All Forum Posts by: Trevor Ewen

@Matt Faircloth is the man in Trenton. I would recommend talking to him, he may have a few guys looking for extra work.

@Account Closed 

Before deciding what or wear your should buy, what's your 5 year plan?

Long Island, New Jersey, and New York are very tax, price, a regulation-heavy zones. If you are considering real estate investment, then you may want to consider looking at other parts of the country as well.

I view 'where you live' as a consumption activity. The notable exception is if you live in a multi-family home that you happen to own. In many cases, some of your money may be better spent renting and working near your friends and family in Long Island. You can then take the remainder (down payment) money and invest where the numbers make sense.

This 2013 report is a bit dated, but it will give you an idea of some of the places where single family investing is good. I consider NYC & Long Island some of the roughest places to make money investing, because the retail demand is so high.

@Kate B. 

Sometimes the cause of analysis paralysis has nothing to do with the numbers at all. Sometimes the cause is emotional or nostalgic. In the case of your first home, you may be feeling just that. Here are two pieces of advice I can give:

1) If it works as a rental, then go with that. If it really can cash flow, then passive income is nice. Furthermore, you maintain asset presence in an area where your family lives. At some level, I imagine you still like the area as well.

2) If you actually think the sale is the better option then what is your window for minimizing capital gains taxes? If you have lived in the house for 2 of the last 5 years, you can keep your capital gains taxes low. I am in this discussion with my parents right now. They are having the same issues deciding whether or not to sell/rent their first home. My advice: get in that window, because otherwise the government goes ahead and does the only thing it's good at.

@Mike Williams 

Seems slim from my perspective. Also units of that size will only attract an investor buyer (except in New York or San Francisco), so your chances of unloading it for a good profit are slim.

It seems like it's doing slightly more than 1%, but if it's a high tax area or insurance is killing, then I would walk on it.

@William Allen 

The key for me was you ran your numbers with rental as a backup. For my investing strategy, this is the only way I would ever consider taking on a flip. I would hate to get stuck with the property. When your numbers look good for the flip case, but still work for the rent case, you have a winner on your hands.

@Kristi Patton 

Interested in learning a bit more about the market myself. Happy to hear of your stories or advice on buy and hold in Little Rock.

@Seneca Stephens 

Earned some money, and I was buying ETFS in 2010 and 2011 when everyone thought that the world had already ended. I don't buy individual stocks, and I don't think the stock market is rational (nor do I think the real estate market is). I do think that when stocks are considered a 'bad investment' is usually when they are on sale.

Similarly, you can't hold stocks forever and wait around for the next market crash. Instead, when you have gains, and you feel like they are not undervalued, it's a great time to move them to another investment. I made my first downpayment with about 3/4 capital gains from my stock portfolio. I didn't move everything out of the portfolio, nor did I intend to put all that capital back in. In the end, I wanted to diversify between stocks and physical. Now, I am better for it.

Also in regards to comments from @Ramon Fyffe @Amanda Sutherlin @Colleen F. We also live below our means and invest the rest. It's the only way to fly. All the other get rich quick schemes are just fad diets.

@Joshua Dorkin 

People who work (some other job) full-time typically have one advantage that those who work in REI full-time:

An alternate stream of income.

Simply said. I have found that my role typically has to be that of a money partner. At times it's sad, because I feel I have some of the contracting and rehab chops. Since my time is more valuable in my career, I have to let that go, and I have to let the people who do that for a living take my money. In the end, everyone in our plan should be building wealth in the fastest way they can.

@Shawn Greeves 

I think the Marketplace would be good for that type of offer. 

Aside from that, I think it's valuable to reach out to wholesalers (in your area), or those you think are working with good markets

@Bill Womeldorf 

Can't go wrong with Getting Things Done. Changed my life way before I was even considering real estate investment.