Upstate, NY · Member since 2016 · 200 posts · 277 votes
Hey all,
I am on bigger pockets simply because I want to help beginners make that leap like I had to all on my own before I knew about bigger pockets. A quick blurb on my experience :
I am a serial House Hacker
I am a Bank Manager for a large Bank
My wife is a Real estate Agent specializing in Flips and Investment Properties
My friend and I have a total of 104 rentals in our area which are all self managed he owns the bulk of the 104 rentals
Also my father is an attorney and my mother is and has been a real estate agent my whole life.
I have lived with tenants , managed my own properties, helped grow and develop a property management team, helped investors find deals, helped investors get financing , and a bit more !
That all being said I have a bit of experience in buy and hold , financing traditional and creative , self managing, and MLS deals and using the MLS. I am still learning myself (always will be) but I feel like I can help people analyzing deals and making the leap into REI!
Please feel free to ask anything that comes to mind and I will try my best to answer all questions.
I'm new to REI, just graduated from college, and fell upon Robert Kiyosaki's books. It lead me to start watching REI webinar, and and attend seminars. Learned a great deal, and they keep saying take action. Only problem is, where do I even start?! REI is and has so many strategies and topics, where does a beginner even begin to take action? I'm currently enrolled in Rich dad's seminar 3 day beginners real estate program ( Plan to stop due to high fees for the program). I've been reading REI books, mostly general strategies. And I've been analyzing properties mostly on the MLS. I'm trying to connect with local REI clubs, and meets with local BP, as well as local REI investors/agents. All of this is a load of great information, but doesn't really have a decent structure on where someone like me with no experience even begin. Any suggestions would help.
I'm pretty new to the Real Estate world, I have an analytics background. I'm living in NYC and looking invest in multi family rental properties. What are some key metrics and trends to look at when researching a particular area?
Thanks for the help!
Bryant Schur thanks for responding! It's an awesome conversation you started here.
Average rent here is 950 for a 2/1 apartment. Vacancy rate for Hartford is 7 or 8%.
Do you think that using 30k for a property that gives 950/mo per unit is an okay deal? I'd like to get bigger units (3/1) because I know they do go for 1100-1200, depending the area.
Obviously using the 30k towards that property yielding 1100 is preferable, like you said. And it may in fact be plausible here.
What other factors should I look into if I do find that property?
Thanks again!
I have not done any real estate investing yet, and this would seem a little risky to be my first deal, so I'm more just wondering what someone with experience would suggest to do in this situation. I found a property in my county (Fairfax County, VA) where the house had a major fire, and they're asking $550k on zillow. The pictures of the house on zillow are before the fire. But I went to look at the house (just drove up the driveway to take a closer look), and basically the whole roof is burnt up and you can see inside that the whole top floor is burnt out.
This brings me to my first question, is this house even worth repairing? I would think that even if it were re-buildable, no-one would want to buy a house that had such a substantial fire. The assessed value of the land, according to the county property tax website, is $480k. Which brings me to my second question, if the house isn't worth saving, then isn't $550k a bit much to ask unless what's left of the house is worth $70k?
If a new house were to be built, would it be best to build one that's similar to the one that once stood there (one of those generic mini-McMansions with 6 bedrooms etc) or would it be better to build one that is a slightly bigger/fancier? The comparable homes in the area seem to go for $1.1M-1.8M.
If someone with no experience were to do this, and they also didn't have much money, and not enough income to use conventional financing (no job), would it be possible to do the deal with the help of a private money lender? And if not, would it be easier to find an investor to put up most of the money and be equity partners for the project? I suppose they could just go ahead and do this on their own without me, so it may not seem worth it to them to give up a big chunk of the profit to them.
And lastly, would finding a builder, getting an estimate for the construction of new house and so on be done before striking a deal with the equity partner/lender, and before purchasing the property? Or would one just do some research on how much building a new house would cost, how much it would sell for, etc and present this to the equity partner/lender?
Sorry for the long post, I kind of am asking something specific and strange and I asked a lot of questions. I tried to break it into paragraphs, but I tend to ramble!
Alan Ferrara I am a little Familiar with the area because I have family in Enfield . The first thing I always look at is :
Price of listing
Taxes
Rental income
Those are the three things you will need to even begin breaking down some cash flow .
