All Forum Posts by: Nicholas L.

@Tamarah Berry I would not try to make your very first purchase with hard money.  Hard money is very expensive.

@Greg Koszkul great question.  I think it's actually less about finding the "right" calculator and more about knowing your market.  For example, your best repair estimates would be actual quotes from actual contractors. The best rental estimates will come from actual comps from real live real estate agents.  Etc.  The online calculators should really be used as quick screening tools to rule properties out.  Then, once you've ruled a few properties in, you really need to do much more due diligence.  I put a property under contract last month knowing I would need to do a detailed inspection to get a better repair estimate.  It turned out to be too high to make the deal work, so I canceled the contract.  I was out the $400 for the inspection - but that's money well spent to avoid a bad deal.  Hope this helps.

@Alex Keedy I don't think you need to be trained as an appraiser, an experienced real estate agent can help you with comps.

@Alex Keedy this is just my own way of thinking about it, but cash reserves are an amount specifically earmarked for, say, when the HVAC on a rental goes out; savings is living expenses.  A lot of first time posters on BP say "I have $5k to invest, what do I do?" and what they mean is, that's ALL THE MONEY THEY HAVE.  This is clearly not your situation, and I agree with not using your entire $300K at once.  

Have you listened to the latest BP podcast?  It's Brandon and David talking about picking a market, picking a neighborhood, etc.  I thought it was really good.  That's one way to get started - are there any markets where you used to live, have family, have contacts, etc.?  I see you're in San Jose - are there any markets you find interesting within a 2-hour drive?

Here are some things you can do for free: find an investor friendly agent and start looking at properties. Call a lender and get pre-approved for financing. Find and attend a REIA. Check out Sean Pan's awesome podcast.

@Tucker Cummings the numbers don't seem to work here so maybe not a bad thing that it fell through.

@Alex Keedy do you have a down payment, savings, and cash reserves?

@Jamie K. awesome - always good to hear about reserves!

@Jamie K. are you financing the property conventionally?  What will it do to your velocity of money - will all of your rental capital be tied up for a while?

@Jake Peetz congratulations!  It truly seems like you were able to cash out more than your total spend.  And just curious - have you added up every last cost to get from buy to rent - down payment, holding costs, refi closing costs, commission to rent out, etc.?  If I run some very rough math on the deal, it seems like your all-in costs for every penny spent are in the low 150s - 150-155.

@Naydan Will do you have cash or savings?  Can you house hack with a duplex?