I just ran accross your forum and found alot of interesting reads. This seems to be the places to ask questions and so here goes.
I live in Northern Cali and am recently divorced. Had to sell my home…split it…all that great stuff!! I took the money and paid off EVERYONE and EVERYTHING!!! Got my credit fixed…because of her of course and now have a score of 740.
February 05 I bought a home for $328,000 and moved in about 3 months ago and I am self employed.
The house I am in now is brand new and I put no money down on it. It was 100% financed.
Now you have a history…here is the question.
I would love to purchase other homes as investments but really don’t know where to start. I don’t have alot of equity in my home yet and only about $5k in the banked saved up. I am really starting from scratch again after my divorve.
Could someone please reccomend some things for me to start with whether it be books or just advice to try and get things in order so I can accomplish this goal?
There are several ways to start. With your great credit you should not need much cash of your own. When I had better credit I went to banks and they loaned me money on my signature to do deals. Bigger banks like Bank of America are hard to do deals with but there are plenty of banks that will treat you like a person and not a number that you can borrow from. There are mortgage companies too that will lend 100% with a 620 score or better.
The main objective would be to find deals that are below retail. Not necessarly staels at 50% of retail but deals that will cash flow if you want to keep them or will turn a profit if you buy to fix and resell.
Your credit is in line so you just need to start building your contacts. Build some relationships with money people. Depending on your strategy you should develop relationships with banks, brokers and/or hard money folks.
Then find some realtors/investors that you feel comfortable with and have them help with the leads portion.
This will start the “safety net” that you will need to be able to get the deals when you find them.
I’m in San Diego. I sold all my property and am investing out of state becuase
thats where it makes sense in my opinion. i like utah a lot. also invest in a few
other states.
read this website
read a couple of blogs regularly. there’s a link to a few good ones in my signature.
read a lot of books on the subject.
do something with the knowledge you get, but don’t rush into an average deal
in your excitement.
surround yourself with people who have done what you want to do.
i actually wasn’t impressed with it. also WSJ came out with an article today about a study conducted by the Fed reserve.
They say the housing market will drop between 2010 and 2015 becuase of the baby boomers retiring, which is exactly the opposite of what the book says.
Just because its an easy read doesn’t make it a good book.
Thank you all for the replies. I will hit the bookstore today and grab a couple and I am sure hit you guys (and ladies) up periodically with many questions.
and now have a score of 740.