All Forum Posts by: Stuart Grazier

@Junior Matthews If you find a good enough deal, you can find the money. You don't have to use conventional financing. Private money may be a good option; see if any friends or family want to partner with you on a deal. Another option is a portfolio lender. Thanks for your service! 

@Mike Johns You are doing great. Way better than most of our military brethren. Congrats! Now go teach more of our service members about how they can build wealth like you are.

@Jacob Morris Another option is become a private money lender for someone who is doing flips. You can get fairly good returns through mortgage notes / promissory notes and can get creative with being a debt partner or equity partner. Or, like others have said, build a team (or use an existing team from someone you can trust) and start buying rental property. 

@Jason Reed Welcome back to Colorado. We have a military/veteran investor meetup over in Aurora once a month and would love to see you there. You can find it on the Events page. Happy to help in any way I can and look forward to connecting more.

@Javier Melendez I'm happy to help in any way I can and try answering any questions. I bought property while I was stationed in Italy and I continue to buy property in other states while I am stationed elsewhere. Send me an email or a PM and we could chat more. 

@Collette Douglas Another important question to ask is will it have positive cash flow as a rental property, after all expenses? I'm familiar with Newport and most the homes are fairly expensive there, but also know that rents are pretty high. I'd recommend crunching the numbers to see how the property will perform as a rental and then add that into your decision matrix. You don't want to be holding onto a rental property that has negative returns every month! I always include the following expenses into my calculation: mortgage (PITI), vacancy, maintenance, cap ex, and property management. Get a quote from a local property management company to see what the average rents would be in that area and then take the rent, subtract all of the expenses and see what your left with. If it isn't in the positive, I'd think twice about holding onto it. Hope that helps & good luck!

@Javier Melendez I absolutely think you should start. Don't limit yourself to believe that it can't be done while you are living in Germany. If you put the right team in place that you can trust, it really isn't too hard. I know lots of service members that have purchase investment property while being stationed overseas. I recommend reading the book: Long Distance Real Estate Investing by @David Greene. If you have family and friends in Florida that can help look over your properties, I'd start there. But, if the numbers don't work there, then maybe look elsewhere. There are tons of great markets that have cash flowing rental property. Build your "core four" team and start now! Good luck! I'm happy to help in any way I can. 

@Nefertari McClarity Thanks for the recommendation. How long have you owned the properties? Have you gone through tenant turnover with them? If so, how long did it take to get the property turned around and rented again? Any other reasons why you would recommend them? 

@Rodney Phillips The question should really be: do I have the time and skills it takes to take on a rehab myself? If you have a full time job and don't have the time needed to poor into a rehab, then turnkey may be the better option. However, if you feel like you do have some extra time on your hands, you are handy yourself and/or you have some good connections and team members that can do the work for you, doing the BRRRR is a good way to go. Also, you don't have to spend so much money on a turnkey product; $190k for a duplex seems really high. There are lots of options and companies that offer turnkey products for a lot less money and they make great investments. Hope that helps. Good luck!

@Chance Cooper I recommend buying as many properties as you can while you still have a W-2 income. It will be much easier to get loans for rental properties with your W-2 salary from the Army. You could easily buy one property a year for the next 7 years and then once you have your 10 houses, use the positive cash flow to start paying down the mortgages. You may have to get an interim job after the Army, but you could do something you love like real estate because you'll probably have enough residual income between your rentals and your retirement to pay for your living expenses. I have 3 years left in the Navy and that's my plan.