"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." - Chinese Proverb  Go Fish Village was founded by Joshua Mercer, Realtor (Chicago Premiere Real Estate). Through a series of podcast interviews/testimonials, boot camps, forums, meetups, and more, our goal is to educate everyday people who on how to use REAL ESTATE to achieve financial freedom and leave legacy for their loved ones! If this resonates with you, Go Fish wants you to be a part of our growing village! Learn from the successes and failures of everyday people as well as industry professionals and seasoned vets.   Topics include mindset, goal setting, sacrifice, negotiation, building a team, finding/analyzing a deal, financing, vetting tenants, exit strategies, tax benefits, scaling, and so much more! Follow us on social media @gofishvillage or email us with questions at [email protected]. Sign up for our multi family boot camp at www.gofishvillage.com.  Neither Joshua Mercer, Go Fish Village , or any of its affiliates endorse the work or reputation of any guest or company featured on the Go Fish Village Podcast. Each guest is representing themselves and his/her brand only. Take their advice at your own risk. We urge you to do extensive research, speak with references, get examples of work before doing business with any featured guest, business, or company.

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." - Chinese Proverb  Go Fish Village was founded by Joshua Mercer, Realtor (Chicago Premiere Real Estate). Through a series of podcast interviews/testimonials, boot camps, forums, meetups, and more, our goal is to educate everyday people who on how to use REAL ESTATE to achieve financial freedom and leave legacy for their loved ones! If this resonates with you, Go Fish wants you to be a part of our growing village! Learn from the successes and failures of everyday people as well as industry professionals and seasoned vets.   Topics include mindset, goal setting, sacrifice, negotiation, building a team, finding/analyzing a deal, financing, vetting tenants, exit strategies, tax benefits, scaling, and so much more! Follow us on social media @gofishvillage or email us with questions at [email protected]. Sign up for our multi family boot camp at www.gofishvillage.com.

Natasha entered into the mortgage industry about 13 years ago because she honestly just needed a job. She started in the closing department and was eager to learn more then became a loan processor which she did for over 12 years. During her 12 years of processing mortgage loans, she had the opportunity to work on many loans for clients and learn a lot about the guidelines and the flow of how mortgage loans work. In October of 2015, Natasha realized that there are so many clients who need my assistance that my true strength was to be a VP of Lending, which is when she became a full time VP of Lending.  Natasha entered this business because she's very passionate about real-estate and it is her privilege to offer her clients an excellent home buying experience regardless of the client's purchase price or income status. Natasha loves what she does and works really hard to get deals closed within the time frames expected. Natasha has been a buyer, a seller and a landlord so she knows the importance of every role in the industry and does her best to offer excellent customer service to all her clients. She offers FHA, VA, Conventional, Jumbo AND Renovation Loans (FHA 203K and Home Style Renovation) and I also offer the Down Payment Assistant Programs available as well as IHDA and the City of Chicago Down Payment Assistance Program. Natasha study's guidelines and is current on updates within the industry, which include guidelines changes.  Natasha graduated from Chicago State University where she obtained her Bachelors in Finance. I obtained my MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management. I am also a graduate of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business.  Natasha is a member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc. and is married with two children. Natasha loves traveling to Las Vegas and Miami when she has free time. Natasha was born and raised in Chicago, IL and spend most of her time working and taking my son to baseball.

Let's face it…The Odds are Stacked Against Aspiring Real Estate Investors. It’s seemingly impossible to find deals in this sellers market, banks require HUGE $XXX,XXX down payments for investments, and flipping and wholesaling strategies are COMPLETELY SATURATED. After 4 years of trying and failing at multiple different strategies to break into real estate investing, Matt Porcaro learned about a little known government backed renovation loan that allowed him to do a live-in house flip. Using this strategy, he managed to turn a small $9,500 down payment into $130k in liquid equity and $2k a month passive cash flow… in just 8 months! After being asked constantly by friends and family on how he did it, Matt created a community dedicated to leveraging this strategy called “The 203k Way™”. Since creating the community...he’s helped 100’s of aspiring investors get their first or next cash flowing, high equity investment property - with only a 3.5% down payment by leveraging renovation loan products. But it doesn’t stop there! Not only does the first 203k deal help his students achieve immediate equity and cash flow returns, but it acts as a catalyst to open the door to even more deals, and launch their real estate investing careers.

It depends, but consider the pros and cons...

The biggest downside to refinancing is that it costs money. Not only does the actual refinance cost but in some cases you are stretching your payments out for a longer time period. What you're doing is taking out a new mortgage to pay off the old one - so you'll have to pay most of the same closing costs you did when you first bought the home, including origination fees, title insurance, application fees and closing fees (www.mortgageloan.com).  You should avoid refinancing if it takes too much time for you to recoup the new loan's closing costs. This time is known as the break-even period or the number of months to reach the point when you start saving. At the end of the break-even period, you fully offset the costs of refinancing (www.investopedia.com).

One of the first reasons to refinance is to lower your monthly payments, duh. There are a list of other reasons, but the second is to do a cash out refinance, this allows you to access a large chuck of money without selling your home. You might need the cash to start a business or pay for a child's education. Keep in mind, though, the cash you take out will cost you more in interest over the life of your new loan, but not necessarily more than other financing options would cost you www.bankofamercia.com.

