18 and getting started, need help, advice

WOW! I am SO impressed that someone your age has had the work ethic and will-power to save $30,000! You will no doubt do well in whatever you set your mind to!

Yes, annual taxes are yearly, annually. They are paid usually in 1 or 2 installments during the year, for the previous year's bill. Your county will "assess" the value of the property and charge a percentage for property taxes, which they use to pay a number of different things in your community, such as for the public schools, county employees, road repairs, etc.

Is the house you're talking about within driving distance for you to go check out personally? Are you wanting to buy something that you can keep for cash-flow? Are you wanting to assign properties? You have a lot of leverage with the money you have saved. If you have REALLY cheap properties in your area, you might be able to put in offers of cash (being you have the cash to back it up), which speaks volumes to a seller, and then assign these properties to cash investors. try to find ways to "use" your money creatively without actually having to "use" your money.

Hope to hear lots of good stuff from you Jeremy as you pursue your REI career. And as you love and respect your mom, just patiently show her that you WILL succeed in this. She will be VERY proud of you.

God bless,

Rina

I have a work in progress going right now. I have an approx. $150000 2 bd 1 bath home that is foreclosed with a balance at $61K. My method that I am trying is to start with a LOW PRICED / HIGH EQUITY home that (once financed) will still have a Positive cashflow. Low priced....because I don't have and or don't want to spend much money on an investment... YET. My small 10% down on this type of loan is VERY managable, and in the End....will be a "no money down" deal for me I believe. In MY area (Oregon) we are not able to puchase a "low" priced home and then "immediately" refi it at the current Equity value. You have to wait 6 months. Some people were turning houses like this, then allowing the refinanced homes to go into default again taking their cash equity and running. In speaking with my Mortgage broker / genius I asked and she did say that It should INDEED be possible to Still get a "home equity line" of credit based on the tremendous "equity" that my new fixer will have. It dawned on me.....This first deal.....I have to come up with $6k for a down. Not a problem. Ok.....Now.....once the house is Mine...clean it up. Then apply for a Equity credit line. With the at least $60K - 90K in equity that I expect to get, I think a conservative $40k line should be simple to get. With THAT money....I will pay MY $6K down back to myself. Then some cash for rehab. With the Additional money...???? MY NEXT DOWN ON MY NEXT DEAL !!! You may say wait.....aren't you going into debt? Once I aquire my NEXT home....I open ANOTHER equity line of credit on THAT home.... Then I will pay back the DOWN that I borrowed towards the FIRST Equity loan I took out. This way. All the Debt incurred is left SOLELY in the home to which the debt applies. I may be wrong, but it seems that the SECOND equity line would also provided me funds for the THIRD property purchase......so on and so on and so on.....as I open new equity lines for EACH home I purchase.
As long as each home has SUPER equity and I am able to keep "cashflow" coming from the renters.....I believe that this method could create HUGE Cashflow. Think about having $50K lines of credit available to you from 10 HOMES....You could buy almost any type of property you want to invest in. NO deal could pass you by unless you "allow" it. WOOOOO HOOOOOO
I'm ready....Let's Rock.

Thanks for the advice from both of you. The home is a drive, it is about 1 1/2 hours away from me. I was thinking mabye one of these days I can go down there and take a look. I am in Brooklyn, NY and the home is in New Jersey. The houses in my area are not cheap, thats why I am looking into New Jersey, and Philadelphia. I would like to buy a home and get it fixed up, rent it out for a short time and sell when the market goes back up. I was thinking if the house does need 30k worth of work and is worth it to buy and flip, I can try and offer less than what they are asking, and offer to pay in cash and see what happens. It is up for about 13k now, so I can offer mabye something like 8k in cash and see what happens.

Listen to Rina, she gave me a lot of great advice every time i bugged her:)
Definately look at the home first. The reason it needs plumbing and stuff is it is most likely in a bad neighborhood and it was probably ransacked for the copper and what ever else they could take.
I am actually going to Jersey this Sat to look at some homes for my buyer.
The first home i found for him was in a bad neighborhood and had the same problems you are describing. Needed plumbing and kitchen. So i am looking in a better area at foreclosures for him. More money but safer area to live.

Hi Jeremy
Glad to hear someone so young is actively persuing real estate. Real estate is the one thing that makes people millionaires over time.

If you go to look at this house make sure it is not in a neighborhood that is bad. You wouldn't want to put a lot of money into your house only to have vandals go through and steal all your electrical wiring and copper in one nights time. That would be a hard loss to take in the beginning of your investing. Choose a safe area to invest in and maybe one close to your area if your area is not too high on RE prices.

All my best to you and your investing. You can do it! My 17 year old son works side by side with me on real estate and he loves it.
Sissy

on thinking of your future and realesate at 18 yrs old!!!!!!! Thats AWESOME!

Welcome to the DG family, so glad to have you here! Wow, I'm impressed that a young man of 18 has it all together!! My twins just turned 18 and neither one has it together... LOL! Maybe girls are different! I don't know? I think it's fantastic that you know what you want and are going for it inspite of not having mom's support. I tried getting my daughters involved in REI, but they lost interest and are now interested in young men more!! I wouldn't mind if it was a young man like you though, you have a good head on your shoulders and I know you will succeed and make your mom VERY proud!!

God bless you,

Hi Elena, thanks for the support! I think that this is the best time to take advantage of real estate, tell your daughters that boys come and go, but a chance to make $ like this is once in a lifetime. I love this site. All the best. -Jeremy