Posted by Ronald * Starr on October 12, 2001 at 15:31:08:
John-------------
Whether your credit report does you any good or not will probably depend upon the strategy that you adopt to buy properties. If you follow some of the approaches discussed by other people on CREONLINE.COM, you will not even need good credit.
If you attempt to buy properties with standard purchase techniques, you may find it impossible to buy property without a job or other sources of income.
In my opinion, to expect to start making money with real estate in less than about four to six months is probably unrealistic. Although, according to the posts of other people, it may be possible if you either try to do quick “wholesale” flips of rundown properties or do mobilhome flips. I am not an expert on these approaches.
They seem to offer quick returns, but there have been many posts by people saying they had tried for several months to do these types of deals and they had not been successful. Not knowing you, I have no way to estimate what success you might have.
I suggest that you might be better off getting a job if you can and doing the real estate investing on a part-time basis. It is hard to pay bills when you don’t have steady income.
Posted by John Brice on October 10, 2001 at 23:47:15:
I want to start investing, but my starting financial situation is grim right now. My basic question is this…
What’s the best way for me to start based on my current situation? If you were “here” once, please let me know how you got out of it too.
DETAILS: my current situation…
Job was eliminated “downsized” several months ago.
Currently living off of loan collections from people I loaned money to in the past.
Also having to use credit cards for everyday expenses.
Credit card debt around $20K right now.
Now I know people say, “You don’t need money, you need knowledge.” That’s great. I’ve read books, I’ve bought books, and I know I have to “take action”. I’ve heard all that before.
I also feel that I should get another job for the short term or I might not get to the long term. The other option is to jump right into real estate full-time and hope things work out with flipping or something. However, I can’t help but think the latter would be foolhardy.
Any thoughts or suggestions? How did you guys handle it who were in the same situation?
I am open to any ideas from everyone even if you’ve never been in debt. I’ve been told “Never take advice from anyone unless they are doing better than you are.” Well, I know plenty of you are doing much better than I am right now. Please help? Thanks!
Posted by Ronald * Starr on October 11, 2001 at 21:36:57:
John Brice------------------------
Not knowing you, it is difficult to give useful advice.
However, I will try.
First, I suggest you read my long post on how I suggest you get started in Real Estate Investing. You can find it on this Carleton Sheets Forum by putting “Longggg” with 4 gs into the search function at the top of the forum. Then look for JohnBoy posts. He has his own advice for beginners. Now, my post is also on the main bulletinboard forum of CREAONLINE.COM with some interesting counterposts by Todd. Search: “beginners success” there.
That may give you some perspective.
I think you probably already know what is the correct path for yourself. If you sit back, relax, you probably can see it clearly.
One point: many successful investors started part time while holding down a regular job.
Good Investing****************Ron Starr********************
Posted by Bob (Md) on October 11, 2001 at 07:21:08:
You need to decide whether REI is your career, or something else is. Then commit to it. Whatever you do, whether REI or something else, you have to focus on it in order to be effective.
That being said, having a temporary job can go a long way toward putting food on the table. Could you get a job related to REI in some way? I’ve been told that even manual jobs like hauling rubbish and yard work can help you find “don’t-wanter” houses. If you’re a computer geek, perhaps you could find some work helping a broker trick up their systems? Just a few thoughts.
I have been reading some of Johnboy’s stuff recently along with yours. I will look up the articles/posts that you mentioned to me. (I call your posts “articles” because they truly are, and they are VERY helpful.)
I feel I’d really like to jump in to RE but I get the feeling my big problem is fear of failure with nothing to fall back on right now. Of course, since I’m not working anyway, I might as well hit the ground running in RE while I look for a job that will give me subsistance in the short term.
By the way, did I mention that my credit is very good? I may not have a job right now, and hight credit card debt (for me), but my credit report shows an excellent rating. Perhaps this will help me in the near future too.
Any thoughts? Thanks for your help, and I’ll print out those articles right now.
