Post: #1

I'm finally able to start taking some money out of my business. I think my partner and I will be taking out about 9k a month as we can, this is basically all available to invest as I have a shitty paying day job and am trying to continue living off my paychecks as opposed to using the new money I'm getting.

Now I know this topic has been asked a million times, I did use search function but I hear stock market is in for a correction, I also hear a lot of negative stuff being said about silver dropping to $12. I want some answers catering to my situation as well as keeping in mind stock market is probably going to have a correction of like 10% comming although I know they've been saying that for a year and it hasn't really happenend.

I used to think I was a pretty decent trader, made some good money but this was back in like 20007 and 2008 when I was trading hard. Back then ford was at $1, DOW was at like $6, everything was rebounding a monkey could have thrown darts at the finance section of the paper and picked winners. Seems like since then all I do is lose so don't want to play with individual stocks.

I have no idea how to invest this money. I currently have 1 rental house, would consider getting another and though a good investment its not really a passive investment. Looking for some advice and suggestions on what to invest in. Also, I'd like something where my money isn't tied up for a long time where I'd face penalties selling. I'd like to keep my money somewhat accessable so that if I find a good deal on a property or come across any good business or investment opportunities I can pull the money out and us it vs having it tied up in something where I'm going to get hit with penalties to access my money. Would prefer it not be tied up but wouldn't be opposed to having it tied up for a year maybe two max for a great opportunity.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Post: #2

1) I'm not rich so my advice is suspect

2) Where I rent a management company handles calling the plumber etc, I think you can get pretty close to a passive investment which is inflation resistant-- when there's inflation landlords simply raise the rent. Being near a major State university means there is a total guarantee of tenants forever.

3) Dividend Aristocrats, most solid dividend-paying companies.

Who cares if the stock goes down if they raise the dividend every year?
McDonalds will be here after us AND the roaches are gone....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S&P_500_Di...ristocrats

Post: #3

There will always be pessimists in the stock market. If you listen to them you'll never make any money.

Post: #4

Invest that cash back into your business. Grow the business. Hire a new sales guy, expand your market, advertise more, do a new marketing campaign, whatever.

Investing $9k/month in the stock market is silly. You're trading next to guys whose portfolio goes up and down by $9k every hour. The fact that you are asking what "*single* thing to invest in is a bad sign.

Smart investors have diverse portfolios: 2% in some mutual fund, 6% in some BRIC fund, 0.5% in a new company, etc. When you have millions of extra bucks to play with, then this strategy pays off. When you have $108k/year to work with - and when that money means a lot to you - then a 5-10% return is a waste of time. And 5-10% gains is a best case scenario.

People seem to forget that in order to be successful in the stock market, you have to be willing to fail a LOT. Some years you will lose 50%. The next you'll get it all back, + 1%. In the long run it pays off, but it's not gonna make ya rich if you're not already rich. Thus, build your business, and take money out of it when it's worth 7 figures instead.

Post: #5

(05-14-2014 12:53 PM)iknowexactly Wrote:  1) I'm not rich so my advice is suspect

2) Where I rent a management company handles calling the plumber etc, I think you can get pretty close to a passive investment which is inflation resistant-- when there's inflation landlords simply raise the rent. Being near a major State university means there is a total guarantee of tenants forever.

3) Dividend Aristocrats, most solid dividend-paying companies.

Who cares if the stock goes down if they raise the dividend every year?
McDonalds will be here after us AND the roaches are gone....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S&P_500_Di...ristocrats

Thanks for the comments. I know there was a thread a while back about good dividend stocks but was just curious if you have any suggestions?

Also, one the real estate front, I was considering using a property management company. I kinda got scaredout of it though. If they took care of everything I'd love it however my moms friend has been using a property management company for like 10 years. Her tenant never pays and the company doesn't seem to do shit about it. On the flipside however I do see some comapnies who say 3 days after nonpayment they start eviction procedings and they handle everything on your behalf. My only fear is that I'm paying a company who does a shitty job and not only am I getting stiffed on rent but I'm also paying someone to get stiffed on rent lol. If anyone else in Chicago has any advice on good property management companies I'd love a recommendation. Also curious what fees should be, about 10% of rental price each month?

