All Forum Posts by: John W.

@Nicholas Weckstein gotcha, those duds are always available. But surely there are hard to find motivated sellers that can be found with marketing that have profitable deals in your price range that can cashflow or you can wholesale. Even if you have to drive out of your way. Thats what I started with and before you know you are in a position to go bigger and better. 

@Nicholas Weckstein I didnt quite follow. Why are the run down areas not worth investing in?

Are there any run down areas within 40min that you can pick up a rental or two for cheap?

@Brian Pulaski that's an interesting perspective. Flipping seems to have much more risk than being a landlord, but of course people are more comfortable with what they're good at. 

@Bettina F. yeah at the time the pay for me was only decent, now it's much better! I work at the VA hospital in Buffalo and at the time the union forced them to do a locality pay study and found that we were one of the lowest paid nurses in the area so they bumped the pay up quite a bit.
I agree, this job is perfect for working full time and real estate investing...I wish I had the three 12 hour shifts per week...best we can do here at Buffalo VA is 3-3-4 in a three week period which adds up to 120 hrs over 3 weeks. I also get $20/month tax free for uniform allowance and not complaining about the 5weeks of vaca. 

@Lane Kawaoka dude you're hilarious!
Flushes cannot cost $.10!

"Sorry honey, I'm peeing in the sink for now on, good news is we will have our next duplex in no time."

@Terry Lao Great post! I was so surprised to read through the comments and see all the people it triggered, lol!  Although, I missed out on what the one person had to say that apparently was trolling you and got their account closed.

Well one thing is for sure, some people are the frugal type, and others allegedly live life to its fullest and don't sweat the small stuff, lol. Not sure why some of those need to leave angry comments about how much they enjoy themselves because of their free spending, but lets not speculate. 
I for one have always been frugal, and contrary to popular opinion, I enjoy being frugal, because the money I save goes to the things I truly value which makes me much more happy then if I wasted my money on things I didn't need to waste it on.
My frugal nature was the very thing that led me to real estate investing. I was 25, just graduated from nursing school, had a decent job, was engaged to a girl that wanted lots of kids and to be a stay at home mom, wanted a house, and this and that and a little of that too. And I was looking at my future bills thinking, this isn't going to work! Then the idea of buying a duplex came to mind and the rest is history (including that fiance). 
I have many of the same sacrifices as you (am I still allowed to use that word?). It really boggles my mind that people will wait in line and pay $3 for a cup of coffee that costs $.20 to make at home, but I digress. 

So, I househacked and worked nights in the hospital for the extra 10%, and sometimes my tenant's kids would do jumping jacks directly above my head while I tried to sleep. And sometimes I think they had furniture moving contests? Then I really started investing in real estate and had to switch back to dayshift. 
I've never gotten rid of a vehicle unless I totalled it on a deer, or some other catastrophic failure. Vehicles are the 2nd biggest expense people have so I plan to run my 50mpg Prius into the ground, as well as my 2005 diesel truck. Each year I will do my best to keep the salt from the snowy roads from rusting the vehicles. I get on my back underneath the vehicles with spray paint and fluid film. I will probably never get a nice vehicle for myself (my wife will get a nice Lexus some day, hopefully sooner than later), lest my tenants think I'm getting rich off them. 
I got rid of cable, and use the antenna, as well as the fire stick.
I will continue to do most of the high dollar maintenance on my properties up until point where it doesn't make financial sense. 
I'm going to continue to buy properties in the most run down areas of the city because a good deal and good tenants can get you 70% ROI, and the the potential sacrifices of that type of investing will get me out of the rat race sooner (if I don't get shot, of course). 
Oh and here's a good one, intermittent fasting. I eat one meal a day, and feel better than I ever have! And all that unnecessary weight is gone. 

I read through this entire thread, and I have to say it was excellent. So many great points brought out. 

My thoughts are this: 
An investor most likely thinks like an investor in all aspects of his life, weighing the pros and cons of every decision and picking the most beneficial outcome. If a real estate investor is going to buy, they're likely to choose an appropriate residence that will maximize the benefits pertinent to their situation (social, financial, personal etc). They're going to buy right and continue to make good decisions with that property. The same goes for an investor that decides to rent. They're going to maximize the benefits of that situation. They are going to get a return, some way shape or form, whether it's money and/or satisfaction. So in either situation, an investor will come out way ahead of the general public, and they're going to choose to do what makes the most sense for their situation. And because of this, that study might be completely irrelevant to these wise investors and will not predict their outcome in any way, but the findings of the study might be relevant to their neighbors. 

@Joel Florek the living people are the ones you need to be concerned about infecting you; no special cleanup is necessary, there may be a small amount of discharge (urine/feces) after someone passes. If it comes down to it, bleach will kill everything, but a cleaning solution with disinfectant will do. I've been an RN for 7 years and in between patients (living and dead) the rooms are simply washed down with either bleach or alternative disinfectants, day after day after day. 

@Brent CoombsThanks for clarifying. I think 12/4 is a great return, but not in my current situation where I would be paying close to 5% interest on the lent money out of my HELOC. And lending that amount of money over the time it will take before he could pay me back might prevent me from taking advantage of a few other lucrative deals with better returns. Doing a 12%/4 points and making about 6K over 6months is not a good enough return for me on what I have to work with right now. Down the road, yes, it would be great when I have actual money to work with and want to make money more passively. I do like the 50/50 partnership idea since he will manage it, but was trying to come up with a solution where it was more temporary, but that might be the best solution.

Thanks for your help!