All Forum Posts by: Larry Turowski

@David Nacco That's pretty much it.  You could throw in personal line of credit and credit card draws, but those wouldn't likely amount to much.

@Alec Khlebopros You might bring the first four to a bank and get conventional investor mortgages on them but after that you'll need to go to a portfolio lender.  You'll basically be considered a business whether or not you are incorporated.

@James Beaver Well, you've got some resources.  You sound like you are not just looking for a place to put excess cash to work, you really want to be an investor.  To do that you need to be able to find deals.  I'd work on that end.  Eventually, you'll find a deal that will be too good to not move on and that will help you make your decision.

@Justin Goodin You need to know the value that you bring.  

If it is simply time (and I assume a car, phone, computer, etc.) then the value you bring is being a sort of a gofer.  This may mean showing units, it may mean compiling lists, etc.  Don't discount the things you'll learn doing this for somebody.  Do you bring money to the table?  Do you have any skills?

Very interesting!  I’ve read that insurance companies don’t make much money on premiums. They make money on investing the float. That is, the premium is paid up front. All those policy premiums become like a giant 0% loan to the insurance company. They’ll pay out nearly as much in claims but in the meantime it is free money to invest.

So do we have any actuaries here who know what @Mark Fries would be looking at in losses in say, a 20yr span?  It’s not like those insurance premiums will be all saved.  I wouldn’t consider this strategy unless I, like an insurance company, had risks spread across many properties and could somehow still get catastrophic insurance against the whole portfolio  just as insurance companies themselves do. 

Short answer is flipping.

It largely depends on deal flow.  If you have enough good deals that you can roll your profit from one flip to the next and scale then that is more profitable.  However, at some point you either don't have enough deals or it becomes too difficult to scale.  At that point 1-5 year buy-and-holds make sense.  You can take deals with less margin, then sell them before major repairs come along and hopefully having a bit of appreciation.  Holds are easier to scale.  But you'll eventually find even 1-5 year holds hard to scale and then move into long-term buy-and-holds.  These you can scale almost forever.

@Paul Esajian may I ask some questions?

What is your pricing schedule?

What is the success rate of your students?

How do you qualify your applicants?

These are all things that a college could easily answer.  (And as for the last question, HINT, it isn't easy to get into good schools.)  McDonalds could easily answer these questions for franchise applicants.  (And as for the last question, HINT, it isn't easy to qualify as a franchisee even if you have the money.)  I await your clear answers.

@Jody Sims Take it from a successful investor, yours was a great and accurate post.  I completely agree.

While the way Fortune Builders and the like sell is shameful, ultimately, you can't save people from themselves.  The lure is too great.  And people will defend them to no end--people here on this thread who have no success to show for it, people who have done one deal in five years, and people whom I personally know who have failed.  They all defend FB.

You sound like a smart guy.  Let me know if I can be of any help.

@Carlos M Riquinha That's great.  Now forget about years 2-5 and focus on year one, getting your first rental.

@Randy Wiley Using a HELOC to get started in rentals is very common. Leaving your money in your home is like making 5% on it. Not bad for lost of people, but not very good for an investor. You can make your money work much harder for you than that.