3000k income is a ton for a 80-100k property but my be tight for a 300k property .
Once you get the mortgage and taxes use bigger pockets calc to help you really see if the property cash flows . No joke not just because we are on BP that's the best calculator I have ever used .
https://www.biggerpockets.com/buy-and-hold-calculator
Joseph F. Wow that would be a pretty intense first deal ! But crazier things have worked . Let me see if I can't get a more experienced flipper to answer it better . Hold tight I will keep you posted
Hi I'm a beginner real estate investor looking to get more information on how to wholesale properties. I've been to many meet ups and gather a lot of information but now I'm looking to step into the real estate world.
Hello and thanks for offering your help.
My current home is worth about $202,000 or Zillow quote, but I'm not sure if I can get that I. This market. I currently owe about $190,000.
I'm building a home and plan to move and am considering renting my current home vs selling it. I only think I could get roughly $200-$300 per month in cash flow from doing this. I'm a little apprehensive about renting especially if something breaks down. I plan to simply save all cash made from the rental.
The home is in N chesterfield VA and I wanted any advice about renting unless you think this is something I should try to sell first. Any help is appreciated.
That's great you are here to help the newer investors like myself. I am a strong believer in the more you give, the more you receive. Keep on keeping on!
I am actually looking to buy a multi-family unit and house hack myself. I'm currently renting now so I don't have a problem living amongst tenants, but I'm not too excited about possibly inheriting tenants. I would feel much more comfortable screening tenants myself.
What's your take on buying an existing multi-family unit vs buying a distressed home, renovating it the way I would like it, getting it zoned as multi-family and screening tenants myself? Also what are the zoning costs like to make such a move?
I'm assuming you've been on both sides of the fence with your experience
Please teach me how your wife specialized in real estate for flips? I've started my license and I want this niche. I'll have tons more questions related to purchasing these properties next, but I'd like to get this real estate specialization started! Thanks for this post!
I found this house I can purchase for 40k it needs 20k to rehab, I am looking at 65k when the purchase and rehab is completed. The house should appraise around 100k
I have 23k in a unsecured loan, 13k in cash, and 47k in credit cards.
I thinking about buying and rehabbing this house with the unsecured loan, personal cash, and the credit cards.
What is your suggesting on getting the money back that i invest in on the purchase and rehab, being my debt to income would be to high to refinance
I would love to connect with you. I'm a beginner, having only started in real estate this past year. I know very little and am trying to educate myself as I go. My interests are in single family homes, investing outside of my state (Washington can be so expensive!), and in learning to be a landlord and/or working with property management firms.
Bryant Schur Hey there. I am looking at making my very first purchase in Beaumont, TX. I know you said you could help analyze deals, but did that mean only in NY?
I am glad to know that you are a investor upstate. I live upstate also and I am interested in being an investor also. I am currently in the Syracuse New York area.My aspiration is to rent my current home and purchase a second home and so on. Any advice will be appreciated.
Hi Bryant,
Thanks for the offer. I am a beginner in the Boston area. I currently own my own condo but am looking to make my first investment. I love the area but don't know if I will be here forever. For that reason, I was thinking of investing in another condo because it would be very easy to hold from another city. However, the cash flow would be minimal. I am worried that this would slow me down for future investing. Ideally I would like a double for the cash flow but don't know if it makes sense right now or if I can afford it. The Boston prices are just so discouraging.
Any advice?
Thanks!!
Hi there. So we just put an offer in on an 8 unit deal the numbers look amazing even at asking price for the units. I'm so nervous!
They are in Houston and we live in CA so my husband will be flying out to look at units. They were built in 1966 originally as apartments and then converted to condo's and they are in good condition but looks like the outside could use some paint and interior units look ok. I mean they look like projects kind of lol. Some of the pics on google earth look like 2 buildings need new roofs but we don't know if those are our units yet. The other buildings already have new roofs.
They are in a good school district and close to nice neighborhoods.
Anyway should I be worried about the age of the buildings?
Also 5 units are in one building which is fine because now we have that whole building but the other 3 are each located in 3 separate triplex.
Is that a concern?
