All Forum Posts by: Elizabeth S.

Agh! I feel bad that my goal is to NOT buy any rentals and just maintain, pay off and horde cash.

This year I'm going to focus on building an online business model (non-real estate) so I can have a third stream of income and eventually transition out of the 9-5.

Short version - if you're water heater doesn't work and you're boiling the water so you have hot water...is there something I can do or buy to make my tenants lives a little easier?

Back Story -

Its the 11th and I've had these tenants in the property since the 1st. When they went to get the gas turned on during the first week of their residency the gas company mentioned that they couldn't turn it on because the stuff from the water heater to the furnace wasn't at the right angle (my terminology sucks, sorry!), so my handy man moves the furnace and gets that all taken care of. Gas company comes out again and now there is something blocking the chimney (dead animal or maybe a broken liner). I have an inspection schedule but Monday was the soonest they can come.

This is all totally my fault and not theirs, I should have turned the gas on earlier before they moved in so we would know. They are suffering silently, which is nice but I still feel terrible. I don't have any other properties that I could let them live in temporarily.

Any advice would be great.

The down side are the fees and the rules that a broker would implement. Some states require that you become a sales person before becoming a broker. You can also become a sales person assistant and get access or make friends with a realtor.

Since you're in southern Michigan I would recommend my own city of Fort Wayne, IN instead of Indy because it's closer to you and offers excellent returns and opportunities.

There is great value in investing close to home. Have you explored areas close to you or are you picking Indy because it's on some sort of list of "good places to invest"?

Massive action is not always "action" per se. It's moving forward towards your goal. It starts with education, then taking those first baby steps to try what it is your going to specialize in. Money is a big part of that. If you wan to do buy & hold (which is the only thing I'm qualified to talk about) your action plan will look something like this:

1. Get a basic education and realization of the struggles of real estate (you wont get rich off of one property or over night)
2. Set goals and ask for help in determining what steps to take to get there
3. figure out your financing options
4. Determine a niche and purchasing criteria based on looking at a LOT of houses.
5. Make your first offer & close
6. Work on it nights and weekends (or whatever you schedule is)
7. Learn how to screen tenants & be a day to day landlord (which is rarely really day to day job)

Don't worry about learning too much about anything past step 1, then move on to step 2. So right now you don't have to learn how to be a landlord because if you don't get past the first steps that information is just holding you back from action.

I can see where they would be concerned with conflict of interest. I agree that as of tomorrow you need to tell them that you will stop your other business. Tell them it was just something you were exploring but that you thought about it and the new business risk wasn't worth risking your job. Then you have to stop (and get educated under a fake name so they can't track you) and find another job that doesn't put you in a conflicting job.

Fighting isn't going to be worth the hassle and honestly they could read every post that is written here in this public domain with your name listed plainly.

I'm not familiar with that but I was talking to someone at work today who is getting ready to buy a different primary residence and they were saying that the bank was telling them the same stuff and that rules are going to be changing (maybe) at the beginning of 2014 to make bank loans more strict. This is all 3 hand knowledge though so could be totally off.

It's a great thing for them to hold you to. I also think that once you have more time in the game and experience they may not hold you to it. I just bought with commercial loans last month and they took me out to lunch, talked about my business and we were good to go. I had a help going into commercial though because I bought a few rentals on their personal side and that gentleman was a support of me to the commercial banker.

So the moral of my story is that reserves will SAVE your retirement and time will allow you to be smarter and make more risky choices because you have experience.

I have in my lease a dollar per hour rate. I never charge it but I have it there in case they leave it a mess. I did just finish this podcast and was going to search for this list.

Great question! This is always the million dollar question...how much should I spend versus save. I don't have an answer but I'm glad you asked :)

Welcome to the group! It sounds like you're getting your life back in shape and taking good steps to get there. Since you're asking for advice, here's mine:

• Get a real job and either don't get your real estate license or get it on the side. You can make money but it will be VERY difficult and take years to build up a good business. If you get a job making $30,000 a year (hopefully more!) and live at home you'll be able to save create a cushion in just a few years that real estate (which costs money) will not get you to in the same time frame.
• Network with local real estate investors who are doing what you want to do. Go to the local REIA and take offer to take people out to lunch one at a time. You'll learn SO much and make great contacts. Find ways to help these people for free and they will always have you on the mind when they have a great opportunity that you can help them with.
• Use the limited time with your parents to save as much money as you can and to learn skills for life. Living with parents is always temporary because they will either get sick of you or you will get sick of them or what to get married or something. Lots of people live with their parents and then spend there money because they have it, life frugally and use this time in your life to work 2 jobs and hustle.

This is a really exciting time in your life. The choices you make in the next 1-2 years are going to play a HUGE impact on the rest of you life.

May the force be with you :) haha