For the vets... what would you do with 50k cash?

Just want to hear some responses… different thoughts and such… hope to hear back soon! Thank you for your time. I’m definately a rookie and just want to look at things from different perspectives.

Sal

Do you have other savings in case of emergency? Do you have a regular contribution toward retirement?

How much do you know about real estate? How much are you willing to work? What’s your tolerance for risk?

The answer of what to do with $50k will be different for different people.

If I were you I would give it to me…

Well I would make a budget for marketing and spread it out over a decent time frame. I would not go and put down payments on property. There are too many ways of getting in with no or very little money.

$50k actually isn’t that much, but it’s better than what most people have cash. I’d put it in a self-directed IRA and loan it to investors that I trust as private money. Most offer 12-14% return. You can also use it to rehab a property, but I’d want the funds put back in the IRA.

Sal,

Glad to meet you.

Pretend you do not have $50K and see if you can work creative deals such as wholesaling a few properties to get accustomed to the wonderful world of creative real estate investing.

Once you master how to find deals and pass them on to others to see how the process works, then you will have an idea of what to do with your money with confidence in your abilities.

John $Cash$ Locke

I agree with $cash$'s excellent post.

Pretend the 50 000$ didn’t exist and go from there.

Hard and almost impossible to do, but it would make you a very strong investor.

nastysal Real estate is no better than any other investment except for leverage. If you buy a house for $100k and pay all cash and it goes up 10%. It is not worth $110k and you have made $10k or 10% on the money you have in the house. If you buy the same house but only put down $10k on that $100k house and it goes up the same 10%. It is worth the same $110k and you made the same $10k, but since you only have $10k in the house you have made 100% on your money. You get all the gain although you only have 10% of the money in it. If you had $0 in the deal the return would be infinite (divide by zero)

That being said, you want to put as little of your own money into each deal as you can. I use my cash to show the bank that I have cash reserves of 6 months of PITI. I never really pull it out and use it.

Thanks to those of you with constructive replies. Very sound advice. To answer some of the questions posed:

I do have other savings for emergencies. I do NOT have a retirement fund and I’ll tell you exactly why. I’m 24 years old. If I cant make enough money through real estate/jobs to where I have to depend on a fund I cant touch until i’m 65 YEARS OLD, then I have failed anyways. I absolutely will not put money into a fund that I cant touch when I could be leveraging that money for profits TODAY. Im a beginner with REI, I’m willing to work 100% and extremely hard. When I come back from Kuwait I’ll have enough money and time for me to focus SOLELY on REI.

From all I can gather I think it is in my interest to focus on rehabbing foreclosures for quick proifts. I look forward to the education, experience, and networking that will come from it all. I have 10 months to prep myself before I “jump in” so to speak.

All that being said, WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH 50K TODAY?

Without us all having a four-hour personal assessment with you, we can only provide general advice. There are ways to leverage and I’d stick with my previous suggestion. I’m slightly older than you and I’m all about self-directed IRAs. The protection, tax benefits, etc. can’t be beat. You can invest in anything you want, including businesses, rentals, etc.

My team counsels investors of all ages every week. I can’t find too many downfalls with self-directed IRAs except the fact that you can’t remove the money as easily from the investment. Of course, this is to help protect your assets, but some people would rather spend it on personal stuff whenever they want.

Well that and the fact real estate is real. And it doesnt just dissapear or drop in large amounts of value overnight. And you dont have to be a complete expert int he field to buy it, whereas stocks in order to be effective you need it to be your carrer.

But hey Im biased. My roomate is a finance major and we get into heated arguements all the time about stocks vs. real estate. He thinks 15% on your money is good and doesnt believe that you can get 100% return in real estate, even when I show a simple example like yours that happens all the time, and really isnt even the best situation.

This is very rare thing but I have to Agree with John Locke (oh sorry $$Cash$$)

Being a birdog for a more seasoned investor is a good start as well as to spend at least an hour a day studying the craft of Real Estate Investing.

1st Join a local REI club near your home. Most meet at least once a month and the fees are low or sometimes free.

2nd How to books are a great start as well as webistes like this one

3rd After you feel more comfortable and find out what you like best you can take classes on what it is you like best.

If may be wholesale, flip, short sale, buy and hold and Pre-construction (I do this a lot myslef)

The important thing is that is takes time, money just makes it a little easier if you FIRST know what to do with it (Levearge)

Also as a 19 Verteran of the Army I thank you for your service. :biggrin

I would first research real estate investing, so you know what to expect, and then either (a) buy & flip a mid-range house purchased well under value if you’re in an area where the market is not very depressed, or (b) try to buy & hold several rentals, and spend as little cash down as possible.

id start by wholesaling, use the 50k for advertising it will make you alot of money.

Don’t spend $50,000 on ADVERTISING???

Here’s what to do…

Park it in an account were you can get to it.

Run some small ads in local papers "Wanted: Single family home, any condition (now put in a price here) all cash, close in 5 days.

Run that ad for a least 6 months before you write off any newspaper. Make sure the number you put in your ad is lower than entry level for homes in your target market. ie. Homes start at $170,000? your ad says $120,000.

People call because they see a NUMBER that they will TAKE!!!

Your not going to get lots of calls, you don’t want lots of calls you want MONEY!!!

Be patient, they will call, when they do be ready, get a line of credit estiblished NOW. Study the market, it’s not hard. If someone calls you with a house $40,000 under the lowest priced house in that market and it looks decent. YOU WIN!!! Buy it then blow it out to the nit wits who watch Flip this House. Let THEM fix it! Then watch your $50,000 grow to $75,000 in 6 months.

DONE!!! :banghead

Great advice guys! I’m definatley going to look into a Chicago REI club and continue to soak up all the info I can! Thank you all and God bless!

Sal

Sal… sorry.

Hi wish I could offer anything to you in the World !..
BUT… my suggestion is to BUY BONDS as deep discounted as you can and Create a Note and sell that note for a cash / negotiable ( % ) on the YTMD and the ( yes AND the Yield ) using 10 year Municipal BOnds help the Nation stay in tune. With that said … know any brokers… ? Try FMS Bonds… I did. I am still glad that I did it that way too.

GOD BLESS AMERICA… bring our Girls and Boys HOME .