All Forum Posts by: Nikki Grizzle

Hey guys. Anyone in the Greensboro area or Greensboro investors? Looking to possibly start investing and wanted to get any feedback on the market there. We are specifically looking for homes that are already occupied with tenants. We are open to unoccupied homes that are in the downtown area as well, walking distance to everything. 

I love hearing stories like this, especially when it is coming from those my age. I was apart of a networking group (just quit) and they all laughed at me when I said I want to be retired by the age of 35. That is when I realized I was around the wrong people. I am 25 and my husband is 29. We own our own home. Professionals. I own two businesses and do other side jobs that are actually more profitable than most peoples full time job. After 3 years of talking about real estate investing we decided we were just going to do it. And you are right. We are just getting into real estate and while we have gotten lucky finding profitable rentals the headache of getting funding and learning the dos and donts is already like a full time job. We havent even gotten to the hard part yet it seems. Luckily we both love the smell of profit and dont mind working for it. Just like you learned, the end of the tunnel is bright and sunny. I know once we have this down packed we will be on our way to early retirement. You definitely just boosted my drive after reading this tonight. 

There are so many people that drive beat up cars that are wealthy. I personally dont drive cars more than 5 years old. But that is just me. Also it may depend where you live. Owning a luxury car where I live is the norm because our cost of living is so low. If you pull up in a Tesla no one is kissing your ***. Almost anyone can afford a luxury car. But when I go to Alexandria, VA I notice many investors drive average cars. Honda, Nissan, Toyota etc. You have a few who have luxury cars but not many show up driving them. Cost of living there is insanely expensive.

One thing I did notice is that regardless of the car people drive the person with the most money usually comes dressed the worst. We used to think dressing in our sweat pants was possibly going too far until we saw a guy in a stained tshirt with two holes. His hair looked greasy. Sandals were run over and feet were crusty. Oh, and his car was 2 different colors and looked like it shouldn't have passed inspection. We laughed until we started talking to him and found out hes a millionaire. The joke was on us.

We are in the process of getting 3 investment properties right now. Yes, you can definitely do multiple loans. How many at once will depend on previous rental history income. 2 of our homes we are using a conventional loan. If you go to a small bank and speak directly with a mortgage banker they will help you, especially if they know you plan on working with them exclusively for your investments. 

@Kevin TrumbullWe used their personal loan. They do not allow you to use their mortgage loan for investment properties. The property will have to be your primary or secondary home only. You also have to live there for at least a year. I do know someone who has used sofi for a second home and rented it out immediately. But that can only happen once unless you refinance with another company and start all over. We used it for a cash purchase as well as 2 down payments for conventional loans. Note: All the properties are rentals with tenants in place. One home covers the monthly Sofi payment, its mortgage and still has a cash flow. They loan payoff is a max of 7 years. 

I am 25 and my husband is 29. We are just getting started. 

My husband just tried Sofi. We saw a home we liked outside of our limit but the cash flow was too good to turn down. Sofi states it will take up to 14 days to verify information. He was approved in 2 days. After talking to a few people who have used Sofi, we noticed almost everyone was given the same rate. So he called them up and they knocked off a good 3%. So far they seem reall easy to work with. No fees. Simple application. Funds within 3 business days. The lady said if it takes more than 3 business days, something is usually wrong.

I have actually ran across this issue. The realtor that was supposed to be showing me the property said he was having issues. We were even scheduled to go and the person refused to let us in. So I took it upon myself and went to the home one Sunday by myself. I left them a personal letter on the front porch asking why they did not want us to look at the home. I explained that we had no plans on replacing them as we were provided their payment history and saw they have never been late and they were the type of tenants we would love all of our rentals to have. I left my name, phone number and email and told them I would love to have coffee or lunch with them so we could get to know one another better. The next day I got a phone call and we had lunch the day after that. Come to find out the previous landlord was kind of a douchebag. It was an older couple and were threatened to leave several times. He even told them their new landlord is going to seek new tenants. The reason was that rental rates were staring to increase in the area and he wanted to get an extra 300.00 a month. These people are in their 80s. The cashflow is already over 500.00. The guy grosses over 20 grand a month with all his properties. Lesson learned. Take action yourself and find out what is going on. 

I do have to agree that while none of us may be Attorneys, I find BP to be the most useful. Being a new investor, I have come across many people looking to take advantage of us. The first thing I do is look through the forums on BP. If I cannot find what I am looking for I simply ask. Everyone has their own opinion on many topics but I have yet to be steered in the wrong direction. Looking into section 8 I noticed that some states are different. I know in NC you do not have to accept section 8 at all. You can even say you do not accept section 8 on your listing. 

Congrats! We are in the process of acquiring our first few rental units right now and are really excited. I think small gifts are really nice when having new tenants. I remember when we moved into an apt and we found a small welcome basket on the kitchen counter. It wasn't much but it definitely made us feel welcome.