Post: #6

(05-14-2014 01:15 PM)BlurredSevens Wrote:  Invest that cash back into your business. Grow the business. Hire a new sales guy, expand your market, advertise more, do a new marketing campaign, whatever.

Investing $9k/month in the stock market is silly. You're trading next to guys whose portfolio goes up and down by $9k every hour. The fact that you are asking what "*single* thing to invest in is a bad sign.

Smart investors have diverse portfolios: 2% in some mutual fund, 6% in some BRIC fund, 0.5% in a new company, etc. When you have millions of extra bucks to play with, then this strategy pays off. When you have $108k/year to work with - and when that money means a lot to you - then a 5-10% return is a waste of time. And 5-10% gains is a best case scenario.

People seem to forget that in order to be successful in the stock market, you have to be willing to fail a LOT. Some years you will lose 50%. The next you'll get it all back, + 1%. In the long run it pays off, but it's not gonna make ya rich if you're not already rich. Thus, build your business, and take money out of it when it's worth 7 figures instead.

I didn't say I wanted to invest in one thing, I'm looking for a number of suggestions for things to invest in, waht I said about one thing is I DONT want to be picking single stocks cuz I've been a failure at that, I don't want to continue something which hasn't worked for me.

As far as my business kind of a unique situation but we have literally no overhead I can operate on about 30k so there's not much reason to keep money sitting in the business. I already do as much advertising as makes sense, I'm not going to throw more money in as it wouldn't be wisely spent, itd basically be spending money just to spend money. I already advertise on all the top sites in my niche.

I was however thinking about maybe getting into a new product to sell and have a lead into something which may be good, basically along the niche or straight razor shaving, aftershaves, etc. I imagine pretty high markups though I havn't looked into it that well yet.

I'm not at all opposed to risk I'm in Bitcoins, Marijuana stocks, etc. However I also realize I'm a bit ignorant when it comes to investing. I am making an effor to educate myself and learn and get beter but like when you say BRIC I dont even know what that means so basically starting this thread hoping to get some suggestions thrown at me that I can then go research and learn about and choose some good investments.

I hear about futures but don't know the first thing about them so not just going to throw money in want to learn what I should start educating myself on if I wanna dip my toes in there.

I'm pretty saavy when it comes to currencies and have played around a bit on forex but still not comfortable jumping in quite yet.

Basically just looking for some suggestions I can begin to start to get educated on and form a plan.

Post: #7

(05-14-2014 01:29 PM)jamaicabound Wrote:  I was however thinking about maybe getting into a new product to sell and have a lead into something which may be good, basically along the niche or straight razor shaving, aftershaves, etc. I imagine pretty high markups though I havn't looked into it that well yet.

Your best risk adjusted return by orders of magnitude would be doing this.

Post: #8

I'd like to echo what has been said before about reinvesting that cash in your business if there is any growth potential there. However if you are sure that additional capital will not be able to enhance the business (via new products, increased advertising, better customer support etc) then you have a really wide variety of options.

You can't go wrong with an incredibly simple portfolio comprised of ETFs. 60-40 or 70-30 (depending on your risk tolerance) allocation to world equities and world bond funds. That's about as easy, simple, and passive as it gets on the securities side of things. Real estate could be enticing as well, get a property near a university and set up a managing company and money will slowly trickle in without you ever having to lift a finger. Straight up bonds could be an option as well, if passive income is what you are after. There are also ETFs that allow you to invest in a large number of dividend giving companies at once. This would give you considerable diversity while keeping things simple and costs low.

For further education I would recommend Reddit which has a number of good posts on investing. Seeking Alpha might also be a good source of information. For general personal finance advice from a red pill perspective check out wall street playboys.

Post: #9

(05-14-2014 12:41 PM)jamaicabound Wrote:  I'm finally able to start taking some money out of my business. I think my partner and I will be taking out about 9k a month as we can, this is basically all available to invest as I have a shitty paying day job and am trying to continue living off my paychecks as opposed to using the new money I'm getting.

Now I know this topic has been asked a million times, I did use search function but I hear stock market is in for a correction, I also hear a lot of negative stuff being said about silver dropping to $12. I want some answers catering to my situation as well as keeping in mind stock market is probably going to have a correction of like 10% comming although I know they've been saying that for a year and it hasn't really happenend.

