room. It won't be quick, but it will work. Depending on what's around it, you could try listing on AirBnB too. Best of luck!

You can do that. I'm assuming you found a house that's vastly undervalued and you want to buy it and sell it at market value. If that's the case, the way you're asking about doing it would be considered by some as "ethical wholesaling." Best of luck!

Buy sooner. Find a private lender to loan you what you need for the downpayment ASAP. As soon as you close, advertise vacancy and fill any bedrooms with renters. They'll cover the extra private loan payment and part of your mortgage.

Around BP, living in a primary and renting bedrooms is known as house hacking and it's the fastest way to build wealth early in the investing game. Perhaps it isn't your ideal, but if you can force yourself to tolerate it for at least a year, you'll come out so far ahead, it will shock you.

As for the other part of your question: the forums are a great place to learn. Read other people's posts. You'll learn and be exposed to so much. And listen to the podcasts. I prefer the original back when Josh was host, and the Money podcast is great too. Best of luck!

An unexpected read that really stuck with me and continues to produce positive change in my life is Chris Bosh's new book, Letters to A Young Athlete. It is written for young athletes, but it applies to investors, artists, business owners, husbands/wives, just about anybody who cares about being the best at what they do.

I've read so many of the "how to" books, and they do improve my knowledge, but Bosh's book improved my willingness, and willingness is something that's really tough to move. If you absorb his message, it stands a good chance of making you good at real estate investing no matter what you encounter. Best of luck!

Manage it yourself. Especially since it's your first. Nothing is better for learning than doing, and even if you make mistakes, it will teach you the work.

Don't go visit the market you're going to buy in. It will create too many temptations to resort to DIY. Instead, build a trusted team in your target market, get to know them well, vet their credentials, jump on a handful of video calls, and even find someone who will give you a video ridealong. Zoom or Microsoft Teams or Skype are all great for something like this and you can get a great feel for a market with a video chat.

Start, right from the beginning, doing real estate investing the way you want to do it for the rest of your life and you'll get the most fulfillment and enjoyment from it. Don't let fear dictate your actions. Best of luck!

Don't worry so much about a checklist. Worry about the state of mind. If you're in it to get rich, you're going to get washed. If you only swing for home run deals, you'll strike out often. If you expect perfection, you'll miss it and have constant anxiety.

In my experience, if the foundation is solid—both literally and metaphorically—it's tough to go wrong. Though, unless you really, really, really know what you're doing stay away from houses built before 1940, even better, focus on houses built in the 60s and later.

Best of luck!

You can ask yourself a list of questions to narrow the search. Start with a few simple ones:

1. What climate would you like your properties to be in?

2. What population density do you want to target?

3. What price range are you looking to buy in?

4. What cities do you already know?

You can deep dive into average employment questions, recession proofness and so many other factors. Pick a city you understand, and that fits your criteria.

Best of luck!

Walk/drive for dollars. Your neighborhood has at least a half-dozen homes that are unkempt. Lawns might be overgrown, paint is peeling, windows are in bad shape. These may be investment properties that the landlord can't keep up with, or they may be owner-occupied and the owner is struggling for one reason or another. Write an offer letter and deliver it to each of those homes.

Then consider that every neighborhood has at least a half-dozen unkempt homes. Find a mailing provider who gives you access to data on owner-occupied v. not; ownership %; previous sales prices and much more. Mail houses that would fit the criteria of a motivated seller in neighborhoods where you want to buy rental property.

It's going to cost some money to mail for deals, but getting just one should more than pay for the mailing. Best of luck!

Explore your dread of the 9-to-5. Ask yourself what your ideal is. Real estate is hard work, and if you own rentals, your tenants will challenge you as much as most customers at a 9-to-5 would. Contractors will frustrate you consistently. Things break. Huge chunks of money and time flow toward unexpected projects. I know more people who have abandoned real estate investing than people who have abandoned the 9-to-5.

You have to love this business or it will just be a slightly more lucrative version of the 9-to-5. That said, I love this business and I wish I'd known how money moved, and how to keep it in motion without giving it away. I wish I'd saved and bought a house early, house hacked it, and started building my portfolio a decade sooner. But I'm grateful to be doing it now, because the best time was ten years ago, and the second best time is today.

Best of luck!