All Forum Posts by: Matt H

I think Mike is right. I think you have to be allergic to it. I think what's worse is if a house has like colonies of bugs.

Go find a good mortgage broker. Check your yellow pages. They'll find you a mortgage. That's what they're good at.

Find a good mortgage broker. Use a mortgage broker, because they pull your credit once and shop it to multiple banks. If you yourself go to multiple banks then your credit scrore is hurt for each bank each time they pull it. Then just get a seller second for the balance of the purchase. That's one no money down deal. Here's an example:

Purchase price: $200k
First: $150k
Second: $50k (held by seller at interest only at 10% for five years with a balloon payment at the end)
Balance owing by you: $0

I just bought a TV off ebay, saved like 50% as compared to retail. Who needs big box stores anymore? You can buy anything on ebay for 50% off retailers.

What kind of mentor are you looking for? There's plenty of millionaire right here, that know their stuff.

Also what I'd suggest is you absolutely must turn your drive time into study time. Your drive time equates to 2 classes each day studying REI. Those two classes are your part time studies toward earning your PHD in REI.

So don't even think about what I'm saying...Do this...go to ebay, buy a used copy of "Carlton Sheets No Money Down" and start listening to it in your car to and from work every day. You'll be a pro in no time. That's all I did. It gave me the confidence to go out and buy my first apartment building years ago. I'll be your mentor right now, and I say "do it" otherwise you should just forget about REI altogether.

All you need is an experienced resident manager. They will do everything for you. All you do it talk to them like once a month on the phone. That's all I do. Takes like 15minutes a month to manage, because like I said there's like 1 phone call to the manger and maybe paying 1 bill for a carpet cleaning or something. That kinda stuff you could teach the manager to do anyway.

Commercial is different in that if there's a vacancy it will take months to fill. Might go vacant for like six months or a year before you fill it. And in an economic down swing such as a recession you could see your building go vacant for a long time. Apartments are different in that you can always fill them up. If you take out a tiny ad in the paper your phone rings off the hook. And whether the economy is good or bad you'll be able to fill it because people need a place to live regardless of the economy. And the most important factor is that with commercial lenders will often only go up to 50% financing for the exact risk factors I just mentioned. They lend up to 90% on apartments because they're so low risk. Learn from the banks, if they lend more that means it's less risky, and visa versa.

1) Make tons and tons of offers. Like at least 10 per day or more.
2 The ability to move quickly in buying, rehab, flipping/wholesaling
3) Continuing to leverage your money into bigger and bigger deals
4) Creating a plan of action and writing it down and following it.

Hey how's it going....

One thing you should think about is that every activity you do in REI falls into the 80/20 law. You should try to spend as much time as you can focusing on activities in the 20% area. Those are the important tasks that you'll actually see huge results from. Figuring out what your BC should look like isn't one of them.

Anything will do. Doing them yourself is fun, and you can print off one page at a time that way if theirs a mistake or if their's a change in your address or phone number or email, you can print out another page of cards with the updates you want. However, just get it out of the way. But you should really think about it like this...If you think you'll need a lot of cards then by all means do something good with it. But if you think you might give out one "on occasion" then dont' even both with that. You might not even need a business card.

You're time is much better spend researching properties and actually making no money down offers than it ever will be on anything else. That being said....I'm gonna go work on updating my business card!

Hey,

You're definitely on the right track. If I were you'd I'd try to find something on the SW, SE, or W end. If not then north side. Stay away from central unless it's a condo in like Oliver or right by downtown in a good area. Say away from just east of DT. Anything west of 98st and anything south of 104thave works.