I used to think I was a pretty decent trader, made some good money but this was back in like 20007 and 2008 when I was trading hard. Back then ford was at $1, DOW was at like $6, everything was rebounding a monkey could have thrown darts at the finance section of the paper and picked winners. Seems like since then all I do is lose so don't want to play with individual stocks.

I have no idea how to invest this money. I currently have 1 rental house, would consider getting another and though a good investment its not really a passive investment. Looking for some advice and suggestions on what to invest in. Also, I'd like something where my money isn't tied up for a long time where I'd face penalties selling. I'd like to keep my money somewhat accessable so that if I find a good deal on a property or come across any good business or investment opportunities I can pull the money out and us it vs having it tied up in something where I'm going to get hit with penalties to access my money. Would prefer it not be tied up but wouldn't be opposed to having it tied up for a year maybe two max for a great opportunity.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Facebook (FB) to the moon baby! Oh yeah heahhhh!

ps. just make sure you use a stop loss.

Post: #10

I'm learning about Warren Buffet's style of value investing and it's the only investment strategy that makes sense to me. Without knowing the intrinsic value of a company and price to earnings ratio, you can't make a calculated decision and it just amounts of gambling.

Calculate the risk and p/e ratios and make decisions under the pretence that:

1. the stock market could close for 5-10 years the day after you purchased the stock
2. the company could go out of business the week after you purchased the stock

It's a tedious process though. You could end up looking through new IPO's, balance sheets and monitoring certain companies for years before the right opportunity comes along. But going by this model, you can become incredibly wealthy by just catching 3-5 of these opportunities. Imagine getting in on Coca Cola or DQ in their infancy, even Goldman Sachs during the last financial crisis would've been a good move.

The learning process is also tedious, the Intelligent Investor is a very painful read and learning about accounting is not fun either. Unfortunately, this is the only method to investing with a surgical precision.

Post: #11

Like yourself, I come from a trader background in which I also saw good profits in 2007-2010 but had a rough time getting a handle on the market 2011-2012. I've since closed all of my brokerage accounts and rolled all monies into real estate.

There are a few locations in the US where you can make 15-20% annual ROI in solid neighborhoods, remotely. I'm doing it right now from outside the country. My worst performer is 12% annual and my best around the 22%.

Passive...no, of course not. Reasonably passive, yes. Economies of scale are huge too...with one property, an eviction could hurt. With 10, averaging 15% annual, you won't notice one or two evictions...they won't impact your bottom line heavily.

I'd be happy to share more. My only wish is that I would have done this years ago (but not pre-crash, ha). I come from a online start-up background turned day trader turned RE investor and RE investment has been easy and low stress in comparison. This is all while working 70-80 hour weeks in with my day job, travelling the world, living life.

Post: #12

(05-14-2014 02:03 PM)Lufty Wrote:  I'd like to echo what has been said before about reinvesting that cash in your business if there is any growth potential there. However if you are sure that additional capital will not be able to enhance the business (via new products, increased advertising, better customer support etc) then you have a really wide variety of options.

You can't go wrong with an incredibly simple portfolio comprised of ETFs. 60-40 or 70-30 (depending on your risk tolerance) allocation to world equities and world bond funds. That's about as easy, simple, and passive as it gets on the securities side of things. Real estate could be enticing as well, get a property near a university and set up a managing company and money will slowly trickle in without you ever having to lift a finger. Straight up bonds could be an option as well, if passive income is what you are after. There are also ETFs that allow you to invest in a large number of dividend giving companies at once. This would give you considerable diversity while keeping things simple and costs low.

For further education I would recommend Reddit which has a number of good posts on investing. Seeking Alpha might also be a good source of information. For general personal finance advice from a red pill perspective check out wall street playboys.

Any suggestions on ETF's? I know years ago there were two ETF's that were basically teh opposite of each other, can't recall the names or even industry but I'd play each back and forth and did pretty well, then they each reverse split and stopped messing with them.

