Mel Petersen

I am a very hard working teacher during the day and a parent at night. My wife and I have 2 young children. We both work extra jobs and are able to save a lot of money. I am a relatively young real estate investor, I have 12 single family rentals and am looking to acquire 20. I have been able to find extremely good deals on properties in my area. I try to purchase houses that rent for between 425-500 dollars per month. Purchase prices range from 6,000-12,000, and with repairs my goal is to have no more that 15k invested in a single property. I spend nights and weekends repairing these properties myself and hire out the HVAC, electrical, and plumbing. Nearly all of my purchases have been foreclosures. I have owned rentals since 2008 and have paid a few off. With the changes in the banking industry I am no longer able to get loans on single family properties (no matter the terms). It is my understanding that the banks are basically no longer doing them and are trying to lower their exposure in this category of debt. The last three houses I have purchased have had to be in cash. As you can imagine this really reduces growth opportunities.