All Forum Posts by: Joe Capobianco

@Chris Cozzens @Karen Reynoso

This home is in NJ. Would take me around another year to get the 20% for a multi family.

Home needs about $25k worth of work at most. There have been 3 homes in the neighborhood with same model home that sold for $40k more then the listing price of this house. I talked to realtor about home yesterday and it's under contract so looks like I we aired to long. 

I didn't want to get a hard money loan and flip it immediately because I work 6 days per week and didn't think I had the time to do the work and don't think I will make much if I pay a contractor to do everything. 

There is a single family home I've been interested in down the street from my home. I have been more interested in purchasing a multi family but this single family is a good deal. Problem is when I spoke to my mentor he recommended keep saving my money until I have 20% down. "Fear" has been holding me back getting my first property and I don't want to delay it any longer. The plans I told my mentor about were 1. Buying the single family with FHA loan, live in flip for a year and sell. Use equity in 1031 exchange and have the 20% for a multi family. 2. Buy a multi family with FHA loan and try to house hack. 3. Just keep saving until I have 20% for multi family. I wanted bigger pockets opinions on what I should do to get started.

I had a gentlemen contact me yesterday about coaching/mentoring me in order to achieve financial freedom. He contacted me through a young investor I met through Instagram. The young investor found this mentor after dropping out of college with no sense of direction. He also has no family members who invest or any who are business owners and claims this mentor will teach anything you want to know about becoming financially free. I'm starting to feel like the young investor is the perfect recruit for these mentors. My parents and my girlfriends father are business owners and have invested in properties. I was interested in joining this mentor but after thinking about it I feel like I don't need to pay someone to motivate me or teach me about investing when I have some family members who are already doing it. Can someone chime in and tell me if mentors are worth the investment or is my thinking more logical with this situation that mentors are better for new investors that have nobody to give them a sense of direction.

there are a couple of foreclosed homes in my area that i was interested in finding the price to purchase but noticed all of them have gone into cash auctions. I don't have the cash to purchase a house but was wondering if its possible to find a hard money lender that will finance the purchase and then i would refinance it with a bank and pay the hard money lender back? 

I have been listening to a lot of Dave Ramsey podcasts and he insist on getting out of debt before doing most things. I have about $18k in car payment left and $30k on the bank saved. I can easily pay off my car but then having $12k left is what is turning me away from paying it off at once. I want to buy my first home and I know I can go for an fha loan with a 203k loan so I won't need the whole $30k but I like the cushion I have in my savings account in case there are se bumps in the road. Wanted to hear others opinions on my situation before I make any decisions. Thank you in advance

hey @Parag Shah I'm also in middlesex county and looking to get my first deal done this year with a family member. @Adrian Samborowski where can I find local REI Clubs in nj?

A friend of mine came to me to start a small side business on weekends and some weekdays. He wants to become a hotdog vendor and would like me to be his business partner. He's getting everything we need as far as the cart, licenses and spot to work. He wants me to work it to start and of course eventually hire someone to work it for us. The reason I'm posting this is because I don't know anything about hotdog vending and wondering if anyone knows if it's worth the time and if the money's worth it. I know there's barely any overhead but wondering how popular buying hotdogs off a cart actually is. The only thing I'm actually risking is just my time because my partners investing in all the equipment and I'm going to pay him back half once we start profiting. I would like to hear back from you guys to see what your opinions are on starting up a small business like this.

Aquiles Veras

Hey aquiles, I'm Joe and I'm also a new investor from New Jersey. I was thinking of doing somewhat the same as u and ur fiancé. I would also like to get out of New Jersey but that's because of how expensive it is to invest and pay to live in nj. Your dollar is worth more investing in Florida. I also have noticed that most of the cheaper deals especially for multi family are in "sketchy" areas but that's probably the same everywhere. Just need to dig deeper in your town. I didn't think my town had many deals but since the spring started and the nice weather approached I've seen potential deals all around but haven't gotten passed my fear of failure unfortunately. Still trying to learn as much as I can daily. Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think you can do an fha loan while out of state because I think you need to be the main resident of the home. Then again I haven't bought my first property yet so when I think of it now I wonder if you can put your finances name under your Florida home and your name under the New Jersey home and work out fine. I'm not a lawyer and don't know if that's legal or not lol. Keep in touch aquiles, hope to hear back soon. My opinion is if you go to Florida, stay there and invest. (Property taxes through the roof in nj) I don't know your line of work but I know for my job since the cost of living is cheaper in Florida I'll be taking a pay cut as well so investing in nj from a cheaper state doesn't make sense to me. Constructive criticism is valued by me so if any experienced investors come across this and have another opinion I would like to know as well because if I'm wrong I wouldn't want to continue to spread the wrong advise to anyone else.

@Steve Vaughan @Jassem A. sorry I didn't explain the situation further, I was just more interested in seeing if the situation was legal or possible first. The house was appraised for $320k. The issue with not getting enough rent is that kyles daughter is renting out home for past 5 years for $1500 and the mortgage on the home is $2k. There only renting out for $1500 to her because at that time they couldn't find tennants and they had to bite the bullet. I know it's bad to get into investing with family but I think this Is a great opportunity for me. I'm putting in $15k on fully renovated home 40 years old and appraised for $320k with long term tenants. just not sure if the $15k is it or if I'm missing a lot more