All Forum Posts by: Jody Sperling

Welcome to BP. This is a great community. You'll find a lot of support and inspiration on these forums and in the member blogs especially, but you're absolutely right in your intuition. Local meetups are more targeted toward your specific needs, as no one knows your market better than the people working there.

The best place to find the meetups is actually Facebook. Search "Real Estate Investor Meetup [Your Town]" and you'll find what's there or nearby.

Set up alerts, too, on BP to notify you when people post about your town. I've connected with a handful of great folks through BP who are a big part of my success, and whom I hope I've helped as well over the past years.

And finally, stay active here reading, replying, posting, because in my experience, you'll find people even outside your market who improve your knowledge, or connect you to private money, or who you can help, and all of those things help you remain motivated, driven, focused, and successful. Best of luck!

Honestly, @Enoch Wolsey, if the only thing you did was join that Facebook group, you'd be a crucial step closer to taking action, but if you can get another stream of income coming in today, it's worth the grind. Whether gig work like driving Uber or adding a part-time W-2, find the money so you can buy. @Jaron Walling suggested house hacking. If you can make that work in your lifestyle, it's the best wealth building tool you'll ever have.

And a big part of why I stress the real estate group is that there are people who want to lend their money to people like you. If you hustle, invest smart, and give a ton of value to your local market, show willingness to work and listen, someone may surprise you with an offer or a loan that could change your life.

I owe the majority of my success to one Omaha investor who saw my energy and heart and started giving me tips and introducing me to key people in our market. Best of luck!

Do. Not. Wait. It. Out. DON'T.

If the numbers aren't working, get another job, take on more hours, do whatever it takes. I only have one regret in life, and I've done plenty of regrettable things, but my only regret is not starting real estate investing sooner.

If you're on Facebook, find the Weber County Real Estate Meetup group. They'll have a page. Join it. Interact. Start reading and interacting on BP forums. You'll find people here and on your local meetup who have the passion for real estate that will help guide your way.

In one year from today, if you take action today, you'll be so glad you did. In five years from today, if you took action today, you'll be wealthy. Do. Not. Wait.

My HELOC is a personal line of credit, and it is also my primary investment product. I effectively own two houses inside of the HELOC, which supercharges my cash flow on them, because I only have one "payment" between the two, and that payment can be interest only if times are tough.

I also am riding a sixteen-month interest free balance of 11k on a Capital One credit card, which is a personal line of credit. Free money is so great, though it does slightly impact my cash flow as I have to pay a minimum balance on it each month, and it slightly impacts my credit negatively.

LOCs beat loans every day if you run the math, and it's easy to overleverage using LOCs, so it always makes sense to run the numbers conservatively. Best of luck!

You can find banks and credit unions that will offer HELOCs on investment properties. I have a HELOC on an investment property. I've even heard of banks that will offer HELOCs on multiple properties, bundled. It's a powerful tool that allows you to close, cash on properties.

Be sure you're talking to the commercial side of the bank and not the mortgage brokers, as the mortgage brokers often aren't familiar with the commercial products you're seeking. Best of luck!

I don't worry about percentage of rentals in a specific area. What matters to me, in order of importance is

1. Strength of school district

2. Price of property

3. After repair value

4. size of property

For the size of property, I covet 3 bedroom 2 bathroom, but I'll do 3/1 or anything bigger than 3/2 as long as there are at least two bathrooms. The rest will work itself out. Best of luck!

I haven't listened to the episode you referenced yet, but I'm always happy to throw my thoughts in about Whole Life Insurance. We have a policy right now that stretches us to the limits. Every year I stress about how I'm going to push cash into it and every year I borrow the max to push toward a new investment property.

We're repaying it at an interest only level for the time being, but the plan is to become more aggressive about repayment after the ten-year mark when the overfunding period ends. I couldn't be more happy with my policy and I'm glad to know that when the time comes for me to be less involved in my property management, I'll have this investment to enrich my lifestyle. I'm also happy I can pass a bulk of money to my children without the government pillaging it with taxes.

Do you have a policy?

While there's no problem with opening a new bank account, it's certainly not necessary. You're better off saving receipts and documents regarding your investment property. If you do open a separate account, consider a local bank or credit union.

There are huge differences between corporate banks and local banks. Local banks and credit unions tend to hold their own loans which means you don't run into the 10-mortgage limit that happens because corporate banks sell off your mortgages. Local banks need your business. Corporate banks view you as 1 of 1,000,000,000,000.

Local banks invest in your community. Corporate banks sponsor professional sporting teams and run national advertisement, ignoring your home town. There's more, but my point is clear.

You're not parting with your cash. You're reallocating your savings to a new, more earnings-efficient investment vehicle.

On the acquisition, you'll immediately improve your cash flow, and as you said, you can raise rents, increasing that cash flow in the near future.

Sure, you might drop ten to twenty thousand dollars into rehab, but that will increase the property at least that much. Where else can you spend ten thousand and have fifteen thousand back in invested cash?

Best of luck!

If at all possible, borrow private/hard money for six months and a day. Nearly all banks require a six-month seasoning period to get into a traditional loan product at appraised value.

Other than that, I have two private loans out right now. One is with a friend of a friend at 14% simple. The other is with my in-laws at 5% simple. On my previous deal I borrowed a loan from one of my closest friends at 14% simple. At 14%, I'm beating hard money rates by about 4% simple on average, so it's an effective way for me to give to people I care about while helping keep costs low enough that I can refinance and leave no money in my deals.

If you're simply trying to get cash to buy retail, these numbers won't work for you, but you also may be overestimating the importance of all cash. If you make an offer with higher earnest money and an approval letter, you should still get plenty of interest from sellers. Best of luck!