For example, what if something like roof needs to be replaced and other owners won't or can't chip in to repair?
We are getting financed through a portfolio loan by a special lender. We believe this is why units have not been snapped up yet sitting for 60 days now and you can see past attempts to sell and owner either did not get what he wanted or buyers had issue finding the right lender, also bad marketing the listing looks like your buying one condo for that price.
We are blown away by how little it takes to invest in TX compared to CA we could not even swing a 4 unit here in OC so great opportunity for us.
Sorry this is so long and I appreciate any insight you may be able to offer.
Bryant Schur
As a newbie I'm completely ecstatic about your post and reaching out to the community like this!
I'm planning on buying my first buy and hold this year after reading and studying for the past year. My question revolves around the state of NJ. While I still have to decide on my niche, the state begin tenement friendly definitely makes me a bit uneasy as a new investor. I'm leaning towards short sales at the moment , but do have a question regarding REO properties listed as occupied. While in NY the process may be different, what is the eviction process in general looking like on these properties? They may be something I should write off of my list for now, but would love more info going forward on what my Plate would look like should I go that route .
@Jena Richards short sales in themselves can be a long and painful process. Are these REO properties listed as the bank is selling the short sale or someone else is advertising them this way? Typically if the property is REO the bank has already taken it back and there is no short sale. I would try and connect with a property management or investor that works in the area you are looking for and see if they could give you a heads up on the actual process of eviction in that area. The REO occupied homes can he tricky as the bank has taken them back but the law requires them to honor the lease that was set in place prior to the foreclosure.
@Joseph F. this would be a very big project and I would not suggest it with out maybe partnering with some one that was very experienced. House fires can damage a lot and you would have to have a engineer look at this project to see just how far the structural damage has gone.
As far as is it worth repairing. That is where you bring your comps, the engineers requests, estimates on repair, and your holding cost numbers together and see if the deal works. Real estate is all about numbers. If the numbers don't work than no its not worth it. Without seeing the house my self and having the other numbers it would be hard to say.
As far as building new that is a good idea but it all depends on comps and the neighborhood. If the comps support a $1.1m-1.8m. home then that would be the range to be in. There are a lot of factors that play into this though. Is this an older neighborhood that is historic? If so the city may not allow for you to just tear it down and build new. What would be the cost to tear it down and clear the lot to build new?
Coming in with no experience and attempting a job this size would be hard. There are many factors that could go wrong and leave you stuck with a costly pile of nothing.
Yes you would need to get estimates first for both directions so you could run your numbers and see if the deal works or not. When you have these numbers then you can sit down and decide if that $550k is too much or if its a good deal. Without those numbers it like trying to shoot a target with a blindfold on.
Clayton Plank thank you so much for the help and great responses !
Everyone I am currently at my day job and will continue responding to unanswered questions this afternoon !
I have no real estate investing experience. The closest thing I have to it is the experience of learning as my fiancé purchased our current home we live in, which I currently update in my free time. I have always tried to pay attention to real estate and have been constantly looking at the MLS since I was 18 (I am currently 24). I know that I should be smart and take some time to build up savings and increase my regular monthly income for safety before jumping into investing due to my lack of money and lack of knowledge/ experience BUT.... I feel I may have found a property in my hometown that is a great opportunity to invest in based on the research I have done thus far.
It is a duplex in CT in a decent neighborhood where a lot of new homes are being built and one of the floors is currently rented out while the other is being advertised to rent. I have paid attention to this property for years because it has been typically poorly maintained, (very high grass, dead trees/ limbs left in the yard for months, mail in the vacant appt. box). All of these things I have grown to learn thanks to the bigger pockets site/ podcast are signs of a potential good deal. Furthermore I found the current owner of the property appears to be an absentee owner (which makes more sense based on the apparently bad land lording). I have more information on the property assembled in a binder that I am continuing to add to, but I wanted to make this as brief as possible.
Basically, I know from my financial standpoint I shouldn't touch this propriety, or any other for that matter with a ten foot pole.. but I can't help but feel this might be a great opportunity and I find myself itching to do something here.
Bryant Schur I would like to contact you regarding my first property purchase, and making that "leap of faith" you talk about. Can I private message you? Or do I need a plus membership for that?