However, that being said just buy anything you can find based on those principles. You could send out tons of little to no money down offers and see what happens. In this market it's very difficult to bargain with people. So don't look for big discounts. It just won't happen. At most you'll get 5% off. Better to try and find a condo, townhouse, or house that would make for a good flip which you might do in a few years after purchase. That would be anything on the S or w side of the city. And I mean almost anything. The reason is because real estate is going up by 5% per month here right now. So it doesn't matter what you buy Andrew. You'll make more than you're mortgage payment in appreciation each month. So if you buy a house for $350,000 on the south side and you're mortgage payment is $1700. It's no big deal, because you're making $17,500 in appreciation. And that's per month. It will slow down in the fall. Down to about 2%. So in those months you'll only be making $7000 per month. In one year you'll have $100k in equity Andrew. So trust me, buy anything you can. And buy it as fast as you possibly can. Like get a contract going within 1 week from reading this message. Because trust me I know people on welfare that were lucky enough to borrow money and buy a house last year in Millwoods that they paid $200k for. Now there house is worth $400k 1 year later. So this guy who's on welfare has a net worth of $200k overnight. My other friend who's only 25 put down $5k to buy a condo for $111,000 just to live in, not thinking anything of it. They starting construction on the condo building and it was completed just this spring. Now that condo is worth $400,000 because it's in a new building on the south side on the top floor with valuted ceilings. So this guy now has a net worth of over $300k.

And on a side note, what floors me about these two guys is - "if they only knew how much power they now have in having a few hundred thousand to work with. Leveraged into buying an apartment either of them would then have the cash flow to retire overnight." (minus the welfare guy that is. I guess he's already retired in some respect. LOL)

And think about it Andrew, like our parents had to work hard 9 to 5 for decades to even amass $100k in net worth. But here we are in a situation where we could literally "get rich" overnight. Like I'm not kidding you one bit. You buy a house, live in it for a few years. Then cash out that equity of anywhere from $100 to $200k above your mortgage, and you go out and buy a 1 or 2 million dollar apartment and retire off the cash flow. All that in like 2 years. Like your friends and family would "freak out" when they see you do that. But little do they realize that, it's not you, it's the market that's making anyone who buys rich right now. Because anyone who buys a property is making five figures per month in appreciation. Because you will not find this opportunity maybe ever again in your whole life. So buy something now, live in it for a few years, rent out some rooms, or the basement to roomates if you have to to pay the mortgage. Then in two years cash out, reinvest in an apartment building and you'll be set for life. You'll be able to retire young and rich. (I'M NOT KIDDING). Compare that to doing road construction for your whole life.

Like even me, I wasn't even thinking of moving. But in talking with this realtor friend of mine, he was saying if you're gonna upgrade your home, do it now, because if you decide to upgrade in say 3 to 5 years, the prices you'll end up paying will be astronomical. So I go out, "half heartedly" looking around with my girlfriend. We find this house that just came on the market. I act fast so when I seen it was a deal, I thought "man their leaving like $200k on the table, and I like this house". So I bought it, offering list price for $640k. A few months later I discover that houses in this area are all selling or have sold for over a million. One just sold a few doors down for 1.3m another down the street is selling for 1.2m. So I'm thinking if I live here for even a few years this house could be worth like 2m or more. So sh** everyone whos buying Andrew is getting rich!!! So you got to get in on this action! Buy anything you can, but more importantly buy it ASAP!!! For every $100k worth of property you buy you'll be making $5k per month in appreciation. And you're mortgage payment on $100k is only $500 bucks!

And the trend has continued on appreciation into 2007, so buy anything you can Andrew immediately. In just 1 year you'll have made $100k at least, and the longer you live in it the more and more it will continue to go up. Eventually you can cash out your $100 or $200k and invest that in a 1m or 2m dollar apartment building and retire. You might be only a few years away from that happening.

Also I should mention that if you're gonna buy something in this market its' better to actually "buy something" and not play around. Like this just is not the market to speculate in. It's the market to "actually buy". That being said, an experienced realtor will be your best bet in finding something and actually buying it. Because then you can deal with real contracts, and not letters of intent.

But one day if you want to speculate on properties here's a template you can use. You should clean it up a bit before you send it, so that it's all formated properly.

==================================

LETTER OF INTENT TO PURCHASE

Date: April 22, 2007

To: XXXXX XXXXXX

From: XXXXX XXXXXX,
XXXXX XXXXXX Inc.

Re: residential property located at: XXXXX XXXXXX

The following sets out the basic terms upon which we would be prepared to purchase the Property. The terms are not comprehensive and we expect that additional terms [including reasonable warranties and representation,] will be incorporated into a formal agreement (the “Agreement”) to be negotiated. The basic terms are as follows:

1. Purchaser: XXXXX XXXXXX Inc or it’s nominee

2. Vendor: Current owner of the Property represented by realtor: XXXXX XXXXXX

3. Property: XXXXX XXXXXX XXXXX XXXXXX , free and clear of all liens, charges and encumbrances at Closing, except: [e.g. those recorded on title to the Property as at the date hereof, with the exception of the Vendor’s mortgage(s)].