I'd love to get more properties, that's probably what I'm leaning towards at the moment just because I'm more familiar with it than stocks. I'd like my next investment property to be in Chicago so I have a property in the burbs and one in the city and can change where I live in between tenants and have best of both worlds. I like that idea but at the same time think it would be easier and maybe smarter to continue buying properties on the same street as my old one as I can have one lawn guy come and knockout two houses and more down teh road, basically have one handy man one lawn guy etc who work on all my properites where if they are spread out I now need multiple guys in each city.

I love the college idea. At my college rather than renting a house for $1,000 you'd rent bedrooms and have a lease with each kid for say $300 so basically get $1200 for a house that should rent for $1,000. Also if one kid stiffs you, you still got 3 others paying rent. Houses used to be about 25k in the city I'm thinking of, mortgage would be dirt cheap and just with the kids rent could probably have it paid off in less than 5 years. That said its 3 hours from me so if I did have to go down there be a huge pain. I love the idea though, back in college this was always my plan for down the road.

I'll have to start reading reddit, they do got a lot of great info on cryptos never really read stocks on there though.

Post: #13

(05-14-2014 03:17 PM)sammybiker Wrote:  Like yourself, I come from a trader background in which I also saw good profits in 2007-2010 but had a rough time getting a handle on the market 2011-2012. I've since closed all of my brokerage accounts and rolled all monies into real estate.

There are a few locations in the US where you can make 15-20% annual ROI in solid neighborhoods, remotely. I'm doing it right now from outside the country. My worst performer is 12% annual and my best around the 22%.

Passive...no, of course not. Reasonably passive, yes. Economies of scale are huge too...with one property, an eviction could hurt. With 10, averaging 15% annual, you won't notice one or two evictions...they won't impact your bottom line heavily.

I'd be happy to share more. My only wish is that I would have done this years ago (but not pre-crash, ha). I come from a online start-up background turned day trader turned RE investor and RE investment has been easy and low stress in comparison. This is all while working 70-80 hour weeks in with my day job, travelling the world, living life.

Thanks for the comments, we really do come from very similar backgrounds. I enjoyed your sharing about 07, 08 and then current. I wish I had the money I had now back in that time, everything you picked was a winner. Citi was going from like $1 to $3 and back down and back up every other day, it was easy to make a killing. Heck, woulda dumped a bunch of money into ford at a buck which is now up to like $16 last I checked not that recently though. Dow at like $6. The woulda shoulda couldas right.

Anyhow, I also come from a startup, was with a company that had the same venture capital company that brought match, eharmony and others public. Thought I was going to get rich and then the economy tanked, all my clients were car companies all stoped advertising and wind up jobless lol.

Real estate is also what I'm most comfortable with although currently I only have one rental property so could probably learn a bunch from you. I can pm you if you like though I'm sure others wouldl love to hear you drop some knowledge as well. What's your preference property type? SFH, townhouse, condo? Do you do those tax sales at all? I hear you pickup properties dirt cheap but seems confusing and I imagine you gotta be dcent at researching liens and stuff to make sure you dont take on more debt than your going to make on a property. Anyhow would love to hear some real estate advice from you?

Something I'm wrestling with. I think it may be smart to buy up properties on the street of my current rental place so I can have one maintenance guy, one lawn guy, etc. That said I'd laso like to buy places in multiple areas so say I wanna live downtown for a year I got a place there I can live and rent the others. I get sick of downtown dip back out to the burbs. I aso really like the college campus Idea as i touched on in a previous post. Thanks again.

Post: #14

- Single family homes. No bullshit HOA, easy to manage, families want to stay longer (again, easy to manage - especially being out of state/country), appreciation factor, multiple exits

- I buy a) off the MLS (low balling cash offers) and b) direct from owners

- I have a solid team setup. I do fly and check on the properties, team, about every 3-4 months. But my team is rock solid. I wouldn't have to visit at all (barring a total disaster situation) but I'm hands on control freak.

I started a thread, trying to get some feedback on scaling my business a few weeks back. One of the posts has a breakdown of one of my properties. /thread-35275.html

In short, I think RE is much easier and lower stress than anything I've done before. I haven't had a tenant die or a place go up in flames yet but even then, I don't think anything can be worse than losing 4k in 10 minutes before I go to work in the morning trading futs. It's something to take a look at.

