All Forum Posts by: Mike Donnenwerth

I second @Chris McKinley. @Joshua Dorkin has said in numerous podcasts that you cannot anticipate appreciation and the market typically dictates that portion of the investment. Investing for cash flow usually determines if a deal is bad, good or great. Positive cash flow increases your cash on cash return in most cases and is a huge metric to analyze when deciding to jump in on a property. 

Brandon Turner's book on no (and low) money down investing describes several creative financing techniques that minimize the investors initial investment. Otherwise traditional financing with a bank mortgage for 1-4 units or commercial loans for greater than 5 can be used. I haven't personally read any other on traditional financing.

I'm not in your market but it looks like some of the expenses are estimated fairly low. Cap ex and repairs only total 4%. Also, with 3 units vacant, I would estimate vacancy higher than 1%. 10% vacancy would bring your cash flow down under $100/door. As in many other forums, be careful in underestimating expenses. Something to consider.

Thank you @Kyle Mclaughlin and @Justin Fraser for your responses. It is good to know that monthly payments in interest/points or at sale of the property is when the lender can be paid. Sounds like that is all negotiable at the time of sale. I was wondering how this affects monthly cash flow. Thanks again.

Thanks for the discussion all. This was exactly the question I was searching the forums to answer. I listened to that podcast this morning and it made me reconsider my personal necessity for an entity to hold my real estate. I appreciate your input.

I have heard several strategies in the creative finance forum and one I'm interested in is private money. I understand the concept of partnerships and friends/family providing capital to purchase a deal. My question is when approaching a potential private money lender, how do the deals typically get structured? When would the.private money lender get paid? Do they get all of the cashflow up to their agreed upon percentage?

This is how I would like to begin as saving capital takes time to do. I have some family members who would be interested but having a plan to present to them would likely be more enticing. Any comments would be appreciated.

Heard great things about Gary Keller so picked up "The One Thing"and "Millionaire Real Estate Investor." Working on both now and am very impressed!

First post, new investor in Winona, MN. I am currently in the education portion of my real estate investment plan. I know that expenses including travel (for business) can be deducted, but I was wondering about educational books and courses can be written off as well. Thanks for any input.