All Forum Posts by: James Vermillion

This exact topic continues to dumbfound me over and over again. In this world we live in, where greed surrounds us, there are people that exists who work and do not care whether or not they get paid! Even worse, it often appears some of these people are the ones who "need" the money the most. I have come across this several times over the last couple times, in fact I owe a contractor money as well, and have been unable to get in touch with him. Perhaps someone is out there kidnapping contractors...maybe we need to notify the authorities!

While we did not achieve all of our initial goals for 2012, we did achieve some things we had not planned for, so I am quite happy with the growth through the year. In 2013 our primary goal is to expand our business from only rehabbing and begin our long-term rental portfolio (our first closing is set for the middle of Jan).

In 2013 we are looking to add several more rentals and continue to flip and sell to maintain the capital required to continue to grow.

1) Do you guys think 20 is the correct age to start investing.

There is definitely no correct age to start investing, just look at the BP membership. Some people start as teenagers and are wildly successful while others start at 70 and fail miserably, and the same could be said for the opposite. There are many factors that are much more important than age in determining if someone is ready to start investing in real estate such as knowledge of the local market conditions, personal financial situation, having a plan in place and the knowledge needed to execute, and the skills needed to succeed in the area of real estate investing one is looking to become involved in. I would not get caught up on a specific age, but focus on becoming ready to start making educated investment decisions.

2)How do check the vacany rate of a area?i am particulary interested in investing in edison,nj.(i live in arkansas but i can move there).

Check out the BP blog and forums, as there are a lot of ideas out there about determining these things. Here is a blog post from Jeff Brown to get you started http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2011/03/01/find-fair-market-rents-vacancy/

3)How long do good investors usually search before they decide to invest in a property?I mean like for 1 week-2 weeks?

This really depends on a lot of things as well. Some investors are much better at quickly identifying and analyzing a deal, and can do so much faster than others. This also depends on the market...some markets have more deals to be had than others at a certain point in time. In addition, people use different methods to find their investment properties. Some people launch marketing campaigns (yellow letters, postcards, etc), some primarily use the MLS and others have people finding properties for them. There have been times where I looked for weeks and did not find a property I was even remotely interested while other times I found a property I ended up buying on the first day of really looking, so luck and timing also play big parts.

I hope that helps at least a little, and there are not dumb questions here on BP. Make sure you fully utilize the site features to help you find answers (the search function has recently been revamped and can help you find reading material on most any real estate subject you are looking for). Also, please consider posting a picture, it really helps others and will increase the interaction from other members. Good luck to you!

Welcome to BP David. As J said there are a ton of members right in your backyard, so you should be able to make some nice connections and get some great insight into your market. There are also a lot of members doing exactly what you plan on doing, so make sure you fully utilize the resources here. Also, I would highly recommend filling in your profile the rest of the way and adding a picture (it really helps others when it comes to interaction with you). Good luck!

Welcome to BiggerPockets from a fellow Kentuckian! I am assuming you will be rooting for the right team this weekend (GO CATS!)

So true Joel! I look back at some of the questions I asked a few years ago when I came here knowing nothing about real estate and they were answered fully and kindly with great advice. Bigger Pockets has been instrumental to my real estate investing start and I am sure it will be equally important to my growth.

I believe there is still a ton a value in getting a college education (not just from class), but I was not willing to go into great debt to get that value, so I figured out a way to get it paid for. Sure, I had to give four years of military service, but the experiences during those four years has been invaluable to me. In school I got a Political Science Degree, although looking back I wish I would have stuck with business.

Welcome to Bigger Pockets Kamie. Congrats on getting started in real estate investing, BP should be a great resource for you as you move forward and begin executing your plan. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to help you out...and a late Merry Christmas to you!

Welcome to BP Thomas. Great to see a new member with quite a bit of experience, I hope to see you contributing some of that knowledge and interacting on the forums and blogs!

Welcome to BP Joy. Staging is one of the things I know I need to do a better job of myself.