All Forum Posts by: Anthony Gayden

@Bruce Runn

Detroit is on that list. Interesting.

Originally posted by @Brad Lowery:

Trying to find a good lender in the Houston area for a 2,000+ unit portfolio and 100MM+. Does anyone know some good lenders? Thanks

 Fannie and Freddie?

@Mark Wurtemberg

I personally have come to view a 401K as a sort of trap. Your money is stuck there for 20+ years and you are unable to touch it. This makes money managers and corporations extremely wealthy off your money. Meanwhile by the time you retire, you will be lucky if you have $1,000,000 saved up. At that point they encourage you to buy an annuity so they can continue to use your hard earned money until you die. Sounds like a scam to me.

I do have a TSP, but I no longer contribute to it. I have used a loan from my TSP (401K equivalent) to purchase real estate multiple times. The reason for me was simple. I am able to achieve a far greater return with real estate than I would with the stock market. I do miss the tax advantages, but they come at the cost of having far less of your own money available for investment.

Originally posted by @Kevin Voogd:

Hope to see everyone at the October meeting on multifamily!

 I am going to try and attend this meeting as well. I have only been to one other meeting. There were a lot of beginners just getting started in investing. I was (and still am) looking for deals and aside from a couple wholesalers, there weren't many with deals to be had, and they were mostly in parts of town I don't want to invest.

Oh look another appreciation vs. cash flow thread. 

What I would prefer and what I do in my investing is to buy the property at a discount, force appreciation through rehab, refinance the property and get all my money out, then rent it and still get good cash flow. 

That way I benefit from both cash flow and appreciation. Unlike Detroit, property in the areas where I invest does in fact appreciate over time, and not at a "glacial" pace.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I am going to continue driving for dollars, but my primary focus will be lists that I purchase.

@Scott DuChene

I can speak from my experience on this one. I am buying a property all cash right now. The property was for sale by owner. Yes I did do a title search and you don't need a realtor. Take the signed purchase contract to the title company and tell them you need the title search. 

Jacqueline Basset Terrible advice. Does a restaurant owner close up shop or stop when something big happens or changes in their life? Only if they want to starve. Treat real estate like a business, not a hobby.

Aqil Dharamsey In the last few months I have had bed bugs, roach infestation, tenant eviction, washer/dryer combo broken, and a mold problem in my building in Phoenix. Every time I thought the worst was over another issue popped up. Fortunately my other properties made up the difference, but I still haven't made money in months there.

Matt R. Great that California has job growth. Of course that doesn't mean much in terms of affordability, housing availability, or cost of living.