You're more than welcome to shoot me a PM.

Hope this helps.

Post: #15

Also, the poster who owns houses knows a lot, as I said I live in a university town, the mngmt companies all do credit checks and screen for eviction histories, they all have all their leases start at Sept 1 unless someone moves out early, basically the huge State university is subsidizing their rental properties.

It's one of the oldest businesses in history. millions haves lived off renters for millennia. the laws are pretty clear, I don't see how being able to stay indefinitely without paying rent seems likely.

here's a study with the dividend aristocrats ETF. you can do a balance of things, but rentals are real even if they abandon the dollar

http://seekingalpha.com/article/2106113-...ts-missing

Here's a site that totally focuses on Dividend Reinvesting Programs (DRIP)

http://dripinvesting.org/Tools/Tools.asp

Post: #16

(05-14-2014 06:15 PM)iknowexactly Wrote:  Also, the poster who owns houses knows a lot, as I said I live in a university town, the mngmt companies all do credit checks and screen for eviction histories, they all have all their leases start at Sept 1 unless someone moves out early, basically the huge State university is subsidizing their rental properties.

It's one of the oldest businesses in history. millions haves lived off renters for millennia. the laws are pretty clear, I don't see how being able to stay indefinitely without paying rent seems likely.

here's a study with the dividend aristocrats ETF. you can do a balance of things, but rentals are real even if they abandon the dollar

http://seekingalpha.com/article/2106113-...ts-missing

Here's a site that totally focuses on Dividend Reinvesting Programs (DRIP)

http://dripinvesting.org/Tools/Tools.asp

If you dont' mind my asking what do you pay for property management? Is it like 10% of montly rent? That seems to be what people are quoting me. Also, is it full service? Do they find tenants and charge? Are you allowed to find your own tenants and screen your own tenants and save the finders fee but use them to manage the property? Do they show up and wait for repair guys and handle everything? Do they start eviction procedings if tenant doesn't pay?

Post: #17

You didn't ask me but I'll throw in my experience...

- I pay 10% and an entire first month's rent. I run two property management groups at the same time split over my properties (in case one shits out on me) and both run under these terms. One is a big time shop, 700+ units under management. The other has only 50.

-The numbers (monthly %) are nego as you increase the number of properties you have with them. Unsure about the finders fee...I assume yes, to some extent (20% off)

- Full service. You can find and screen tenants if you wish, but generally, you'll be less proficient at it and just getting in their way. What I DO make sure to do is call them (prop mgrs) every couple of days while I have an available/vacant property and ensure they are taking calls, get feedback from what the prospective tenants viewing the property are saying, etc. I also advertise myself with craigslist/zillow/etc and a free WIX site in addition to the management companies advertisements. I answer basic questions (I dig marketing/interacting with the people) but represent myself as only "marketing" and route all serious inquiries, application requests, etc directly to the management team. No one will market my home as well as I will. And I tell that prospective tenant to let me know if they don't have a returned phone call or e-mail within 24hrs.

- I doubt I'm able to completely opt out of the finders fee...but that may be nego with future properties.

- They handle all repairs. Rates are reasonable but I'm still a stickler and ask for a detailed breakdown even on $80 items...they need to know that I'm checking everything.

Post: #18

(05-14-2014 07:05 PM)sammybiker Wrote:  You didn't ask me but I'll throw in my experience...

- I pay 10% and an entire first month's rent. I run two property management groups at the same time split over my properties (in case one shits out on me) and both run under these terms. One is a big time shop, 700+ units under management. The other has only 50.

-The numbers (monthly %) are nego as you increase the number of properties you have with them. Unsure about the finders fee...I assume yes, to some extent (20% off)

- Full service. You can find and screen tenants if you wish, but generally, you'll be less proficient at it and just getting in their way. What I DO make sure to do is call them (prop mgrs) every couple of days while I have an available/vacant property and ensure they are taking calls, get feedback from what the prospective tenants viewing the property are saying, etc. I also advertise myself with craigslist/zillow/etc and a free WIX site in addition to the management companies advertisements. I answer basic questions (I dig marketing/interacting with the people) but represent myself as only "marketing" and route all serious inquiries, application requests, etc directly to the management team. No one will market my home as well as I will. And I tell that prospective tenant to let me know if they don't have a returned phone call or e-mail within 24hrs.

