Need a truck and financial advice

This is a very easy decision. If you REALLY plan on getting into Real estate you HAVE to have a truck. Henry is right, you could rent one, but that will drive you crazy. Go to Home Cheapo this weekend and watch all the homeowners tieing sheetrock to the roofs of their cars and driving down the road at 20 mph. That’s YOU with no truck.

Most of your big purchases will be delivered by the lumber yard, it’s the small stuff, the one piece of sheetrock to patch a wall, the 6 bundles of insulation that you stuff into your Camry and then itch for the next 6 months (been there/done that) THAT stuff kills you. (and ruins the car)

Your getting started, make the most of your money, I started out with a little Toyota and still use them to this day. The resale value on these trucks in insane. Get a 2 wheel drive, 4 cylinder, it’ll get 30 mpg, and you won’t be able to kill it. Laugh all the way to the bank.

Your gonna do some time on the cross here, your paying dues. Be smart, buy what you NEED. I have a 1989 Porsche 911 Turbo that those little Toyota’s helped pay for. When you start making money in real estate buy a car you REALLY want, NOBODY really wants a CAMRY. Another benefit of a pickup is it makes you seem equal to the people whose houses you’re trying to buy. No one wants to feel like a failure, even if they are.

I NEVER take that Porsche to look at anything. I’ve seen guy’s pull up in Mercedes, Lexus’s, Range Rover’s to look at a house, I pull up in my pickup, if the offers are the same who do you think gets the house.

Hint, I don’t lose many houses to guys in Mercedes.

Do what you want. You’ve got my best advice.

Thanks.

I think I am going to put 2k down on 8k Toyota Tacoma 4x4 ( need 4x4 for fishing) with less than 100k miles on it. I hope to get at least another 160k out of it. If I do get another 160k miles out of it @20k miles a year than it should last 8 years.

Payments and full coverage combined should be below $200 a month.

The guys who roll up in luxury cars to soon-to-be foreclosed homeowners thinking they will buy a house from them are dopes. Maybe they will buy them, but these dopes help taint the image of this business. I know a retail stockbroker who makes a ton of money-- he once told me that you should never drive in a car nicer than your clients. In his case, his clients were relatively well off-- he drove a newer model Buick when visiting clients. At home, he had 2 mercedes, a BMW and a porsche. Modesty when visiting these homeowners will probably help you more than u know. I can just imagine these homeowners thinking as the sell a house to someone driving a porsche that they probably just paid for another one.

REI NOOBSTER,

You’ll love the 4X4, One piece of advice, If it’s a 6 cylinder (which it probably is) Make sure the timing belt and water pump have been changed. (they should be every 100,000 miles) It’s just a preventitive. The 4 cylinder engines don’t have belts they have chains which rarely wearout. Don’t worry about the belt issue, if it hasn’t been changed (and I mean someone has a receipt they can show you) just budget $350 for it. Do the water pump while it’s in for the belt, a Toyota water pump is about $50 and it’s driven by the timing belt. By doing the pump you eliminate the chance of the old one leaking onto your new belt which will shorten it’s life considerably.

My prediction is with regular oil changes you could EASILY see 350,000+++ miles.

BTW - Great rant, Jared and it goes back to what I’ve said a lot…many of these folks (and I’m not saying that anyone involved in this thread qualifies so don’t get your drawers in a wad!) are not RE investors, they are PLAYING ‘RE Investor’. They have a desk and a computer, some internet access, some databases, a bunch of analyzation spreadsheets, a new calculator, etc., etc…the only thing missing is …uhhh – REAL ESTATE and the intestinal fortitude to go get 'em some!

Keith

Whenever we go to look at an occupied house, the Bimmer gets left at home. It’s either the '91 Miata or the truck.

I was at a Bruce Norris seminar on the real estate climate in California and there was a large number of real estate agents there. At lunch, I pulled out behind a guy in the Bentley Continental GT Coupe ($170K- $200k) with a license plate holder that said, “Ed buys houses”. I wondered to myself how people react to that…either “Wow, he must be great to deal with because he’s making enough to buy that car” or “Wow, he’s bought a really expensive car by walking on the little people.”

