All Forum Posts by: Travis Stafford

Hi, everyone! I know everyone is different, so I would love to see how much variation there may or may not be with this question. At what point do you feel comfortable spending your wealth instead of constantly reinvesting it? How do you manage your sacrifices for the future with your self-indulgence in the present?

@Bart H. I haven't looked into it  enough to know that. That would be a very strange strategy though. Although you might cash flow well, I would think you'd have an extremely hard time selling your assets when the time comes. 

@Bart H. No, at this point I don't know what the core issue is, and that's definitely a concern. As you mentioned, financing is also going to be a huge hurdle.

That's the reason I reached out on BP to see if it would be worth the hassle of trying to find that one place that would finance it. IF (and that's a strong if) we continued with this property, it would be because we could get a great deal on the purchase price. From there I would probably spend a little extra time probing the HOA and management to whip it into shape. Although, even as I type this, it sounds like it could be more work than it's worth. haha

Thanks for the feedback!  Exactly what I was looking for. Hopefully a few more people will drop in and share their opinions.

There is a condo in Dallas that I would like to purchase and make a rental. All the numbers workout for this to be a cash flowing property for me. It previously had a contract on it from another buyer. That contract fell through because it is a non-warrantable property. The complex is non-warrantable because there are 13 units that are past due on their HOA fees. I believe there are more than 50 units in the complex total. Would this scenario be a deal breaker for you? Or would you use this as an opportunity to negotiate a better deal?

Matt K. Michael Guzik I think y’all are on the same page now. We sold our live in flip. We are now moving into an apartment (renting) instead of buying a new primary residence. We will now try and flip 1-3 homes while renting an apartment. While doing the flip, we may also purchase a property to place renters in (not us) as more of a long term investment. It would just depend on the neighborhood and if it cash flows. We would stay renting an apartment while doing this.

Cara Lonsdale I can totally see where you are coming from with the “pay another investor rent” while my flip is vacant. I very much agree that the rent we pay is money lost. The properties that we are purchasing for flips will require extensive work and would be very difficult to live in simultaneously. We also would not be living in them long enough to see the tax benefits. Our goal is to turn the same “down payment” money over a few times this year. Our concern with doing another live in flip, is that we would be tied to that property for at least a year. Our down payment and renovation cost would be stuck in the home and we couldn’t turn it over multiple times. We are factoring our rent money into our flip projects to show what our real profit is.

Jimmy Dudley Haha, I think you might be one of the few that caught the happy spouse part. With the wedding coming up and her starting a new career she is very nervous about the risks involved with REI. I’m doing my best to compromise until I can prove to her the benefits of REI.

James Thomas Nakashian thanks for the feedback! We originally were looking for a multi-family in Dallas for us to live in. Unfortunately the units that we could afford (while keeping cash reserves) were in less than desirable areas. The units in areas that we like would wipe out the majority of our cash. We believe we can get 1-3 flips done this year. We are hoping that will raise us enough capital to purchase a multi-family unit while still having reserves.

Peter Sinclair, that’s correct. We are moving into an apartment this weekend. While we are living in he apartment we will be shopping for a flip as well as a rental property. We will not live in that property. We’d like to have a flip for more aggressive cash gains, but also want a rental for a more long term investment. I’ll also add that we are getting married, so living in another fixer upper while planning the wedding is not an option. Haha “Happy wife, happy life”. 😉

Bring me your brutal criticism! It is always so darn helpful! Haha My fiancé and I just completed our first live in flip. Bought our home for $150k. Lived there during her 3 year masters degree. Renovated it and sold it this year for $243k. Sold for $243k -$14k closing cost -$30k Reno -$109k remaining mortgage We now have roughly $90k on hand. We have decided to flip another condo and purchase a rental simultaneously. We haven’t signed on any properties yet, but are actively looking. Rather than use our cash to buy a home for ourselves, we decided to move into an apartment and use all of the cash for investment properties. We like the idea of having cash reserves, apartment amenities, and zero maintenance. It makes sense to us to do this, but I’d love to here what people think of this strategy. Do you think renting an apartment to free up the cash is a good idea, or would you have purchased another live in flip? Or something completely different? I love brutal honesty, so don’t hold back!