- I doubt I'm able to completely opt out of the finders fee...but that may be nego with future properties.

- They handle all repairs. Rates are reasonable but I'm still a stickler and ask for a detailed breakdown even on $80 items...they need to know that I'm checking everything.

Hey, thanks for the advice. I wasn't ignoring your post lol, great info, I actually had a whole nother set of questions I wanted to ask you. I was thinking of venturing away from SFH or non association duplexes as I regret not having a reasonable HOA fee as oftentimes they cover all outdoor maintenance as well as outdoor repairs ie roof, siding, etc. Stuff that I'm stuck paying for with my current rental property.

You make a great point about SFH attracting longterm tenants though. Even in my current place the family I rent to intially did a 2 year lease, they want to renew again for another 2 years so 4 years without having to find a new tenant and with a reliable tenant. They have also done a ton of repairs and improvements to the hosue at their own expense. It was a cheap house and bachelor pad I was living in adn renting to buddies prior. They painted, new garage door opener, new fence, new front door, new mailbox. Basically are dumping a bunch of money into my property improving it for whenevr they leave.

I'm running out the door right now but will be back to pick your brain later if you don't mind. Thanks again.

Post: #19

Sounds like dream tenants, I can only hope to be so lucky.

Cool, looking forward to the questions.

Post: #20

This thread is hitting on something I've been thinking about for a while, renting out a SFH. A friend at work owns 6 rental properties in the college town nearby and he's absolutely killing it. Very rare for him so far to get a poor tenant. Still I'd be worried about getting a psycho renter and dealing with all the drama.

How does one check for eviction history or on-time payment history (aside from direct calling previous landlords)?

Post: #21

Invest in yourself. This advice is good in all economies.

Post: #22

(05-14-2014 04:58 PM)jamaicabound Wrote:  

(05-14-2014 02:03 PM)Lufty Wrote:  I'd like to echo what has been said before about reinvesting that cash in your business if there is any growth potential there. However if you are sure that additional capital will not be able to enhance the business (via new products, increased advertising, better customer support etc) then you have a really wide variety of options.

You can't go wrong with an incredibly simple portfolio comprised of ETFs. 60-40 or 70-30 (depending on your risk tolerance) allocation to world equities and world bond funds. That's about as easy, simple, and passive as it gets on the securities side of things. Real estate could be enticing as well, get a property near a university and set up a managing company and money will slowly trickle in without you ever having to lift a finger. Straight up bonds could be an option as well, if passive income is what you are after. There are also ETFs that allow you to invest in a large number of dividend giving companies at once. This would give you considerable diversity while keeping things simple and costs low.

For further education I would recommend Reddit which has a number of good posts on investing. Seeking Alpha might also be a good source of information. For general personal finance advice from a red pill perspective check out wall street playboys.

Any suggestions on ETF's? I know years ago there were two ETF's that were basically teh opposite of each other, can't recall the names or even industry but I'd play each back and forth and did pretty well, then they each reverse split and stopped messing with them.

I'd love to get more properties, that's probably what I'm leaning towards at the moment just because I'm more familiar with it than stocks. I'd like my next investment property to be in Chicago so I have a property in the burbs and one in the city and can change where I live in between tenants and have best of both worlds. I like that idea but at the same time think it would be easier and maybe smarter to continue buying properties on the same street as my old one as I can have one lawn guy come and knockout two houses and more down teh road, basically have one handy man one lawn guy etc who work on all my properites where if they are spread out I now need multiple guys in each city.

I love the college idea. At my college rather than renting a house for $1,000 you'd rent bedrooms and have a lease with each kid for say $300 so basically get $1200 for a house that should rent for $1,000. Also if one kid stiffs you, you still got 3 others paying rent. Houses used to be about 25k in the city I'm thinking of, mortgage would be dirt cheap and just with the kids rent could probably have it paid off in less than 5 years. That said its 3 hours from me so if I did have to go down there be a huge pain. I love the idea though, back in college this was always my plan for down the road.