I vote the latter…don’t know "Ed’ but that’s a guess…

I have a truck (Ford F150 XL, 2WD, with an AM/FM radio and vinyl floor mats – YEAH “that XL model”!) and my wife has a BMW X3 (we actually have had it for quite a while and it’s paid for – from my work wages, not RE!) but we always go look at properties in the truck…

Keith

Keith,

I agree with you. Talking and walking are totally different. The first time I signed at a closing I was a mess. Couldn’t stop thinking about all the BAD things that could happen.

As you probably know I don’t mind sharing info that I’ve found helpful over the years. I’ve been a carpenter, general contactor, field service rep for Dry-Vit, ran a redi mix concrete operation, owned a used car dealership, still buy, sell and rent real estate and became a Firefighter.
Man, what’s wrong with me???

In all those years, I have been asked for and given advice on subjects I knew something about. Without exception I would say that about 5% of people actually follow the advice their given. I have seen people make the EXACT mistakes I have warned them against and their response is always. Man I wish I had listened.

These forums are NO DIFFERENT look at the kid who keeps asking about pre-construction and how to make money at it. You KNOW he’ll buy one, everyone here has warned him. It doesn’t matter.

Best quote EVER!

“The game taught me the game, and it didn’t spare the rod while teaching” Jesse Livermore

There used to be a kid on here from NYC…he had the “burn” to buy investment property…we tried and tried to help him. What he really wanted to do was play ‘REI’…he was driving us bonkers with all of his aids, tools, one-touch systems run from “command central”. I guess he wanted to be able to find good deals at his computer, plug the deal in and have it flash “BUY”, then hit another button and the transaction would complete, etc., etc…you know the drill. We had the hardest time convincing him that RE is a hands-on, meet real people, look at real property kind of business. If you’re afraid to talk to people you will eventually fail trying to get your computer to do it…

Keith

And just getting back to the topic at hand, he should probably buy his truck or car AFTER he’s purchased a property.

Buying a truck for RE work before having any RE is putting the cart before the horse.

I get the sense from lots of questions asked on this forum that 90% of the people who ask these questions don’t end up going out there and doing anything.

One quote I loved from a RE book I read recently said that there have been over 100 million books and seminars sold on how to become a millionaire with real estate, but yet there aren’t 100 million millionaire’s running around.

Everyone seems to love to buy foreclosures but no one wonders too closely how the owners ended up in that situation.

The truck is not just for REI. I do alot of fishing and outdoor activities. I also do snow removal in the winter and it has been hard with a car.
I was not going to buy a rental property until this time 08’. I was wating to get a 10k this november before I got started. I have recently learned about wholesaling and have gotten started in it but have yet to actually close a deal. All I can do is try my hardest and that is exactly what I am doing. So when I ask for advice, give it like you are adivising a person who is taking action because that is exactly what you are doing.

My truck is my lifeblood. My second car is another truck.

Seriously, it is.

Sorry for starting the motorcycle thread in a RE forum. But the thing is, after reading posts from members for a few months, some of us get to know each other, and respect each other, and actually care about life outside of RE and want to share it. For this reason, I propose REIClub.com forum start an OFF TOPIC section of the forums for us ( those who WISH to participate) to talk about soup to nuts.

Like the motorcycle thread, there are lessons to be learned around every corner, life lessons. Who better to share those with than family and friends of course, but also people you’ve taken serious advice from here, or given advice to, about monumental purchases that will affect the quality of your life for years to come? Do we not respect each other’s advice? I think we do, which shows plain old respect.

What do you say? OFF TOPIC forum anyone?

I swear I was going to propose we start a lounge.

I’M IN!!

Great idea Elephant, I would be in!

Would you chimps throw poop at each other in there, too?

LOL

Keith

Most likely, yes. But a lounge could have poop-proof walls and a large drain in the center of the floor.

:biggrin