I it was 2014, my second child was on the way. Child care aint cheap, that can be an entire post in an of itself. I had recently stopped teaching and opened up an insurance agency. My wife, an actress, didn't have consistent income. I liquidated my teaching pension and used all my wedding money up, lol. Multiunit refinance to the rescue, lol! In short, to save money, we 1) moved in with my in-laws, 2) raised the rent, and 3) refinanced. All in all, we were able to net approximately $1,100/month...this was clutch!

 Craig K. Huffman has nearly two decades of experience as an entrepreneur. Most recently, he was a Co-Founder and Principal of Ascendance Partners. Ascendance Partners is a Chicago-based real estate private equity firm, established in 2006, focused on commercial real estate investments in metropolitan Chicago. Ascendance was an early sponsor of institutional investment funds that acquired real estate in economically underserved communities of Chicago and it has sponsored real estate funds, in excess of $50 million AUM, for foundations, endowments, pension funds, family offices and high net worth individuals. Some notable Ascendance investors have included PNC Community Development Company, LLC, Bank of America, and the Retirement Plan for Chicago Transit Authority Employees’ Trust. Prior to Ascendance, Mr. Huffman worked in diverse senior management roles in the sectors of entrepreneurship, education, non-profit and politics. Mr. Huffman serves on numerous philanthropic boards and is an advisor and investor for several emerging entrepreneurs. Mr. Huffman holds a B.A. from Morehouse College and a master’s degree and an MBA from the University of Chicago. 

___________________________

Follow on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/gofishvillage/​ 

Join our FACEBOOK Group: https://www.facebook.com/GoFishVillage/​  

Follow on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/gofishvillage​ 

Subscribe to Our WEEKLY NEWSLETTER: https://www.gofishvillage.com/ 

____________________________

 "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." - Chinese Proverb  Go Fish Village was founded by Joshua Mercer, Realtor (Chicago Premiere Real Estate). Through a series of podcast interviews/testimonials, boot camps, forums, meetups, and more, our goal is to educate everyday people who on how to use REAL ESTATE to achieve financial freedom and leave legacy for their loved ones! If this resonates with you, Go Fish wants you to be a part of our growing village! Learn from the successes and failures of everyday people as well as industry professionals and seasoned vets.   Topics include mindset, goal setting, sacrifice, negotiation, building a team, finding/analyzing a deal, financing, vetting tenants, exit strategies, tax benefits, scaling, and so much more! Follow us on social media @gofishvillage or email us with questions at [email protected]. Sign up for our multi family boot camp at www.gofishvillage.com

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." - Chinese Proverb  Go Fish Village was founded by Joshua Mercer, Realtor (Chicago Premiere Real Estate). Through a series of podcast interviews/testimonials, boot camps, forums, meetups, and more, our goal is to educate everyday people who on how to use REAL ESTATE to achieve financial freedom and leave legacy for their loved ones! If this resonates with you, Go Fish wants you to be a part of our growing village! Learn from the successes and failures of everyday people as well as industry professionals and seasoned vets.   Topics include mindset, goal setting, sacrifice, negotiation, building a team, finding/analyzing a deal, financing, vetting tenants, exit strategies, tax benefits, scaling, and so much more! Follow us on social media @gofishvillage or email us with questions at [email protected]. Sign up for our multi family boot camp at www.gofishvillage.com.

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." - Chinese Proverb  Go Fish Village was founded by Joshua Mercer, Realtor (Chicago Premiere Real Estate). Through a series of podcast interviews/testimonials, boot camps, forums, meetups, and more, our goal is to educate everyday people who on how to use REAL ESTATE to achieve financial freedom and leave legacy for their loved ones! If this resonates with you, Go Fish wants you to be a part of our growing village! Learn from the successes and failures of everyday people as well as industry professionals and seasoned vets.   Topics include mindset, goal setting, sacrifice, negotiation, building a team, finding/analyzing a deal, financing, vetting tenants, exit strategies, tax benefits, scaling, and so much more! Follow us on social media @gofishvillage or email us with questions at [email protected]. Sign up for our multi family boot camp at www.gofishvillage.com.

Yondi K. Morris-Andrews is a founding partner of Knight, Morris & Reddick Law Group. She specializes in various practice areas including corporate, entertainment, property tax appeals and real estate transactions. With her corporate clients, Mrs. Morris-Andrews works mostly with start-up companies, offering them advice on how to form as an entity, while drafting and negotiating contracts on the company’s behalf. Morris-Andrews offers creative solutions for her entrepreneur clients, and is able to guide them as they grow from the start-up phase to experienced businesses. She has been hired by her clients to act as general counsel, handling any needs that might arise from the day-to-day responsibilities of running a business.

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." - Chinese Proverb  Go Fish Village was founded by Joshua Mercer, Realtor (Chicago Premiere Real Estate). Through a series of podcast interviews/testimonials, boot camps, forums, meetups, and more, our goal is to educate everyday people who on how to use REAL ESTATE to achieve financial freedom and leave legacy for their loved ones! If this resonates with you, Go Fish wants you to be a part of our growing village! Learn from the successes and failures of everyday people as well as industry professionals and seasoned vets.   Topics include mindset, goal setting, sacrifice, negotiation, building a team, finding/analyzing a deal, financing, vetting tenants, exit strategies, tax benefits, scaling, and so much more! Follow us on social media @gofishvillage or email us with questions at [email protected]. Sign up for our multi family boot camp at www.gofishvillage.com.