All Forum Posts by: Matt Garboden

@Anna Dube I'm assuming you're just managing this one investment property? Any copy of QuickBooks Pro should do the trick and give you all the bells and whistles you would need when your business grows. I'm a CPA and work a lot with QuickBooks. I'd be happy to send you a chart of accounts to get you started and answer questions. Feel free to send me a message. 

I'll second the QuickBooks recommendation. It's cheap, user friendly and most accounting people are familiar with it, so getting help is pretty easy. 

You can definitely make it work in Portland, if you're willing to dabble in the outer portions of the city.

Are you still doing electrical work while you're in school?

If you ever want to grab coffee and talk shop, give me a shout. 

MG

I'll second Chris' input. I think the easiest way to accumulate properties with a limited budget is to buy an owner-occupied property, while looking at it as a future investment. Will it cash flow when you move out? Is it in a place that could appreciate? Is there any room to add value (cosmetic improvements, etc.)? It gives you the FHA option of a low down payment & nice interest rates compared to an investment property. Live in it until you have the down payment for another place to move into and rent the first one. Rinse and repeat.

Welcome to BP and best of luck.

MG

For any place with some age to it, air conditioning isn't all that common. And to be completely honest, you won't need it. It's pretty rare for it to touch 90 around here. 

Thanks for the discussion everybody. Just got an out-of-the-blue solicitation from an agent of Intercontinental Private Money Lending, as well. The terms and ease seemed to good to be true and the application itself was full of bad grammar and misspellings. I think I'm going to save some time and find a different route to financing.

Hi all! I've got three properties currently with equity (estimate of market less mortgage) of about 275k that I'd like to tap into for a down payment on a new property. I've considered getting a HELOC to draw on as needed, but have also heard people in the forum's discussing portfolio loans. Does anybody have insight on the pros and cons of each, possible references for lenders, etc? Thanks in advance.

MG 

@Account Closed So far everything has been in the Portland area. The last purchase was about a year and half ago, so the market is a bit tighter now. I'm currently looking at alternatives (out of the area), but like everybody else that is relatively inexperienced, I'm a bit nervous about investing out of state. As for the ones I have, I still manage them personally. It's pretty easy these days to find good tenants that pay on time and take care of the property.

I'm kind of in the same boat and you really shouldn't be too discouraged. The route I've taken has been to move into a new residence and rent the old one. Rinse and repeat. It lowers the initial down payment needed (assuming an FHA loan) and makes it a lot easier to get into a property in Portland. Moving every few years might be a little tougher with a family, but it's an option, at least to get started.

I'm a CPA, but, admittedly, don't have a ton of complicated real estate transaction experience. What do you need help with?