I'll have to start reading reddit, they do got a lot of great info on cryptos never really read stocks on there though.

A number of different financial services companies all offer competing ETFs that track similar or identical indexes. Reputable providers would include: Vanguard, Charles Schwab, ishares, the list goes on. Once you have an idea of what you would like to invest in,( a country, an industry, a sector, even dividends, small cap, large cap, etc) find an ETF with the most appealing balance of low fees and high market cap (provides you with more liquidity) and go for it. ETFs can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make them really. You could grab one or two that track the S&P 500 or world bonds, and forget about it. Alternatively you can go pretty deep and grab a world equities excluding japan, and a number of different sector ones if you want a more complex portfolio.

Post: #23

Although not as good as before lending club and prosper are p2p lending that gets pretty decent returns. Have to be on it and it always helps if you can write scripts to buy the loans you're looking for.

Have talked to Sammybiker and he seems to really know his stuff regarding the RE. I live in LA so I'm loath to get into real estate here, but it seems like he's got a great niche set up in the Midwest. Used to do some east coast properties but such a pain in the ass.

Post: #24

(05-15-2014 01:10 AM)booshala Wrote:  Although not as good as before lending club and prosper are p2p lending that gets pretty decent returns. Have to be on it and it always helps if you can write scripts to buy the loans you're looking for.

Have talked to Sammybiker and he seems to really know his stuff regarding the RE. I live in LA so I'm loath to get into real estate here, but it seems like he's got a great niche set up in the Midwest. Used to do some east coast properties but such a pain in the ass.

What do you mean by writing scripts? I am interested in p2p lending. Thought it was very straightforward.

Post: #25

(05-14-2014 05:29 PM)sammybiker Wrote:  - Single family homes. No bullshit HOA, easy to manage, families want to stay longer (again, easy to manage - especially being out of state/country), appreciation factor, multiple exits

- I buy a) off the MLS (low balling cash offers) and b) direct from owners

- I have a solid team setup. I do fly and check on the properties, team, about every 3-4 months. But my team is rock solid. I wouldn't have to visit at all (barring a total disaster situation) but I'm hands on control freak.

I started a thread, trying to get some feedback on scaling my business a few weeks back. One of the posts has a breakdown of one of my properties. /thread-35275.html

In short, I think RE is much easier and lower stress than anything I've done before. I haven't had a tenant die or a place go up in flames yet but even then, I don't think anything can be worse than losing 4k in 10 minutes before I go to work in the morning trading futs. It's something to take a look at.

You're more than welcome to shoot me a PM.

Hope this helps.

I'll probably think of some more later but had a few quick questions before I head out the door to work.

Do you try to keep all your properties in a single area either same street or same city or spread them out? Reason I ask is I can see how that makes sense, however at the same time I'd love to have one property in Chicago, another in South Carolina by my parents, etc. Maybe I go live in S Carolina for a year, get bored there rent that place out and move back to my Chicago place when between tenants. Debating if that would be smart to do or not though.

You mentioned lowballing MLS and contacting home owners. Do you ever mess around with short sales and foreclosures? I hear shortsales are a complete waste as you get buyers playing games with no intention of selling just buying more time in house. Foreclosures I think is a quicker process. My home was a foreclosure though I'm still not super saavy on how to look for them and the process of buying them.

As far as cash offers. Don't mean to get all up in your business but were you well funded going in or did you start slowly?

Reason I ask is I don't have a ton of cash, though plenty for downpayment even if 20% required. Should I focus on cheap properties like sketchier areas where I can pickup a house for 30k and rent it to some illegals in my neighboring city or should I focus on more expensive properties? There are some cheaper homes in a good school district near me but a deal would probably be 60k, more likely maybe 75k to 90k. I dont have that kind of cash but could easily put down 20% if necessary.

Have you ever utilized those "investor financing" deals? Whats the deal with those, typically on properties that need some work they say only investors special investor financing no approval process. I'm guessing its basically a hard money loan at like 10% but was just curious if you've ever dealt with anything like that?

Are banks more hesitant to lend on an investment property than one I'll live in? Will I be expected to buy cash or can I get a mortgage just have to put more down payment down?