All Forum Posts by: Travis DeForge

If you haven't already, David Greene's book on long distance real estate investing will be a great asset to you. It has helped me out tremendously and basically walks you step by step through the whole process.

@Nick Rutkowski, That's hysterical, I love everything about that story.

@Kelly Putz, great info! I've never heard of Opportunity Zones before. Thank you for sharing

Welcome David, I'm active Army and about to PCS to Fort Irwin.. I wouldn't say Barstow is "local" to Santa Maria, but not super far away. Congratulations on your house hack! If there is anything I can do to help you out feel free to reach out anytime.

Definitely consider house hacking. It's a great way to get into real estate with a lower down payment then you would need to provide for a traditional investment property (assuming you use an FHA loan)

@Adam M Drozdowski We are going for small multi family. 3-4 units. Househack it. It will only be about a 18mo - 2year assignment and then we will be separated geographically for a year at different bases. So we will each purchase another small multi-family at the bases we are at. Then come back together at another base a year  later, buy another small multifamily and house hack one more time. 

This will get us + 12-16 units in about 4 years while just using the super low down-payments with VA or FHA loans. Then we'll stop househacking and actually buy a family home.

Since the down payments will be extremely small for each of these we will be able to have a good amount in reserves for any improvements or CAPEX. We'll also have the flexibility of investing in some Single Family Turn Key properties if the locations/numbers make sense.

That's our 5 year plan from the real estate side! 

@Robert Novotny, absolutely possible! I live in Germany right now and have many friends who also are actively managing and investing in properties in the US. It's just a matter of having the right people on your team, a trustworthy highly professional property manager and a general contractor with excellent references are a must!

@Adam M Drozdowski, My wife and I are both active duty and are planning to use the VA loan on our next PCS (2 months). Best of luck with the process, I'm very interested to read the responses on this one.

I do this:

5% income to Roth 401k (5% company match)
10% to Roth IRA
20% Saving for the next down-payment(s) (real estate)
10% Self Directed investments (Syndicating/Crowdfunding/dividend growth investing stocks, etc.)
30% Living expenses (everyday bills) (No housing costs/ no consumer debt)
5% Saving for miscellaneous expenses (things like oil changes, snow tires, etc)
10% Saving for large purchases (next vehicle, vacations)
5% Unallocated / Charitable giving

This works for me because I have no consumer debt or student loans, and my Emergency fund is already funded. Everybody is so different on this stuff. I try to have as much of my money as possible buying more assets (currently 45%). That will go up over time because I don't expect my cost of living to increase dramatically, but my income will.

When I was a renter I was shown a couple properties that had not been cleaned up, exactly like you are describing. It immediately gave me the impression that it was going to be a nightmare with that landlord and that they didn't care. It's got to be hurting your business. Have you ever seen a car dealership selling a dirty car?