All Forum Posts by: Nancy L.

@Daigo Kurosaki Another choice is to look around for a boots on the ground partner in areas in which you might like to invest. Someone who has skin in the game themselves has every motivation to find a good deal, as well as the availability to run around checking out individual opportunities as they arise. Let me know if you have any interest in or questions about the Philly market, which attracts a fair number of out of town investors.

@John Matthews Deals can fall apart for a lot of reasons, so of course it's a risk to put in $$ before closing. Not the worst thing that this isn't an option anyway. If owner won't do the work, s/he is going to have to wait for a cash buyer.

As far as finding a partner, I'd also go to REI meetings and talk with anyone you can. If you're at a talk with panelists who are experts in this area, I'd approach them too after the talk with questions about your situation. I'd probably carry a printout of the spreadsheet and some pics just in case. In J Scott's Flipping book, he wrote a short section on finding a partner in exactly your situation -- good deal/first project... Every partnership is different, but what I took from it is that a more experienced investor may want to manage all the work as well, which will affect profit splits, but will be great experience for you and help to keep the project on track. Plus having less of your $$ and borrowing power tied up potentially frees you to pursue a second project.

Good luck! Please update if there's news!

I owe a real debt of gratitude to this forum!!! I came across BP not long ago, shortly after having decided to stop waiting and hoping to get to where I wanted with real estate, but to figure out exactly what my goals are and how to make it happen!

I can't explain what's happened since then except to say that something clicked -- before, I didn't know how to reach my goals and now I feel that I do. Reading conversations, talking for the first time with those who know more than I do, and reading about things that are not directly related to my facets of the business, have really broadened and deepened my understanding in a way that just informational articles or books never could have.

I have met ppl from BP, been out to local REI meetings, etc. The momentum and positivity I found here have also caused me to reach out more in networking in other areas, and I've made a few important connections that way... Opportunity tends to beget opportunity.

A tangible result in the short time since I joined... I was reading a discussion about land contracts, for no reason in particular other than curiosity, which gave me an idea for structuring a buyout agreement from a partner who currently owns a duplex with me. For me, this will mean the same amount of work but more income, and it's helping him with his retirement objectives!

Ouch! @John Matthews You're certainly biting off a lot for a first deal! I'm a little nervous for you on that one. Let me know what the outcome is!

@Mehdi El H Got to this post late, catching up on my "philly" keyword alerts, but welcome to the site! I am a SFR and duplex investor here in Philly. Let me know if you have any questions!

@Gregory H. that makes sense, whatever he's doing sounds like it's working!

Now that I think more about what I was trying to say, it seems pretty obvious... Having no money, living paycheck to paycheck, would a scary, terrible place to be. Having capital whether it's in the form of equity or something else is the concern. If looking for risk mitigation, likely a diversified, balanced portfolio of equity and other holdings is best.

So if someone has no money, does a NMD deal, and ends up with equity, seems likely that they've improved their financial security. If someone has money, and chooses not to put it into equity, that could make sense too. 

I'm not seeing NMD as the issue... I think aggressive, (usually) young, investors with more enthusiasm than sense who use NMD strategies to build their businesses faster than their knowledge, understanding, and safety nets, are more the issue than any one particular strategy. 

@Troy Whitney welcome to the site! Please let me know if you have any Philly related questions!

@Gregory H. Also, just playing devil advocate, because I think most of us on this site have bucked the conventional wisdom on diversifying investments to some extent, but real estate equity is likewise not very liquid, and is also susceptible to turns in the market which would could decrease the investment value. In the case of using equity to sustain business through a RE market downturn, the equity value could be reduced at the exact moment that you need it most. Perhaps some other investment would be doing better at that time. This is of course why the conventional wisdom around diversification is what it is.

@Ben Leybovich For sure!! :) 

@Gregory H. This is getting a bit off the topic of the post, but it isn't short term unless it's working capital....  The issue I was considering is how best to allocate a large amount investment capital -- leveraged into as much RE as possible, in equity, under a mattress, in some other investment, or some combo thereof -- with the goal of appropriately balancing risk and profit potential. It's not clear to me that the best idea is to allocate a larger percentage to equity. This is a problem I look forward to worrying about after I build a $4 mil portfolio.