All Forum Posts by: Matthew Barnard

Mathew, I assume you are in the insurance industry based on your credentials? I think CLU is a certified life underwriter if I am not mistaken. If so, you are learning skills that will help with real estate as underwriting is what you do when before you invest. I would spend a lot of time on the BP forum researching the types of rentals you are looking to invest in and read everything you can get your hands on about valuing properties, cash flows, rental laws in your area and land lording. You are off to a good start by house hacking with your current renter, which will help you save money for down payments. More than likely, you will turn the house you currently live in into your first rental as you can move and the next one you can purchase as your new primary residence and good financing as you only have to live in it for a year. If you are not handy, start networking with other investors in your area and get referrals for handymen and contractors. Associating with other buy and hold investors is one of the best things you can do as you will learn a ton from those doing this in your area. Get involved in your local real estate investor association and clubs.

In short, educate yourself and work on networking.

I hope this helps.

Wow, thanks for the reply Ed. You are correct about the CLU as I do work for a financial services company, which includes insurance. I primarily advise advisors on what services / investments are prudent for their clients.

It sounds like I'm in a good place right now. My realtor works at my company actually, but has been doing real estate work for 15 years on the side so I really need to have a strong relationship with him.

Do you have any specific books you'd recommend for the buy/hold rental property strategy?

0 Votes

Originally posted by @Teo W.:

Just my two cents:

- What types of tenants do you want to deal with and what area of property do you want to get into (low, mid, high)?

- Single family home or multi-home?

I'll be aiming for mid-level tenants utilizing single family homes to start, but I'm open to multi-home as well.

0 Votes

Basics about me:

- 25yo and unmarried

- $65k/year income (may be getting bumped up slightly soon due to a promotion)

- currently studying outside of work to add some more designations behind my name (already have CFP, working on CLU and ChFC to expand knowledge)

- about to purchase my first home and will be renting out a room to a solid renter for first 3 years which will cover slightly over 50% of PITI

- I've generally been able to invest and also pay down student loans with about 35-45% of my pay since beginning my career

Once I finish wiping out my debt, I plan on ramping up my savings by maxing out my 401k, roth IRA, hsa, and hopefully about 10-20k in taxable accounts yearly (currently maxing roth/hsa and hitting matched amount in 401k). This should let me invest in a rental property in ~3 years. The problem is that I have zero experience in real estate and am the least "handy" person ever. Luckily, my friends father is the director of inspections for my town and is really helpful.

I'm primarily interested in rental property as a way of diversifying my income/assets. I hope that owning a home and having a renter for a few years will give me a glimpse of what is involved.

My questions are as follows:

- other than saving money, what steps should I take now to prepare for buying my first rental property?

- how can I learn more about plumbing/electric/ect? I'll probably look for classes at my local community college to start.

- do you have any general advice for someone in my situation?

If I've left out any important info, let me know. Thanks!

edit: I forgot that our real names are used here. Let me know if I should take out some of my personal info.

0 Votes

All Forum Posts by: Matthew Barnard

Matthew Barnard has started 1 posts and replied 3 times.

Post: I'm looking to get started with rental properties in a few years. What should I be doing now to prep?

Post: I'm looking to get started with rental properties in a few years. What should I be doing now to prep?

Post: I'm looking to get started with rental properties in a few years. What should I be doing now to prep?