All Forum Posts by: Gerald K.

@Jack Tucker OK, that makes sense when you explain the pale blue one. Have you tried one with a taller "T" used for a chimney along with the two "P",s for windows to the right? Just throwing out an idea, for what it's worth. ;-P

Great feeling, eh! Just a matter of time for reality to catch up.

I see what you're trying to achieve. The P's with windows is a nice touch. To start, I'd throw out the ones with red arrows, but that's just me.

@Mark Ferguson Sounds like a plan! I love the story about the Lamborghini. It will be neat to see that photo once you get there. Makes my goals pale in comparison. Good luck and we'll be rooting for you.

A BP Anrdoid App would be nice. Especially for the forum posts. For the BP blog posts, I use Feedly and for BP Podcasts, I use iPP Podcast Player on my Android tablet. They seem to work pretty well. But the PC works better than the Android browers on the forum. @Joshua Dorkin any movement on an Android app? Could be one way to get more involvement here.. hint hint ;-)

I think that's a good strategy. Fix and flip and use the capital toward buy and holds. You could cherry pick the ones you want to keep as rentals. Another possibility would be to buy some land and get a construction loan for new construction. Additionally, you could also use your skills to assist in projects with others. Lots of possibilities. BP has a book on flipping houses you might find interesting: http://get.biggerpockets.com/flippingbook/

Welcome to BP @Shane Keck ,

Nice to see another Washingtonian join the community. GC and construction experience are good skills to go along with real estate investing. So, are you mostly interested in fix and flip versus buy and hold? Either way, there's a wealth of information and experience here to learn from. Hope to see you around the forums.

@Carol Lee Sorry to hear about your situation. I haven't had the dog issues you're describing, but I've inherited tenants before with a home purchase. I believe my thinking back then was, "Hey, great! I won't have to find tenants for the place." Wrong! When you can't do your own screening first, or when you rely on the seller who may be motivated to get out of a bad situation, you're askng for trouble. Don't skip out on doing your due diligence. This may not be the case for you, but I've heard of this happening to others as well. Are the tenants on a month-to-month agreement or a lease? Will you be able to get a copy of their rental agreement, collect a security deposit, last month's rent, pet deposit, etc., from the previous owner? These are things you need to find out now. You should also ask for proof that the tenants have been paying rent in full and on time if you haven't done so already. Don't wait for the escrow to close. Get ahead of this now. Then do your own screening too to make sure they meet your criteria, including calling previous landlords. Depending on the circumstances, if it's a month-to-month agreeement, you could issue a notice to terminate. If it's a lease, when does it end? When tenants have already moved in, you have to follow landlord/tenant law of your state and you may want to try to work it out so they can stay, but I wouldn't be too flexible if they don't meet your criteria. I've been down that road before and for what it's worth, it's not. There would likely be costs involved with a vacancy or with getting the place ready to re-rent, but in my opinion, it's worth it. I don't know your situation, but the best thing to do if your screening shows they do not meet your criteria, is to get rid of them when you can. Believe me, it may save you a lot of hassle down the road. Then you can get in, clean the place up, do your proper screening, place good, clean, responsible tenants that will take care of your investment and let you sleep well at night. Good luck.

@Bryan Hancock

Nice! Happy and prosperous new year! I'm eager to see the end results!

@Curt Mcneil

Welcome to BP. Good to have another local investor join the community. There are some nice areas in Everett but it's getting harder to find good cashflowing deals as prices and interest rates are on the rise. There's a lot of good information here on BP and several BPers in your area. You may have already checked it out, but up top there's a learn tab with Beginner's Guide, Blogs, Podcasts, etc, - lots of info. One popular way of starting in real estate investing is with an owner (you) occupied duplex or other multi-family property. You could live in one unit and rent out the other(s), and if purchased right, you could end up with your entire mortage payment covered plus some extra left over. Also, living in it allows you to use an FHA loan which results in lower downpayment requirements compared to other conventional financing. Not sure, but since you're in the Navy, you may have benefits you can take advantage of there. Anyway, thanks for jumping in and hope to see you around on the forums.