4. Purchase Offer: $300,000.00

$225,000.00 New first mortgage (or possible option of assumption and or with increase of existing first to 75%)

$50,000 Second mortgage (carried by vendor for 5 years interest only at 8%)

$10,000.00 Initial Deposit
$5,000.00 Additional Deposit following condition removal
$10,000.00 Balance

5. Deposit: Upon execution of the Agreement, the Purchaser will deposit the amount of $10,000.00 which will be fully refundable if the Conditions Precedent are not satisfied or waived in writing by the Purchaser. Otherwise, the Deposit will be applied to the Purchase Price at Closing. If the Purchaser defaults at closing, the Deposit will be retained by the Vendor as it’s sole remedy.

6. Conditions Precedent: The obligation of the Purchaser to purchase the Property will be subject to satisfaction or written waiver by the Purchaser of the following conditions within 60 days after execution and delivery of the Agreement.

Review and approval of the documentation concerning the property;

Completion of satisfactory physical and environmental inspections of the Property; including suite inspections.

Completion of satisfactory due diligence search and examinations;

Satisfactory review of the title of the Property;

Satisfactory first mortgage financing being arranged for the purchase of the Property;

Satisfactory second mortgage being provided by the Vendor for the purchase of the Property;

7. Additional Items: This letter of intent hereby states the major terms of the agreement that the Purchaser would be prepared to move forward with. This letter of intent is in no way a legally binding agreement between the Purchaser and the Vendor.

Sincerely,

XXXXX XXXXXX

_____________________________________

The above terms are accepted this ___________ Day of _______________, 2007

_____________________________________

XXXXX XXXXXX
President
XXXXX XXXXXX Inc.

Phone: (780)
Cell: (780)
Fax: (
Email:

Hey Joey,

Great choice of a place to live! I go down there all the time, great place to be. Maybe one day I should do the same thing. Get a condo down there that I can escape too.

Anyway...

To answer your question REI is all about leveraging your money. The key to getting very wealthy is by using other peoples money (OPM). Because a mortgage on a property is all good debt. Your asset is appreciating and that mortgage is making you wealthy.

In light of this you're in a very good position. If I were you I'd most certainly by that condo. LV is appreciating at a very good rate so you'll do very well in no time. But put down the "absolute minimum" you can for that condo purchase. Even if that means buying it with 100% financing if you can get away with it. Worst case senario you put down 5% of your savings and you buy it. You'll have no trouble getting financing on a residential property that you plan to live in with 5% down.

The reason I say this is because that 95% you have left will by you a very nice sized apartment building. Listen, you only need 10% down to buy an apartment building. So $100k buys you a 1m dollar apartment building any day of the week. That apartment building will generate a ton of spendable cash for you each month, after all expenses and debt servicing. You can use that spendable cash to more than cover the mortgage payment on your condo and still have several thousand dollars left over as free money. Plus if a 1m dollar apartment goes up by just 5% per year you're making another $50,000 per year in appreciation, that's about $4200 per month. Plus your mortgage paydown will be starting at approximately $1300 per month.

So just for example purposes if you could find an apartment going for say 1m that has 30 units (the more units the better). It doesn't have to be in your city either. It can be almost anywhere in the state, or country for that matter. That building should make you about $5000 per month in liquid spendable cash, that's after your mortgage payment and after all expenses (as you should be grossing anywhere from $15k to $20k). Plus you'll make another $5500 in appreciation and mortgage paydown. So you'd be making about $10,500.00 net per month. That's if you can invest $100k which would make it easy to buy a $1m dollar apartment. That's a 126% return on investment your very first year.

So if you're serious about REI and you want to get ahead in life then under no circumstances are you to buy a condo that you plan to live in using all cash. You're personal residence has no cash flow. That's not leveraging your money one bit. Whatever principle amount you have to spend will by you 10x that amount in property all day long!!! And an apartment is the safest investment vehicle on the planet. There is no safer investment out there.

I'd suggest you start by going out and buying some books and courses that you can listen to in your car on buying apartments to get educated on the topic. But ya you're in a great situation to leverage that money into some really nice cash flow that will set you up for life.