Hello all, as much as I have learned from this form, I haven’t seen any recommendations for courses to study in. Right now my situation is this, I have a house that is getting negative cash flow at the moment, I’m overseas working on a contract, and I’m really trying to get a positive cashflow home in the next 4 months just to get the ball rolling right. Any suggestions?
Most investors here went through the same course: School of Hard Knocks. Mentors are suggested.
Oh yeah, school of hard knocks. With the internet, you have power my friend. Get your research done. Lots of information here on this site alone. :beer
I would agree with the previous posters on using this site and the internet to gain knowledge.
But to help you specifically - We need ask & answered the following questions:
- Do you have a lease in place? Expiration?
- What is the negative cashflow amount?
- Are you charging FMV or market rent for the area
- Have you tried reducing insurance/payments/taxes?
To get out of the negative cash flow you have to do one or both of these…(1) Increase rent (2) Reduce expenses. If you cannot do either one, you might have to seriously consider selling the house and acquire another that produces positive cash flow.
As for information/education, there are a lot of great books written about real estate investing. For about $100 bucks buy yourself 5-6 books on Amazon.com on the real estate subject you like such as apartment investing. No need to jump into some expensive boot camps or spend thousands on expensive home study courses.
What joolkano said needs to be a serious consideration. You probably don’t need a course you need a plan. Real estate is a business and you need to look at it as such. When you acquire a house you need to only acquire a house that once you have decided what the amount of rent is going to be and what the expenses are going to be leaves a positive cash flow. You can’t wish yourself into positive cash flow it is a calculated number. The rent you will get is a fixed number. No matter how much you fix it up or how cute it is or what cul-de-sac lot it is on, you will not get more than the market says. Your house will rent for the same as the one for rent down the street from it. After you look at that cap, subtract out the expenses (mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance, vacancy, etc) and then only look at houses to buy that will rent for enough that after you subtract expenses you have money left over.
I suspect you did not buy this house for your business you owned it and then turned it into a rental. I call people who do this accidental landlords. They did not plan and then execute the purchase as a part of that plan. These make money by happenstance (some may happen to make money and some may happen not to make money)…most do not because most people don’t buy a rent house to live in. If you are going into the real estate business sell this house use the funds from it to buy rent houses.
I have found so many resources on this site that would just be equivalent of taking a course.Besides there are discussions in the forums on most challenges one would face out there.May be start by going through all these information before expanding to the entire web.
Don’t discount the power of reading books. Just buy some real estate investment or landlording books and start reading. And start reading lots of the free articles on this site. Also, join a local investment club, talk to your realtors, network!
I agree, getting a plan is what you really need. Figure out the best way to get out of the current house and buy something that will create positive cash flow right away.
Don’t waste money on courses at the moment. Start doing your research for a quick sale and get a lead osome positive. Good Luck :beer
As being said before, the only way is to increase rent or reduce the amount of your bills. You can try refinancing, it might help you to save a little more money each month, however you need to understand, that refinancing comes with a lot of additional costs that you might not like