All Forum Posts by: Margie Fuller

Welcome! Your real estate purchase experience sounds a lot like mine. Btw, my brother lives in Kansas City, MO. You close to him?

Given the size of your property, I think it would be easy for you to determine that you have a master key to all units. As long as all tenants are staying in place, I do not see the point in rekeying. If this were a large property, my answer might be completely different. 

@Mychal Lee, Hi Michael. I am from Waycross, so we're about 2 hours or so away from one another. I'm at the beginning of my REI journey, although I am not a stranger to the real estate business by a long shot. Given your two options, I think I would take option 1. If you have the ability to double your equity, you could leverage the property if you are going to hold it, or you would at least have the cash out if you sold it (and then you could invest that into your option 2). The question most likely needs to be what is your plan for getting access to the equity? If you have financing resources who can make that available to you, then holding it and renting it out sounds like it would be best because you could start your portfolio and add the duplexes also. If you aren't sure if you'd want to hold it or sell it, I would ask you what the market is like in this home's target area? How many days are homes sitting on the market? Time is money, and many homes are sitting 6 months and longer. I think with improvements and in the right areas in Savannah, you could bring some good rent. Write it out and see what it looks like on paper. Let me know what you decide. I'd like to build some contacts here in the south. :) I wish you the best.

@Joshua Benjamins that reminds me of Warren Buffett's buying strategy -- buy when everyone is running scared. BUY, BUY, BUY

@Sunny D., I have decided to keep my initial investments close to home. Maybe I'll do business in other states in the future, but only after cultivating long-term relationships with people who have a reputation for integrity.

@Chris Szepessy, I would like for my 1st investment purchase to be 2-4 unit also. 

Edo, thank you for the advice. I will definitely be looking for that right fit.

My name Margie Fuller. I was in real estate sales and Property Management for 16 years, but left the industry at the time of the real estate bubble to go back to college. 

I have a master's degree in organizational psychology with specialization in consumer psychology. I would like to use my past real estate experience along with my degree to build a family real estate investment business to enable my husband to leave his current job to work along with me and pass along to my son one day.

I am a big fan of forums and of networking so I look forward to meeting so many of you online and maybe even get the opportunity to FaceTime or Skype to share professional experiences.

I enjoy helping others so if there may be any questions that I can answer for you especially in the area of property management which is a strength of mine, please don't hesitate to ask. Also as for basic financing questions FHA, VA, conventional and creative financing, I would be able to share my experience as a former realtor assisting buyers with these loans as well as having used them myself in the purchase of my own homes.

As far as personal purchase experience, this is my fourth home. One of my previous homes was used as a rental property for a short period of time and then sold. I've only owned two properties at one time for a couple of years before selling the rental property. At that time I did not have a spouse that supported building a rental business, but now my husband is very supportive and looking forward to learning more about the business along with me.

If I had a dream purchase for my first investment, it would be a Quad or 6 Plex. I don't know how reasonable that is for a first purchase, but I guess I will find out soon.

What single piece of advice would you give to a newbie to share the hind sight you've no doubt experienced by this point. Knowing what you know now, what would you have done?