All Forum Posts by: Mike W.

My idea may not be popular, but IMHO anyone that charges money to share knowledge is full of bull. I meet with guys that have 100+MM portfolios and they answer any question I ask about their business or deals(including real dollars involved) for a cup of coffee or lunch, and they generally pay too(after I offer of course). Do this as often as possible, you will know when your welcome is worn out. Heck, if you prove your eagerness, they may give you something to do. I now consider at least 3 guys that have portfolios over 100MM my friends. Get out there!

Hearing the stories and how the deals came through are important. Anyone can put together a few contracts. You can hire people to do that. Don't worry so much about the mechanics of a deal, spend more time finding great deals. Learn to read the numbers. Hire another investor or realtor to help with the contracts on the first couple. Use a title company or attorney to do the closing. Focus on the right deal and the rest is easy. Just make it happen.

READ: YOU CAN'T LEARN EVERYTHING ABOUT REI PRIOR TO DOING A DEAL...

Wow, sounds like a great pocket area you have there. Where are you in Canada? Edmonton? Most major metros in the states don't sell for 50% ARV of condos. More like 80-90% ARV of condo prices now, around my area. And I would love to see a listing of a 30 unit building anywhere near manhatten for 1 million bucks. In the 7 county metro, the cheapest 30 units you will find is 60+k unit for apartments. With a possible $100-130k each after putting granite counter tops, stainless appliances, all new kitchens and baths and sprucing up the common areas. Along with a 2+ yr wait ($$interest$$) to sell them all, you are talking profits of maaaaybe 100-200k. With 2-3MM into a deal, that is not a risk I would ever take.

Many would been condo converts have been canned, with the market shift we have seen. All real estate is local, so, if you are seeing it on the up trend, take advantage now, cuz it wont last more than a few years before apartment buildings go up in value to cover the profit potential of a conversion. If I were you, I would buy as many buildings as possible and hold them til they double. They will if your conversion market is that hot. You won't have to do a thing, but collect rent til the market saturates and some schmuck comes along to buy your 105 units for 60k/unit as is. Along the way you cash flowed for a yr or 5 til this happens.

This is an interesting statement. Is this from experience? If not, give me some for examples on how this would happen? unit price, cost of special financing needed for condo conversion, est cost of attorney setting up an association, cost of renovation, if any, and sales prices of the units.

No disrespect intended, just curious if this is an accurate statement. In my experience it is not.

Dianna,
If your stress level is too high with a management company, it may be too high for any real estate activity right now. Real Estate and self employment in and of themselves are high stress. Couple that with medical issues and you are in a heap of it.

I would step away from REI for a while until you feel committed to making another go at it. Landlording is a great experiance when you have great tenants. Landlording will put you in the loony bin, if you consistently have bad tenants. All other forms of REI are self employement, without an automatic annuity of growth, so they will be as stressful as anything else. Selling notes or being a hard money lender can be just as painful as being a landlord if you are lending to the wrong person or you buy a bad note and can't sell it. You might find yourself with a property here and there, but then you have to do all the work to pass it on.

There is stress in it all. The freedom comes from experience and a good system and only working with honest, high integrity people.

I was in the automation industry as a controls system software engineer. I left for 5 yrs to be in RE full time as an agent and loan officer, while building my REI portfolio. After five years, My portfolio has grown greatly and I have recently returned to the automation industry and don't foresee ever counting on RE for my only income source ever again.

I feel like it is free money. Granted I have to be there 40 hrs a week, but heck, I am now doing RE and mortgage deals in about 1 evening a week that before I just went to my office for every day. A job is guaranteed money. RE money has highs and lows, when you couple it with now having a company sponsored health plan, I am in far better shape doing both...If/when my Real Estate activities make me 3 times what my JOB does in consistent income, I may consider quitting. Otherwise, Real Estate is my other full time job.

I have taken 25k out on a 0% card for 6 months. Repaid it and they raised my limit. My credit score increased. If you have the card balances outstanding for an extended period, you may have more trouble.

The trouble I see with the idea, is that generally the 0% is for purchases only. Also, cash advances don't qualify for the grace period and begin accruing interest from day one. For cash advances it is rare to find a 0% card. You would have to put together a pretty good scheme to be able to consider it for the purchase rate.

Yes,
Position yourself well and bide your time. You will be able to find properties cheap over the next 12-18 months methinks and possibly longer than that.

trip7,
I am new to this board, but have been investing for a while. Step negative one in investing in anything, let alone real estate is that you have your own financial house in order.

Some of my life rules:
Live below your means
learn delayed gratification
buy used cars
no consumer debt
dont keep up with the joneses
do something besides your day job to make you money. This will help you save for times of uncertainty and also, provide excess funds to invest.

And the last one, 90% of the population basically stinks.

Once you can learn to keep your house in order, you can then move on to choosing your investments.

Keep in mind, the investment of real estate is in landlording. Buy four little green houses and then trade then in for a red hotel.

The income of real estate is in creative rei, guru type stuff. You are only as good as your next deal. This is also called self employment. Whether you choose to do REI or own a pizza place, you need to understand basic business fundamentals to be successful, such as cash flow, sales, and accounting. Some gurus tell you to hire someone for the things you dont know how to do. That is great, but who is going to tell them what to do? A company needs a leader and if you are not it, then how is it supposed to succeed.

I think I ran across this site a year or 2 ago, but never signed up apparently...I have been active on some other sites, but post volume has been down in some places, so here I am.

Looks like lots of the questions I like to spend 2c on...

I bought my first rental in 1999 and have been slowly increasing my portfolio since, with a couple reductions due to the crazy market in 05. I took a 5 yr hiatus from the JOB world and played a full time RE agent, mortgage broker and investor. I just returned to a full time JOB and love it. It feels like free money to me...All they seem to want me to do is show up for 40 hrs a week and money gets deposited into my account every 2 weeks. I realize now, that I can still list and sell houses and do my mortgage work along with my new JOB and still have time for my family. Plus no worries about day to day finances anymore...

Just keep plodding away and I will be in great shape in my declining years, when i can no longer work for a fee.

I hope to enjoy this site as much as the others...

I was fortunate that I had family that had been landlords before me. My uncle and grandpa and my great aunt and uncle had owned a number of rentals. My uncle loaned me a Carlton Sheets course in high school that I reviewed. It was my first thing I read about REI. About 6 yrs later, I bought my first duplex to live in. I bought based on whether or not I could afford it and like the location and house, not whether or not it was a good investment. Well, my good tastes and what I could afford(dumb luck) caused me to take cash out of that property and buy more, and later take cash out of those and buy more...Since that first one, I have educated myself on many strategies and for me, the only one that I have found to consistently provide cash flow and a growing nest egg of wealth is buying 4 little green houses, then trade them for a red hotel, along the way watching as people who are generally referred to as tenants pay the mortgage(s) off.