Mc Donald, PA · Member since 2017 · 15 posts · 5 votes
Hi everyone.
I have been studying real estate for several years on and off. I've read several books, listened to podcasts, youtube, etc. I'm finally ready to look for and purchase my first deal in my area. I have a preapproval for 100K. I'd like to buy my first single family in my zip code (15057). I've been trying to learn as much as I can about my area. It looks like single family near me are renting for around 700 to 1000 a month. (at least in the price range I am looking at). If anyone has any tips or advice as to how I should move forward it would be greatly appreciated. What should I be looking for? How much to allocate toward and what types of improvements to make? Writing up lease agreements? Any local contractors, realtors, banks, property management firms, background check businesses that I should know about? Thanks everyone for reading.
I second the smart move suggestion above. Cozy also runs a good operation. They make it easy to keep track of things.
Also, make your way to some of the meetups. Lots of good agents, wholesalers, people looking to unload properties, etc. Might be a good place to find your first deal.
If you wish to tag someone in the conversation on the forum, type @ followed by their name and then select the name of that person which should appear below the comments box. He or she will be notified of being tagged so that the conversation will continue.
Welcome Brian! I live in the area so if there's anything I can do to help let me know! I was in your position not that long ago...
Everyone will tell you something different in regards to contractors, property managers, etc... For what its worth, I'd look into Alex Deacons Keller Williams group for property management and I use MySmartMove.com for tenant screening. Hope those help as leads. I've have found good general contractors hard to come by unless you have a consistent amount of large work to give them - then you get to be picky and really vet them. Ive found thumbtack useful in certain instances.
One piece of advice for what its worth is to make sure you define your long term goals before buying your first property. Owning just a couple of single family rentals can be annoying/time intensive until you grow big enough to economically scale to complete automation... (dont ask me how i know lol) I believe with single families you need to have quantity to offset the heavy capital expenditures involved.
Thanks for the info @Joseph Sangimino. I will definitely check out the management and tenant screening recommendations. I have a part time job at Home Depot, so I have done some networking with contractors. I am looking for single family in my area. I'd like to eventually build a large enough portfolio to automate and eventually walk away from my regular job if I so chose to do so. Long term, I want to scale out into other real estate areas such as multi-family and self storage. But, medium term I want to start acquiring single family.
I second the smart move suggestion above. Cozy also runs a good operation. They make it easy to keep track of things.
Also, make your way to some of the meetups. Lots of good agents, wholesalers, people looking to unload properties, etc. Might be a good place to find your first deal.