All Forum Posts by: Robert Leonard

Welcome to BP @Melanie VanBuskirk !  There are several active BP members from your area.  Look up @Michael Faulk who organizes a local meetup in Shreveport!  Hope to see you around the site!

Congratulations @Tyress Wilson I think having your personal finances in order is a critical piece of the wealth building puzzle.  All too often, it seems like people try to have their investments fix their personal finance problems.  If you have your personal finances in order, you will have access to some of the lower cost finance options that can make a dramatic difference in your real estate investments.

There's a guy named Clark Howard (http://www.clarkhoward.com/)  who has some really good free information that covers a broad spectrum of personal finance and ways to save on the things we all buy.

Dave Ramsey (http://www.daveramsey.com/home/) is also really good on how to get your personal finances in order.  He's the source of a lot of debate, because he follows a strict philosophy of doing almost everything in cash (which I think is an extreme if you have the discipline to do all of what he says, then you have what it takes to use debt responsibly).  Besides the idea that "debt is dumb," I think he offers some of the best personal finance recommendations that are widely available.  He has a talk radio program that you can listen to as a podcast too.  I'm not looking to start a debate to hijack your post, so hopefully that  will be directed to the existing threads that cover that debate.

In the book "The Millionaire Real Estate Investor," buy Gary Keller, he talks about five models of millionaire real estate investors.  The net worth model is very close to what I use personally to measure growth and progress in my real estate business.  It offers a clear picture of where you stand financially.  You will need your personal financial statement in your business.  Go here http://www.kellerink.com/mrei and scroll to the bottom of the page for the free downloads of the worksheets.

Hope this helps!  I have no affiliation with any of the sites/organizations mentioned above.  Just sharing what I think is some good stuff. :-) 

LOL!  Thanks for that catch @Joel W.! That is totally what I said, but I didn't finish typing the thought.  I meant to say that when you are listening well, you will realize you need to take notes and you'll start to turn off the TV and listen to them at home where you can take notes.  Sometimes when the thinking is ahead of the typing, the thoughts get left off the page!

Thanks for your input and thank you for your service!

@James DeRoest you missed the key words in my post "invested responsibly." I'll expound on that for your better understanding.  Investing responsibly includes allowing a "margin for safety." A term used by Warren Buffet to emphasize buying things that are undervalued.  That means I don't buy properties at or near full retail in hopes of appreciation.  The math still works if there is a dramatic downturn in the economy.  If I needed to reduce my rents, I could, because I have a hefty margin of safety.

I've been investing using debt since the very beginning of my investing days in 1992.  I had leveraged properties six years ago too and I did not pay any such hefty price you imagine.  That's a good example of using all of these absolute terms like everything is the same everywhere and the same examples that you might see in the news or on your own block is what happened(s) everywhere.  That's just wrong.

"Everyone was doing the right thing 7 years ago" you say? Well, in truth, a whole lot of people were doing the wrong thing(s) 7 years ago and beyond that.

Can you imagine that I understand what you are saying and simply disagree with you?  Because I do understand what you are saying. :-)

This gets debated here and elsewhere ad nauseam.  It's not absolute, it's a math question.  Do the math and you find the answer.  It's not trigonometry or algebra, just simple 5th grade math.  The answer changes when the factors, like interest rates or other terms change.  Include all of the factors and do the math and you will find your answer.

Add emotion and it's a different equation.  People lose sleep over emotions and fear and the unknown.  I'm getting anxious just typing this! ... !  ... !

Do I love debt?  Well, credit is money - money that can be spent on anything from worthless crap that shines and sizzles or invested responsibly to grow and build wealth.  I guess since I understand the difference, I don't agree with the idea that debt is dumb when you do the right things with it.  Since I know what to do with it and I am building wealth that is accelerated by the debt that I employ, I confess, I love it! 

Few things are absolute.  Other than the comment that "Joe Villeneuve's advice is always helpful" I see an overuse of the term always in this thread.  The right answer usually depends on a dynamic set of factors that are constantly changing.

Welcome to BP @Tyress Wilson!  First of all, you have what it takes to be an investor, you have ambition and you can read.  That's exactly what I started with when I bought my first house at your age!  The term "house hacking" wasn't coined yet, but I knew before I ever found it that it was going to be a 3BR/2BA and I was going to rent a room to one of my military buddies and another room was going to be my home office.  I didn't even have BP, but I could read.  And boy did I read.  No mentor, no family in the business, no inheritance or any type of advantage you might think of, but I could read.

My advice - read.  Be the sponge.  My momma used to say, "God gave you two ears and one mouth, use them in the proportion they were given to you."  <<- sage advice!

I have a challenge for you.  Turn off your radio in your car and start listening to the BP podcasts until you've listened to all of them.  If you feel like you need to take notes, that's good.  If you are listening and you don't know what they are talking about, you will need to take notes to know what you need to look up to understand what they are talking about.  The podcasts are in a very  educational format and the hosts do a pretty good job of making whatever the topic is understandable to the full range of listener experience. 

Use the search feature here on BP and you will find that there is usually a history of dialogue on just about any question you have that's already been discussed thoroughly.  If not, then post a new question and engage the community here. 

Keep listening and keep reading until you have enough understanding of your favored strategy and your target market to know a good deal when you see one.  Ignore any one who says "just jump in and learn as you go, you'll figure it out."  That can be a costly way to learn.  You'll never be able to eliminate risk in any type of investment, but you can minimize it when you know what you are doing and follow a disciplined plan toward a sound strategy.  Best of luck in your learning and I hope to see you at the Baton Rouge meetup ("The RING", found on meetup.com)!

Welcome to BP @Shayne Cooper!

Hope to meet you one day at the Baton Rouge REIA (The RING) meetup. I like your goals.

Let me know if there's ever anything I can help you figure out!  See you around BP and maybe around Baton Rouge!

Robert

@Bryce Till that green grass just past the weeds looks pretty good and it's low maintenance.  Just keep it cut like the rest of the yard.  Anything else you plant, like ground cover or a gouping of any other kind of plants to fill the area will require maintenance and weed control.

Welcome to BP @Joe Chiasson!  Take your time and learn the basics enough to understand the strategies and how they fit your goals and abilities.  Learning the market is something that takes time too.  There are investors successfully pursuing every strategy and niche you can name here in our market.  You have to find what works for you.

Generally, the market is very competitive (some would say saturated with investors) and you can expect lots of competition.  There's a term I heard the other day used to describe some investors in the commercial space as "unqualified participants." Whatever you call them, there are investors in the residential market who drive prices in this market to very thin margins.  I'm not saying any of this to be discouraging, but you need to be prepared to use advanced strategies in whatever way you choose to invest, because that's what it will take to make good money.

Investing in RE is a money matter. If your money matters enough to you, you have to invest the time to find your own answers to what will work for you. You can't trust anyone's numbers. You have to verify and double check every number presented to you (price, repairs, ARV, profit, comps, etc. etc.) in this business. Otherwise you end up blaming someone else if things don't go the way you hoped for. You are in the right place to learn, so keep at it and take the time to learn the business.

@Greg Wright no one mentioned the self-dealing rule, so I'll add the following: if a person buys a property in their name (or that of an entity they or a disqualified person own) they cannot use their SD-IRA funds for the rehab portion of the financing. That would be considered self-dealing and it is a prohibited transaction. That's my $.02!