There was a thread a while ago that dwccrew and zwick talked about some success with investment properties. Anyone else on here dabble in investment properties, either flipping or landlording? There are a couple properties in Cincinnati that I am looking at now but it would be our first time trying it out. For those that have done it before, did you pay cash for your investment properties or take out another mortgage on them? Is it easy to obtain a mortgage for a rental property assuming you have excellent credit?

Once I get a little more financially stable, I definately want to have a house to rent out. Seems like a good investment/retirment type of thing. As long as you get in a good area and a good price.

Justin- I just recently purchased another property, paid cash for it. I have paid cash for 7 houses, have a mortgage on just 1. When I got the mortgage it was 2007 and it was a bit easier to get money out of banks. I have always had excellent credit and it wasn't difficult to get that loan. I am planning on taking out a line of credit so I can start buying blocks of homes, I am not sure how difficult it will be but I have friends that work in the banking world and they say banks are loosening up with money.

Personally, I like the idea of using the banks money to buy more houses. It is cheap to borrow the money and I can buy more than one at a time. It's nice not to owe and just have positive cash flow on the houses with no mortgages, but as cheap as houses are right now, I figure I can get a LOC and buy 3 houses and the rent from one of them will cover that monthly payment. The other 2 will be positive cash flow.

I got involved in this business 7 years ago when I was 21-22 and only in the past few years have I really become confident. For the first few years I only had 1 or 2 properties. I am at 9 now (one is a 13 unit building) and am still learning and making mistakes, which is to be expected.

The best advice I can give is to start slowly. Once you feel confident with one, you'll feel confident with 2, 4, 6, etc. I am sure there are others on here that have more experience with this than I do, but this is what I can tell you. If you have any further questions, feel free to PM me.

I would like to add that I was very fortunate in getting into this young because my uncle has been involved for 25 years in this business and has had around 100 properties (multi unit, commercial and single family) in the past. I was lucky he guided me and also got me involved with the right people making the right connections. I am in northwest Ohio, so I don't anything about the area you are looking, but like I said, PM with any general questions if you have any.

Did you do a 15 or 30 year mortgage on the rental place? Seems like you could do a 15 year mortgage and put pretty much all of the rent money towards the mortgage and pay it off quickly.

I manage several portfolios of commercial and residential investment properties. I got started by managing a portfolio of Ohio State campus area rentals ($10 million worth), and I've doubled monthly revenue in three years. The money that can be made is ridiculous.

In time I plan on owning multiple investment properties, but I need to get the capital in place first.

This is my plan for my current house. Just refinanced from a 30 to a 15(pay only $63 more a month than I was!). Get married in a couple years hold onto this house as a rental and buy a house for the two of us...then repeat that process 10 years or so and build the dream house.

This is something that I would like to get into, I just sold a second house, and that was a ton of work. Don't get me wrong I like the money but it is tough finding enough time with a young family. I don't really have the cash to hire a management company.

justincredible;679111 wrote:Did you do a 15 or 30 year mortgage on the rental place? Seems like you could do a 15 year mortgage and put pretty much all of the rent money towards the mortgage and pay it off quickly.

I did a 30 year, but only at its 75% appraisal value. I bought the house with cash and re-financed it to leverage my money and buy more properties. What I bought it for was far less than what I could suck out of it (equity wise). The monthly rent pays the mortgage and then some and I was able to buy 2 more houses with the money I received. I plan on selling this house in the next 5 years to payoff the mortgage. Doing it this way has allowed me to buy more properties (with no additional mortgages), no money out of my pocket when paying on this mortgage and I'll still make a profit when I sell this particular property.

It's all about what will work better for you. Lay out your options, if the 15 year will work better, do it; if the 30 year seems like a better plan, do that. There really isn't a right or wrong, it's all about your plan and circumstances.

thedynasty1998;679166 wrote: I got started by managing a portfolio of Ohio State campus area rentals ($10 million worth), and I've doubled monthly revenue in three years.

So you're part of the scam that is OSU off-campus housing? They're thieves.

Fuck you.

Any good resources for finding good deals on properties? I've found a few on craigslist that I'm going to get more information on.

justincredible;679606 wrote:Any good resources for finding good deals on properties? I've found a few on craigslist that I'm going to get more information on.

Hopefully they don't invite you in and rob your ass then you have to chase them down. My father usually goes to local sheriffs sales for property we have 3 rental homes that are all fairly small. We have been pretty lucky with having renters that take care of the places as well

justincredible;679606 wrote:Any good resources for finding good deals on properties? I've found a few on craigslist that I'm going to get more information on.

I have established relationships with realtors that deal with bank owned homes. That is where you get the best deals. I just bought a home that previously sold in 2007 for $70,000 (again, in NWO where home prices are not historically high, avg. home sells for $95k currently) off of the bank as a foreclosure for $9,000. That is not what they were listing it at, but I offered and they accepted. Banks just want these houses off their books. They are literally taking HUGE losses on these houses, because they already got their bailout money. So investors can take advantage of this by gobbling these homes up.

I feel like I sound like one of those late night infomercials, "buy my dvd and I'll show you how to make millions off foreclosed homes!" You won't make millions (at least not for a long time), but you will do relatively well and it's nice to have the assets.

Good stuff. Thanks for all of the info, it is greatly appreciated. I've been in contact with a few people on different properties. I'm hoping to hear back soon. I'd like to make my first purchase by the time summer rolls around.

Good luck, I hope everything works out for you.

Thanks. Our hope is to become successful enough around Cincinnati that we can start expanding one day to tropical islands.

From my experiences, the best way to find a great deal is to contact the banks directly. Especially your local community banks. If they have a mortgage on their books that was foreclosed, they just want get rid of it. They don't want to deal with Realtors and the whole process. And they love cash payments.

Other than that, find a Realtor who deals with investment properties and they can just find weekly searches for the areas that you are interested in, price range, size, cap rates, etc...

dlazz;679530 wrote:So you're part of the scam that is OSU off-campus housing? They're thieves.

Fuck you.

Yes I am. Demand still heavily outweighs supply. I didn't go to OSU, so I wasn't real familiar with the off campus market when I first took over the portfolio, but it's really insane how much students are willing to pay for very average apartments. If students were smart they would rent in Hilliard, Grove City or Gahanna and drive the 15 minutes to class daily and save a ton on rent and get a much nice place.